Elvis Andrus has earned a national honor for his excellent rookie season. Andrus was named as the shortstop to the 51st annual Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team on Wednesday.

The Hot Stove league, where players start swapping teams during baseball's off-season, begins in earnest today as free agents begin negotiating with other clubs and signing contracts for the 2010 season.

So, the buzz today is from Ken Rosenthal's story that the Rangers are interested in free agent outfielder Vlad Guerrero.

Rangers officials, including GM Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington, will start talking with a handful of candidates for the hitting instructor vacancy created when Rudy Jaramillo took a three-year, $2.5 million dollar offer from the Chicago Cubs last week.

Star-Telegram Rangers All-Star outfielder Josh Hamilton will headline a youth baseball camp Nov.

As a unit, the Rangers outfield was beset by slumps and injuries . It would be easy to write it off as a subpar year for the club, but there were still some pretty solid contributions, like Marlon Byrd's career year, Cruz's 33 homers and late-season addition Julio Borbon's electrifying speed.

Evan Grant has his grades for the outfielders up this morning, and Marlon Byrd gets an "A," while Nelson Cruz and David Murphy are both "B"s. It highlights the disconnect, I think, between what the team, and those that cover the team, perceive of Cruz's performance this year, and what those of us out in the interwebs think of Cruz .

Texas Top 1st - UMPIRES: Home,Greg Gibson; First, Tim McClelland; Second, Andy Fletcher; Third, Ted Barrett; - Julio Borbon grounded out third to first.

Earlier this month, the Dodgers signed Andruw Jones. His signing, and the renewed Pierre-bashing which arose, and the question of just how much Pierre had helped or hurt the Dodgers arose.

The national impact of the unprecedented halting of a rapist's execution after two hours and temporary reprieves for other condemned inmates likely will become clear over the next few months as courts examine the state's lethal-injection procedures, experts say.

By JEFF WILSON The past few off-seasons represented happier financial times for Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers, but it's not as if he allowed his baseball operations staff to go on any free-agent shopping binges.The Rangers' biggest acquisition the past two years was Milton Bradley, who ended up costing them just over $6 million.

The Angels have joined another postseason party, hoping to stick around to the finish this time.

It's a bittersweet moment, as the team spent two months in first place from May to July, but they'll finish above .500 for the first time since 2004, an impressive showing given that their PECOTA forecast was for just 70 wins.

How Rangers hitters fared: David Murphy went 7-for-14 with six RBIs in the series.

Marlon Byrd homered twice and drove in five runs and Josh Hamilton knocked in four, as Texas teed off on Tampa Bay pitching to the tune of a 15-3 victory.

Kevin Millwood needed to break out of a pitching slump just as Texas needed to shake free from an offensive meltdown.

Ron Washington offered the usual managerial response when asked about the enormity of the Texas Rangers' upcoming series against the AL West-leading Los Angeles Angels.

Hank Blalock homered and drove in four runs, leading the Texas Rangers to a 9-8 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.

Kurt Suzuki and Daric Barton drove in two runs apiece while Trevor Cahill won his fourth straight decision with a a 9-1 victory over Texas on Tuesday night.

Trevor Cahill reached his target of 10 wins. Now Oakland's rookie right-hander is aiming for more.