Elephant Rumblings: A’s prospect Dunshee starts winner-take-all for Team USA

A’s Coverage:

• Gallegos: Semien named AL MVP Award finalist...
• Shea: A’s Marcus Semien is American League MVP finalist... ($)
• Coffey: The path hasn’t been direct, but it’s been necessary and I’m ready to tell the stories of your A’s...
• Schaaf and Butner: Oakland’s effort to blend a ballpark and the port on the waterfront... ($)
• Casella: Alec Bohm powers Team USA past DR, into Super Round; A’s righty Parker Dunshee throws 2.1 innings in win...
• Lockard: With Jonah Heim on the 40-man roster, the A’s have their long-term catching tandem in place... ($$$)

Best of AN:

• Hall: Marcus Semien named finalist for 2019 MVP...
• Hall: Oakland A’s claim pitcher T.J. McFarland off waivers...

MLB News:

• MLB.com: These 10 free agents got a qualifying offer...
• Heyman: Star slugger J.D. Martinez does not opt out of Boston Red Sox contract...
• McDaniel: The Free-Agency Analysis FanGraphs Doesn’t Want You to Read, 2019 Edition...
• Mitchell: Blue Jays acquire righty Chase Anderson from Brewers for 1B/OF prospect Chad Spanberger...
• Fletcher: Angels decline team option on OF Kole Calhoun...
• DiComo: ‘Too early to tell’ if Yoenis Céspedes plays in 2020...
• AP: Braves re-sign OF Nick Markakis, C Tyler Flowers; decline option on RHP Julio Teheran...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Rosenthal: ‘Wow, this is impressive.’ How a lunch with old colleagues put the Mets on a path to hire Carlos Beltrán... ($$$)
• Weaver: Four new rules that could help improve baseball (we think)... ($$$)
• Almeida: Welcome to a New Day in Nationals Fandom...
• Jackson: Reversal of Fortune...
• Deitsch: Media Circus - How soon might we see an umpire analyst in a baseball broadcast booth? ($$$)
• Passan: 20 big hot stove questions as free agency starts and MLB’s offseason drama begins play...

Today in Baseball History:

• 1976 — The Oakland Athletics make an unusual trade by sending manager Chuck Tanner to the Pittsburgh Pirates for catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000. Sanguillen will play only one season in Oakland before returning to Pittsburgh. Tanner will lead the Pirates to the World Championship in 1979.
• 2018 — Billy Beane, Vice-President for Baseball Operations of the Oakland Athletics, is named the inaugural winner of the newly-minted Major League Baseball Executive of the Year Award. The honor is in recognition of his role in turning the 2017 last-place team into a wild card winner in 2018.

Best of Twitter:

• Not baseball, but still must-see...

• Good luck getting this out of your head...

• Welcome, Alex!