Elephant Rumblings: MLB drops hammer on Astros for illegal sign stealing

A’s Coverage:

• Shea: How Astros’ sign-stealing penalties will affect A’s... ($)
• Gallegos: Oakland acquires Kemp in swap with Cubs...
• Slusser: A’s acquire Tony Kemp from Cubs... ($)
• Lockard: With a rotation long on talent but also long on injury history, the A’s will be creative managing their innings in 2020... ($$$)
• Coffey: In Tony Kemp, the A’s get a second baseman and a left-handed bat, amidst a little controversy... ($$$)

Best of AN:

• Hall: Oakland A’s acquire Tony Kemp from Cubs...

MLB News:

• Official: MLB statement on Astros’ sign stealing, punishments...
• Feinsand: Luhnow, Hinch suspended for ‘20, then are let go...
• Rosenthal and Drellich: Exclusive - MLB hands down unprecedented penalties for Astros after sign-stealing investigation... ($$$)
• Beck: One-year deal with RHP Ivan Nova bolsters Tigers’ rotation...
• Silver: Nationals prospect Fausto Segura passes away at 23...
• Topkin: Rays sign former A’s backstop Chris Herrmann to minor league deal...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Rosenthal: People at every level of the sport bear responsibility for baseball’s current sign-stealing mess... ($$$)
• Lingbergh: The Ripple Effects of the Astros Sign-Stealing Investigation...
• Kram: Nine Key Takeaways From MLB’s Houston Astros Sign-Stealing Punishment...
• Sarris: Five thoughts on Statcast’s new infield defense statistic... ($$$)
• Coffey: How Veronica Kahnle’s work as mental health counselor helps her husband, Yankee Tommy Kahnle, maintain perspective - ‘I’m just getting an out’... ($$$)
• Edwards: Five Things We Learned from Arbitration Deadline Day...
• Posnanski: The Baseball 100 - No. 74, Frank Thomas... ($$$)

Today in Baseball History:

• 1987 — 1987 - Catfish Hunter and Billy Williams are elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA. Hunter made his name as the ace of the Oakland Athletics pitching staff in their World Championship years in the mid-1970s and made his fortune as one of the first rated free agents. Williams set a National League record by playing in 1,117 consecutive games and accumulating 426 home runs and a batting title.
• 2015 — The Nationals trade reliever Tyler Clippard to Oakland for SS Yunel Escobar, who joined the A’s a few days ago in the trade for Ben Zobrist.
• 2019 — Kyler Murray, Oakland’s top pick in the 2018 amateur draft and winner of the Heisman Trophy as a star quarterback for the University of Oklahoma, announces that he has declared for the upcoming NFL draft hours before the midnight ET limit for doing so. He is expected to be selected early in the first round, but the A’s could still convince him to forgo a football career by sweetening the contract they reached with him last summer.

Best of Twitter:

• Ring Central didn’t last very long...

• Nicely done...

• These two statements are night and day...