Even if her husband looks completely miserable, Khloe Kardashian has had lots of nice things to say about their move to Dallas. Lamar Odom put up a 1-6 day in New York as the Mavs lost to the Knicks, previewing the melancholy season premier of Khloe & Lamar Sunday night.

The first episode takes us back to to the NBA lockout and some of Lamar's pre-Mavs depression. If you missed it, "A Fine Bromance" airs again Monday at 6:30 pm CT and again at 8:30 as a part of some kind of Khloe & Lamar marathon, which I assume is a regular occurrence on E!.

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Jeff Wilson reports that a Rangers source has suggested that the team's trade talks with the Oakland A's and others involving Koji Uehara could to the extra cash necessary for Texas to make a serious bid (which they haven't yet done) for Roy Oswalt.

Oswalt and the Rangers met last month to get a feel for where each side stood. The Rangers were looking for a pitcher who could work in relief while also serving as a piece of insurance in case a starting pitcher were to suffer an injury. At the time, Oswalt informed the club that he did not want to work out of the bullpen.

They would have to work out the starting/relieving thing, but money does seem to be a legitimate sticking point either way. T.R. Sullivan says that the Rangers want multiple prospects for Uehara, and one would have to assume that they want most if not all of his $4 million contract picked up. Sullivan also says that team sources "don't know" if they will be able to trade him, and he suggests that the goal may be Mike Gonzalez rather than Oswalt.

Before we go any further on that front, we should remember that these are Jon Daniels' Rangers, a team who almost always makes moves from out of the blue, particularly in the offseason. High level folks with solid information are not going to be tossing around information that could uncover the team's intentions.

The Rangers dealt Tommy Hunter and Chris Davis to Baltimore for Uehara in July, as the Orioles favored players who could help out their team immediately. Wilson suggests that the Rangers could ask for a utility guy like Adam Rosales in the deal, but a deal similar to the one in which they dealt Jarrod Saltalamacchia to Boston - Texas received two low ceiling prospects in Chris McGuiness and Michael Thomas and one lower level, high upside arm in Roman Mendez - makes the most sense.

The Texas Longhorns held their first Junior Day, and, unlike in recent years, Mack Brown collected zero commitmentson his ten offers. Brown reportedly offered Tyrone Swoopes and Ra'Shaad Samples scholarships, headlining a set of skill players. He has some ground to make up to match his past two opening days.

The Longhorns had five verbal commitments by the time the weekend of its first Junior Day was over last year while six others who attended that Junior Day eventually committed to play for Texas. In 2010, the 'Horns racked up 13 pledges, including a couple from Belton quarterback David Ash and Brownwood receiver Jaxon Shipley, after holding their first Junior Day of 2010.

Texas will host their second Junior Day one week from Saturday, February 25.

Tom Verducci has an interesting Three Strikes post today, led by his thoughts on what the Rangers will try to do to ease Yu Darvish's transition to MLB. He says they've started by sending him some MLB balls (which are slightly larger and with smoother seams than Japanese balls) and will begin addressing the workload issue in spring training.

The trick is to get Darvish conditioned to throw more often (mostly every fifth day) over a longer season against deeper lineups while avoiding the huge pitch counts he often ran up in Japan. Said Daniels, "It will be a little different, both in terms of between starts and the importance of getting quicker outs."

Verducci says that Texas is likely to hide Darvish from their division rivals in spring training games so that their adjustment to his stuff takes longer. He also says that a six-man rotation - at times - is a reality, and considering Texas' youth and depth, as well as the summer heat, that really isn't all that radical of an idea.

And they will consider adding a sixth starter to the rotation at times during the regular season to allow Darvish extra rest. Remember, in their rotation the Rangers also have Neftali Feliz, whose innings will be monitored as he moves from closing to the rotation, and Derek Holland, who bears watching because of a giant workload increase of more than 70 innings last year. And the Rangers do have Alexi Ogando and Scott Feldman in the bullpen as legitimate spot starter options. The Rangers could skip a start or two for Feliz or Darvish or briefly go to a straight six-man rotation.

"Last year we did it a little in the second half of the season where we found extra rest," Daniels said. "I can see us doing that a little earlier in the season."

Verducci also addresses Roy Oswalt's waiting game and the Mariners' struggling offense. Check out the entire article on SI.com here.

Texas Longhorns senior pitcher Sam Stafford has suffered a shoulder injury and will miss the 2012 college baseball season, according to Alan Trubow of the Austin American Statesman.

This is a tough blow on multiple levels for Stafford and the Longhorns. For Stafford personally, the injury comes months after saying no to the Yankees and returning to school after they drafted him in the second round in last June’s draft. Depending on his recovery process, Stafford will likely have to accept a minimal pro signing bonus with the hope that his arm bounces back.

For the Longhorns, they lose one of their two top pitchers and one of the top five Big 12 prospects for the next draft, according to Baseball America. The injury means that Hoby Milner will be joined by Nathan Thornhill and John Curtiss as Augie Garrido’s likely set of weekend starters.

Just five days ago the Longhorns found out that they would be without outfielder Cohl Walla for the season after he tore his ACL in practice. Texas doesn’t have a ready replacement for Walla.

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Calvin Watkins of ESPN Dallas says that the Cowboys have contacted Stanford Routt’s agent to express their interest. Routt was released by the Raiders quickly after signing a huge deal.

Last year, Routt signed a restructured contract for five-years worth $54.5 million with the Raiders, with at least $20 million in guarantees the first two seasons of the deal.

According to STATS LLC, opponents were held to a 47.4 completion percentage against Routt. But he allowed eight touchdown passes, tied for the second-most in the NFL, and led the league with 17 penalties committed. The Raiders had to make a decision regarding Routt because if he was still on the roster Friday, he would have been guaranteed a base salary of $5 million.

Watkins says that Routt has visits scheduled with the Bills and Titans so far. Routt was with Dallas defensive coordinator Rob Ryan when Ryan was in Oakland, so there is a connection.

The Cowboys do have Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick returning at corner, but Terence Newman an expected casualty, and Jenkins and Scandrick weren’t enough to get it done in 2011. They clearly need at least one high quality addition at the position, either via the draft or free agency.

Mac Engel has a post up on Star-Telegram.com suggesting that a substandard stretch in the next couple of weeks could lead to a sell-off, and he throws out some pretty significant names. Engel mentions Michael Ryder, Sheldon Souray and Radek Dvorak - names that make perfect sense if you're in selling mode. Ryder and Souray in particular have performed well and can add a scoring punch for a playoff team in need. They signed affordable deals and would not be long term commitments to new teams.

The headline, though, and the bulk of the post centers around Brenden Morrow. Morrow is 33, so the Stars should make a value judgment on what Morrow does for the organization versus whether he will still be a high end player when this club is a contender again. Engel is also right that Morrow would figure to bring back something solid. However, moving Morrow or Steve Ott could gut this team emotionally, and it would certainly have that effect on the dwindling hard core fan base.

I'm a fan of front offices who are willing to separate with their aging stars at the right time, but I really don't think that dealing Morrow - particularly at a trade deadline - is a realistic option right now. If February doesn't go well, move your shiftable parts, but hands off of Morrow for now.

Baseball America's college baseball preview edition hits newsstands this week, and Thursday they released their Big 12 capsules full of information on top players and the nine teams competing in the conference this year. In BA's preseason Top 25 (released in January), Texas A&M led the way for the conference at No. 7 in the nation. Texas is at No. 13 - two spots above TCU.

In the conference preview they predict that the two big Texas schools will dominate the conference in their final season together, each posting a conference record of 19-8, while only No. 19 Oklahoma finishes with a .500 record of better among rest of the group. Baylor is projected at 13-14 in conference, but they and Missouri are projected as tournament teams in addition to the top three.

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Ben and Skin were joined by Derek Holland and Ron Washington to discuss an interesting offseason, Moneyball and quickly approaching spring training report dates (listen to the full hour-long interview here) this week, and Wash didn't disappoint. In his candid style he addressed the two biggest questions facing his team: Yu Darvish and Josh Hamilton's struggle with addiction.

On what he expects from Darvish:

Well how we are going to treat him is fair. We have criteria as far as how we want to prepare. He will have to fall into that criteria and if there is any adjustments we have to make we make adjustments. But there's a pattern and we are going to follow that pattern and he's going to have to get involved in that pattern and like I said we have to adjust to get him comfortable. We will adjust. I am certainly looking forward to him. I've only seen what everyone else has seen on video, but it certainly looked good enough to win at the major league level for me.

I'm not expecting him to come win 20 games. If he can duplicate 16 [wins] like C.J. [Wilson] I am fine. The expectation is not too much. Come on out and keep us in the ball game. Just keep us in the ball game. That's it. We'll determine if you win or lose that ball game by the amount of runs we put up, but if you keep us in the ball game there is someone in that lineup we'll find a way to get it done and that is it right there.

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Despite staying in the bidding for Prince Fielder until the final stages, the Rangers have maintained that Mitch Moreland's poor second half was largely a result of his injured wrist. Moreland hit .301/.376/.511 in April and May but just .241/.300/.367 after the All-Star Break.

He told Richard Durrett Wednesday that his wrist does feel much better after surgery.

"I feel really good right now," Moreland said. "Nobody will know until we get there but me. I have to go out there and see how I feel, but as of now everything is going great."

Moreland said the wrist bothered him a lot down the stretch in 2011, even preventing him from taking any swings in the batting cages and limiting his swings in batting practice before games. He said he had an "impact fracture" that caused a bone to get out of place, which was grinding against cartilage in his wrist. But he doesn't feel any pain in that wrist now.

"I'll be on some kind of hitting routine [as spring training starts], but there won't be many limitations to it," Moreland said. "They said we were going to go on how I feel. If I feel good, we'll keep going through it."

Well this is kind of fascinating.

Meredith Land of KXAS (NBC5) lined up an interview with the wives of local owners Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban and Nolan Ryan. Gene Jones, Tiffany Cuban and Ruth Ryan have all been in the public eye for years.

Jerry Jones has made the Cowboys a family institution, involving all five immediate family members in significant roles. Gene has always been soft-stated but present. Mark Cuban has pursued the limelight since buying the Mavericks over a decade go. Tiffany doesn't do that at all, but I think she's been at just about every Mavericks game I've been to in that time. And then there's Ruth. She and Nolan have captured Texans' fascinations for over 40 years now with their storybook tale, and now they go to games together most every home night on the schedule.

It's a predictably tame interview, but we don't often get to hear these ladies' takes on their families and their way of life. Check it out after the jump.

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The raffle for the "official" replica of a ring for the Dallas Mavericks 2011 NBA Championship has begun. The ring, courtesy of Jason Terry, is valued at $36,000, and the winner gets other prizes as well.

The ring is a 14-karat white gold ring and contains 250 diamonds. The winner will also receive two tickets to the Mavs' Apr. 2 home game against the Los Angeles Lakers, a personal tour for two of the Mavs' locker room, postgame photos and autographs of Terry, a two-night stay in a Dallas hotel, and a $2,000 travel allowance to Dallas to use towards airfare - if the winner is from out of town.

To enter, go to netraffle.org. Tickets are just $2 each, but you have to buy at least five. Terry even takes care of the tax ramifications because he's that kind of nice guy. Proceeds go to The Jason Terry Foundation, which supports numerous causes in Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle.

If you didn't catch it live Saturday night, DallasStars.com has posted the full video of Eddie Belfour's ceremony at American Airlines Center celebrating Belfour's Hall Of Fame career and in particular his stellar goalkeeping as a Dallas Star.

Check out the video after the jump:

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Dirk Nowitzki was asked Monday whether he thinks he should be an NBA All-Star this year. In true Dirk form he was self effacing.

Averaging whatever, 15, 16 points, I don't think you should be an All-Star.

I think there is a lot of great young talent in this league that deserves to go. I think LaMarcus Aldridge has been stiff the last couple of years. He's a great young player, fun to watch. You know Blake and Love are playing great. There is a lot of talent at my position.

Nowitzki told Tim McMahon during the second of three off days after his club began a three-game losing streak that he's really more concerned about getting himself in form at this point.

To me, it's more about getting right again and getting my body back in rhythm and getting used to all the grinding and running and jumping again. I think that's more important to me than an All-Star appearance at this point. Ultimately, (we want) to make a push after the All-Star break. That's ultimately where my head is at here.

We all would have preferred that Dirk would have managed to have himself in top shape when the season started, but the end of the lockout seemed to catch him off guard. At least his head is on straight, as usual.

The Rangers added two guys today who could figure into the major league picture in the summer or even by Opening Day. Conor Jackson, who spent parts of the past two years with the A's, gets inserted into the first base picture along with Mitch Moreland, Michael Young, Brad Hawpe and Mike Napoli. Like Napoli he's been better against right-handed pitchers throughout his career. Unless there is a spring surprise, Jackson and Hawpe will both likely head to Round Rock and await their chance to reestablish themselves as major leaguers.

Jackson was a nice hitter for his first three full seasons in 2006-08, but as Adam Morris points out he ran into a disease called valley fever in 2009 and hasn't been the same for the past two seasons. The Boston Herald has more on the fungal disease and its effect on Jackson:

Jackson's once-promising career was derailed in the spring of 2009 because of "valley fever," a fungal disease that typically afflicts residents of Arizona, New Mexico and other desert regions of the southwest. It attacks the lungs and often causes fever, chest pain and coughing.

"It's like the flu - every day," Jackson said yesterday. "It's aches and pains. And it's rare for mid-20s, white male. Very rare. I probably tried to come back a little quick. Your mind goes a lot better than your body."

That quote from Jackson is from last September when he signed with the Red Sox as they unsuccessfully tried to stave off the charging Rays. He played 12 games with Boston and wasn't able to turn things around by the end of the end of the season. Maybe five more months and another fresh start will be enough to see Jackson finally return to his healthy, successful early-career health.

Joe Beimel is a lefty reliever who will immediately enter the race for the one lefty/loogy spot in the bullpen. He struggled last year after a five-year stretch from 2006-10 where he was a solid middle relief guy, so if he finds his game he could give Michael Kirkman a run for his money.

Both guys signed minor league deals. I've seen no word on whether either has an out in their contract where they can opt to join another organization if they're not added to the major league roster by a certain date, but they're the caliber of players who often get that consideration.

SMU’s Sterling Moore has made a habit of making big plays for the Ponies and now the Patriots. He saved the Pats’ hides by stripping a ball late from Anquan Boldin in the AFC Championship game, and with New England down 2-0 and the ball at their ten, Moore stripped the ball from the Giants’ Victor Cruz, forcing a fumble which New England recovered.

Unfortunately, one of Moore’s teammates failed to leave the field. New England was penalized for twelve men on the field, resulting in a first down for the Giants and a touchdown two plays later.

That’s how you lose big games, Patriots.

Charean Williams of the Fort Worth Star Telegram had an interesting tweet Sunday before the Super Bowl:

This will be the fourth-smallest SB crowd in history at 68,000. Some $40 million less in ticket sales alone than NFL made last year.

While $40 million isn’t necessarily the be-all-end-all in this NFL world, this factor, combined with the capacity of Dallas-Ft. Worth to absorb a huge number of visitors and what is ordinarily nice weather, does make it easy to predict that the Super Bowl will be back in DFW before too long.

Let’s hope that a lot more icy road equipment is around, just in case.

Burleson’s Kelly Clarkson has completed the pre-Super Bowl 46 national anthem in a paltry 2:14. That puts the time 40 seconds above the over/under of 1:34. Way to go, Kelly!

Former Cowboys Charles Haley and Bill Parcells will both have to wait another year for their possible induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Haley and Parcells qualified for the round of ten but were among the five eliminated. The voters chose Curtis Martin, Chris Doleman, Cortez Kennedy, Dermontti Dawson and Willie Roaf instead, while Jack Butler was elected by the veterans committee.

Haley saw Doleman elected, but he'll have to contend with Michael Strahan next year. That could mean a longer wait unless voters are willing to select two pass rushers in the same year. He won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys and two more with the 49ers and was selected to five Pro Bowls and two NFL All-Pro teams.

Parcells did his best work with the Giants, winning two Super Bowls and building a long term powerhouse. He rebuilt moribund franchises with the Patriots, Jets and Cowboys, taking the Pats to a Super Bowl, the Jets to an AFC Championship Game and returning Dallas to the playoffs. In all three cases he left strong rosters that continued to contend, largely with his players.

Rick Carlisle did not approve of the officiating in the Mavericks' home loss to the NBA's best team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, last night. After drawing a technical earlier in the second half, he angrily kicked the ball into the baseline crowd (admittedly aiming at chipping it to the official at a high rate of speed) after another no-call went against his guys and was ejected. He took a moment to apologize to the fans who received his ball of anger, then departed via the midcourt exit.

Carlisle's antics were pretty rare for him, but they were indicative of what Dallas thought of the performance by Ron Garretson, Michael Smith and Mark Ayotte. Terry Stotts did plenty of yelling himself, as he coached the Mavs back to a tie late in the fourth only to see them lose by nine, and so did Mark Cuban.

Cuban wasn't finished when the game was over, however.

Look, I haven't said a whole lot about the officiating in a long, long time, but I haven't seen it this bad in a long, long time. Guys miss calls; that's part of the game. You're not always going to have a great crew. Officials have got to learn that's part of the game.

But these were officials that have been part of the league for years, and it was just off-the-charts bad. And, if no one ever says anything, nothing ever happens.

It was one of the worst nights of Dirk Nowitzki's career. It wasn't Carlisle's best night, and whether or not Cuban should have said it to the media, I have to agree that it was certainly not Ron Garretson's crew's best.

quotes courtesy of Tim McMahon's postgame story

Mark Cuban has tried to buy a trio of baseball teams and by all reports hasn't come particularly close to breaking into the MLB brotherhood. Cuban used his Access Hollywood connection to explain the shortcomings of his latest bid for the dodgers.

It just didn't work out. I wanted to buy a baseball team; they were selling a media rights deal [...] told Access Hollywood Live's Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Monday. "It just wasn't going to work out." [...]

The economics got so out of control because the Dodgers' TV deal's up for bid and so there's a lot of groups coming in going, 'This TV deal's worth so much money that we're gonna pay whatever it takes to get the Dodgers.' And so they're buying the TV rights deal first and the team second.

Rumors still linger from from Cubans attempts to buy the Cubs and Rangers that other owners don't like the idea of him joining their ranks, but as these deals get more complicated - and we did see this at the end of the Rangers and Astros processes - MLB is often going to have to accept whoever can put the deal together financially. Cuban wasn't that guy this time, but given the number of attempts he's already made, he may pull it off eventually.

h/t to Big League Stew

Got my BA Prospect Handbook this afternoon and don't see any details listed on LSB yet. They Rank the Nats #1 and the Rangers #2, and the book was sent to the publisher before Yu signed. Their 11-31 in the Texas system:

11. Leury Garcia
12. Jordan Akins
13. Ronald Guzman
14. Robbie Ross
15. Justin Grimm
16. Tanner Scheppers
17. Luis Sardinas
18. Luke Jackson
19. Roman Mendez
20. Barret Loux
21. Will Lamb
22. Kevin Matthews
23. Kellin Deglan
24. Jake Skole
25. Tomas Telis
26. David Perez
27. Odubel Herrera
28. Michael Kirkman
29. Miguel De Los Santos
30. Nomar Mazara
31. Zach Cone

Profar's scouting grades are all 55-65 (power and speed are 55). BA also added actual player grades for all 930 players this year, a talent grade and a likelihood to reach ceiling, so that's pretty interesting.

Like most who can barely grasp what happens on a football field, Jerry Jones Monday boiled down his his summary of why his team came up short against the Giants to one thing: their QB is better. That's right, after watching four-fifths of his offensive line be overrun by a dominant Giants defensive front, after watching his front seven flounder and his secondary look atrocious, after presumably watching tape of his young lead receivers struggle, he identifies one of the few areas where he didn't actually have a problem as the problem. Here's the money quote, in response to Calvin Watkins asking what the difference was for the Giants in beating Dallas twice late and passing them..

I don't want to take anything away [from them] but the big difference was Eli came up here and started what seemed like a pretty significant [stretch]. But the quarterback play with Eli was the huge difference.

Just to reset, the Giants came to Dallas on December 11 and beat the Cowboys 37-34 to wrestle away control of the division. Tony Romo was 21-31 for 321 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT and a QB rating of 141.3. He was sacked three times and hounded by Jason Pierre Paul and the Giants interior line, but turned in that performance. Eli Manning was 27-47 for 400 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT and a rating of 90.7. He was sacked zero times.

If you were looking for signs that your owner/GM has his head on straight enough to contribute to narrowing the gap between his team and the four elite clubs in the NFC, yeah, that's a big, bold negatory.

Eli Manning had tons of help from Kyle Williams, but he brought his team back for another late win in a big game. The 49ers did bang him around better than I can ever remember the Cowboys doing (see the best one after the jump).

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Clay Davenport has updated his projected standings for recent signings (including one Yu Darvish), and his projections love the Rangers. He projects them to win 102 games, by far the most in Major League Baseball. The Red Sox are second with 98 wins, and no one else is inside ten games of the Rangers.

The Yankees and Phillies are at 92, while the Reds round out the top five at 88 wins. The Angels are projected to finish second in the AL West, but at 86 wins, 16 games behind the Rangers. The A's are at 80 wins, Seattle is at 68, and future West foe Houston is at 63.

Pretty amazing. Check out all of his projections here.

Within a couple of hours, two new stories from MLB.com writers hit my news reader. The first, from Richard Justice (yes, he's writing for MLB now), made the argument that is becoming popular among Rangers fans - Prince Fielder is a much better investment than Josh Hamilton. The second, from the site's Rangers beat guy TR Sullivan, reports that if Texas does sign Yu Darvish in the next two days they don't expect to sign Fielder in addition.

If the Rangers get Darvish's deal done as expected, they are not expecting to sign free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder. The Rangers met with Fielder and his agent Scott Boras on Friday in Dallas in what was described as a "preliminary meeting."

The Rangers were willing to meet with Fielder because they wanted to have a backup plan in place in case a deal with Darvish did not get done. There is still a remote possibility that negotiations with Darvish fall through. In that case, Texas might turn its attention to Fielder.

But club officials continued to stress that the Rangers don't plan on signing both Darvish and Fielder. The team has made it clear that its focus is on pitching, and it expects to sign Darvish by Wednesday.

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