Elephant Rumblings: Brent Rooker finishing the season strong

The Oakland Athletics snapped a nine-game losing streak with a win over the Detroit Tigers Friday night. Brent Rooker homered for the third straight game and has his eyes set on his first career 30-homer season. Rooker was claimed off waivers from the Royals last November. He seized on the opportunity for regular playing time and slugged nine homers and put up a 231 wRC+ over his first 22 games. However, his season would be filled with plenty of peaks and valleys. After that explosive first month, Rooker hit just .195/.280/.337 with four homers and a 76 wRC+ over his next 49 games.

Rooker heated back up in July (143 wRC+), cooled in August (93 wRC+) and is finishing strong down the stretch. He is slugging .660 in September with a 163 wRC+.

The book on Rooker has always been a lot of power and a lot of swing and miss. His 32.3% strikeout rate is right in line with his career average. He’s not a great defender in the outfield and has seen most of his action at DH. Despite his shortcomings, Rooker has proven to be a nice story in an otherwise lost season for the A’s.

A’s Coverage

• Athletics snap losing streak, beat Tigers 8-2
• Brett Harris, Royber Salinas among A’s prospects heading to Arizona Fall League
• Sean Doolittle retires after 11 MLB seasons, leaving lasting Nationals, A’s legacy
• Community Prospect List: No. 22

MLB News

• Ronald Acuña Jr. becomes rarest member of elite 40-40 club
• The Padres are making a last stand
• Here are the 2023 Arizona Fall League rosters
• Clayton Kershaw still trying to learn new tricks on the mound
• Twins down Angels to clinch AL Central title
• MLB to use neutral pitch clock operators for postseason games
• Max Fried goes on IL, but likely to return for NLDS
• Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara has forearm tightness after rehab start
• Twins place Royce Lewis on IL with hamstring strain
• Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe out 4-6 weeks with knee injury
• Michael Kopeck undergoes minor knee procedure

Best of Twitter

Another big home run for Shea Langeliers

Brent Rooker’s third homer in as many games.

Esteury Ruiz with a big hit to blow the game open

Shea Langeliers on his goal to play as much as possible this season