Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your post–Fourth of July Monday at the office a bit more bearable:

  • Via MLB Trade Rumors’ Jeff Todd: The trade deadline is more than three weeks away, but Billy Beane elected to set off his fireworks on the Fourth of July. Oakland acquired starting pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel from the Cubs in exchange for its No. 1 prospect, shortstop Addison Russell, and two other highly rated youngsters, pitcher Dan Straily and minor-league outfielder Billy McKinney. David Schoenfield of ESPN’s SweetSpot believes the deal makes the A’s, the team with the best record in the bigs, favorites to win the World Series, while Mike Petriello of Fangraphs sees the deal as a win-win-win for the A’s, Cubs, and Rays, as the latter club “just saw two of the top available pitchers get moved while only one contender benefits, leaving the Mariners, Cardinals, Dodgers, Angels, Blue Jays and everyone else to fight for [David] Price.”
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  • While many of us were busy remembering the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s farewell remarks, apparently another historic, Yankee-themed anniversary took place over the weekend. According to the Fox Sports production crew broadcasting Saturday evening’s Orioles–Red Sox game, Showalter was filmed in the Seinfeld episode “The Chaperone” on July 5, 1994; the Yankee skipper went along with George Costanza’s recommendation that the players embrace the breathability of all-cotton uniforms.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!