Elephant Rumblings: Vote for the A’s best players of 2022

Happy Wednesday, Athletics Nation!

The A’s 2022 season is officially over. It was pretty dismal overall: the team’s 60-102 record was the second-worst in Oakland A’s history.

But even a season such as this has its silver linings. Many of us get a lot of satisfaction from watching prospects vie for futures as everyday big leaguers. And no matter how bad the team may have been as a whole, much has been achieved on an individual level that merits recognition.

It is in this spirit that I am polling the AN community to determine the A’s best players in the following categories:

• A’s MVP
• A’s Cy Young
• A’s Rookie of the Year
• A’s Gold Glove
• A’s Captain

Here’s how to vote: for each category, you may either nominate a player or ‘rec’ an existing nomination. Feel free to include the reasons for your nomination when you post it—perhaps you will sway a fellow community member to support your point of view! Please be careful not to make duplicate nominations. I won’t count them or any recs they receive!

So if you are the first person reading this, you can make five nominations in five separate comments. The next person can rec any nominations they agree with and/or post new comments to nominate other players. You can also comment on a nomination you agree or (respectfully) disagree with to try to shape fellow community members’ opinions or influence their votes, but of course every vote will count once cast!

To sum up the voting process: you vote by rec’ing the nominations of your choice, or by making a nomination yourself if you are sure nobody else has already done so. I will trust everyone to vote for just one player in each category. Make sense?

Winners will be announced beginning on Friday. Let the deliberations begin!

A’s Coverage:

• Trezza: No. 10 prospect hits inside-the-park job in AFL
• Law: Law’s Arizona Fall League takeaways: From Jackson Merrill to Matt Mervis, everything I saw in 12 games ($)
• MLB: 1981 A’s-Royals ALDS recap

MLB News & Interest:

• AP: Harper, Schwarber HR as Wheeler, Phils top Pads to open NLCS
• Smith: Phillies Announce NLCS Roster
• Smith: Padres Announce NLCS Roster
• The Athletic: Padres vs. Phillies NLCS predictions, pitching matchups and what you need to know ($)
• Adams: Previewing The 2022-23 Free Agent Class: Shortstops
• Lacques: It’s not 1956 anymore. It’s time fans adapted to MLB’s imperfect playoff format
• Smith: Ohtani Feels “Negative” About 2022
• McDonald: Previewing The 2022-23 Free Agent Class: Corner Outfield
• Hartlaub: How a forgotten San Francisco ballpark nearly destroyed the western half of the city ($)
• Lin: How did the Padres go from underachieving to surging into the NLCS? It starts a month ago ($)
• Today in Baseball History

Best of Twitter:

Bring TK back in 2023!

HBD Adam Oller!

Butler three-baggin’ it.

We’re in the post-postseason.

Bob and Sean in the NLCS!

Managers take note!

Hard knocks.