Wednesday Morning Links

Richard Durrett continues his hot stove talk by looking at Bronson Arroyo, to which you would have said, a week ago, "ewww, gross, no," and now say "ewww, gross, maybe."

Inspired by the Cubs' new Poochie the Rockin' Mascot, David Schoenfield looks at the ten worst mascots ever. A Ranger mascot made the cut.

Rougned Odor and Luke Jackson will receive the Tom Grieve Player of the Year and Nolan Ryan Pitcher of the Year awards at this year's award dinner at the Gaylord Texan... which beats the hell out of Jiminez and Crystal's, which is where my childhood awards banquets were always held.

Gerry Fraley says the Nolan Ryan award still goes to the organization's top minor league pitcher, and not, as you may have thought, to the player who gets into an ill-advised power struggle with Jon Daniels and is ignominously forced out of the organization. That award is still named after Michael Young.

Also, Ryan will be back at the Ballpark Friday, participating in a ritual flensing of his championship juices.

Fraley also tells us that Armando Rodriguez, signed by the Rangers as a minor league free agent, pitched the final two frames of a no hitter in the Dominican Tuesday night.

Also, Derek Holland underwent microfracture surgery, so that really sucks.

T.R. Sullivan tells us that the arbitration process has begun for Mitch Moreland, Neftali Feliz, Ogando and Neal Cotts. The Rangers last went to arbitration with Lee Stevens, who was terrible, so the smart money is on Mitch Moreland.

Sullivan's notes column discusses Holland's knee, scouting promotions, and the minor league awards.

One of the more troubling aspects of the Alex Rodriguez saga is the perverse incentives it creates for Major League teams, who now have no downside to PED use among aging stars. Gabe Kapler has a proposal to address those perverse incentives.

Finally, here's a .gif of a fish in Africa that regularly consumes birds in flight.