T.R. Sullivan has a mailbag column up...the most interesting item, I thought, regards debunking the "Rangers pitching fades in the second half" myth:
The Rangers had a 4.78 ERA in the first half of last season and a 5.16 ERA in the second half, marking the 18th time in 34 seasons in Texas that the team ERA was higher in the second half than in the first half. It has also happened six times in 12 seasons in Arlington.
I'm guessing he means at TBIA, not Arlington, in that last sentence. This confirms what I had suspected, but it is good to have some evidence to point to in support of the notion that the pitching isn't bad because of the hot July and August weather...
Also up on the Rangers website, Jamey Newberg explains the Rule 5 draft, and points out why it always seems so anticlimactic:
The reason so few impact players come out of the Rule 5 draft is basically that most organizations, after three or four seasons, know enough about their own players to recognize whether they deserve addition to the 40-man roster.