Reaction to Rangers moves at the trade deadline

The Rangers acquired Ryan Dempster just in the nick of time on Tuesday.

At 2:58 p.m., two minutes before the trade deadline passed, Texas struck a deal to obtain the 35-year-old veteran for minor league prospects Christian Villanueva and Kyle Hendricks.

On the final day of the hot stove talks, there was a frenzy of Rangers activity that took place. Let's go over those major items with my thoughts to follow:

Mavs overhaul roster heading into 2012-2013: pros and cons

I wanted to interrupt my regularly scheduled sequence of Rangers blogs to analyze the surreal and bizarrely orchestrated offseason by the Dallas Mavericks.

The plan was to lure Deron Williams back to his hometown to pair with Dirk Nowitzki, who's entering the twilight of his career and has two guaranteed years left on his contract. After all, Dallas let Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea, both in their prime, walk after the championship season of two years ago for this very moment. The plan failed, as Williams stayed with the now-Brooklyn Nets, which made another big splash by reeling in Joe Johnson.

Making matters even more interesting was Jason Terry signing with Boston, and Jason Kidd darting for New York. The Mavs were torn up in front of our eyes, and it hurt.

Lasting Memories Made at Kansas City's All-Star Fanfest

Kansas City, Mo. - With tickets for Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium (20 minutes from my current apartment) being $300-$400 a pop, I figured it would be wise to take part in the midsummer classic another way.

Fanfest at the Kansas City Convention Center ended up being the perfect solution.

The All-Star Fanfest - essentially a massive baseball museum/theme park that set up in downtown Kansas City's Convention Center - made me feel like a 10-year-old kid again on Christmas (err, Hanukkah, sorry) morning.

Bullet-point reactions on 2012 MLB All-Star selections

I thought it would be a nice opportunity for some bullet-point observations from the Gametime in Arlington blog, after the release of the MLB All-Star rosters Sunday afternoon:

• Here's what my ballot looked like.
• Here's who's actually starting for the American League.
• Here's who's actually starting for the NL. 

Gametime in Arlington's 2012 MLB All-Star starter predictions

Every year, I love looking ahead to the Midsummer Classic and predicting the starters for MLB's All-Star Game. Managers will reveal the rosters tomorrow afternoon, but here's my take on who should start at Kauffman Stadium, one of the more underrated parks in America after the renovation in 2009.

Grading the Rangers at the All-Star break: Pitchers edition

Earlier this week, I analyzed members of the Texas Rangers batting lineup in the first installment of a two-part series of handing out grades to the primary players. Today, it's time to break down the Rangers' pitchers.

The rotation looks nothing like it did in April. Neftali Feliz, Derek Holland and Colby Lewis are shelved on the disabled list, while the team added Roy Oswalt in the middle of the season to try to salvage some of the injuries.

Here's how I would hand out grades to the Texas pitchers: