Well we can cross another one off the list of players that the Boston Red Sox have that are arbitration-eligible.

With tonight’s deadline of exchanging figures with arbitration-eligible players fast approaching, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington has avoided going to arbitration again by signing Mike Aviles to a one-year deal worth $1.2 million.

Aviles, who by the way will be a part of the 2012 Red Sox Road Trip that will be stopping in Connecticut on January 21st, came over to the Red Sox on July 30th when he was acquired from the Kansas City Royals for Yamaico Navarro and Kendal Volz. In 38 games with the Red Sox, Aviles hit .317 with two home runs, eight RBIs and four stolen bases.

In 91 total games between the Royals and Red Sox, Aviles hit .255 with seven home runs, 39 RBIs and 14 stolen bases.

Aviles could figure into the outfield mix as well as being a backup infielder with the announcement on Tuesday that Carl Crawford underwent wrist surgery. Aviles has been playing the outfield in winter ball in Puerto Rico for Ponce Leones.

Cherington now has four contracts to go to avoid going to the arbitrator. They are Alfredo Aceves, Andrew Bailey, Daniel Bard and David Ortiz. Besides Aviles, he’s avoided going to arbitration now with Matt Albers, Andrew Miller, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Ryan Sweeney, Franklin Morales and Jacoby Ellsbury.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: Getty Images

After a miserable 2011 season by his standards, Carl Crawford isn’t getting off to the hottest of starts in 2012 and the season hasn’t even begun yet.

During a conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington announced that the left fielder underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his left wrist. It’s not known yet whether or not he’ll be ready for Opening Day 2012.

Here’s what Cherington had to say:

“We’re not going to put a timeline on his recovery, but we’re optimistic Carl will be progressing in baseball activities as we get into spring training.”

In his first season with the Red Sox after signing a huge free agent contract (seven years, $142 million), Crawford hit just .255 with 11 home runs, 56 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. Other than when he was called up by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2002 where he hit .259 in 63 games, the lowest Crawford hit in his nine years with the Rays was .273.

As of right now, the only sure thing in the outfield will be Jacoby Ellsbury. After that, Ryan Sweeney and Darnell McDonald are your other outfielders. Mike Aviles could also play the outfield as well.

Hopefully Crawford is a quick healer and we won’t have to worry about who’ll be playing the outfield when the season gets underway in April.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: Reuters Pictures

Here’s the release from the Boston Red Sox about the 2012 Red Sox Road Trip:

The Red Sox are hitting the road to get ready for 2012, the 100th year anniversary of Fenway Park! The 2012 Red Sox Road Trip presented by Coca-Cola will be traveling throughout New England with stops in all six states from Friday, January 20 through Sunday, January 22. This year, the Road Trip will travel in two legs, each hitting one New England state per day. We will be bringing Red Sox historical artifacts and the 2004 and 2007 World Series trophies along with Wally the Green Monster, a face painter and a balloon artist. At each stop, we will be doing random giveaways of 2011 Red Sox autographed memorabilia.

Vouchers will be distributed inviting fans to a special pre-sale where they will be able to purchase four (4) tickets to a 2012 Red Sox game.* Red Sox 100th Anniversary books and Red Sox Nation and Kid Nation Fan Club memberships will be also available for purchase.

After a successful inaugural year, the Red Sox will again be hosting Sing Your Way to Fenway at each of the stops where fans will have the opportunity to audition to sing the National Anthem. Contestants will perform and the winner from each state will have the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at a future Red Sox game. Learn more about Sing Your Way to Fenway »

In addition, one lucky fan from each state, who visits a Red Sox Road Trip tour stop, will be selected as a Grand Prize Winner for the Red Sox Road Trip VIP Experience (includes pre game VIP tour, pre-game experience and four tickets to their respective 2012 Red Sox State Day game TBA). Fans can register at each tour stop and the winner will be randomly selected from all names. The winner will be notified by phone.

To see where the 2012 Red Sox Road Trip is going to, click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

2012 ROAD TRIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

With today’s deadline of exchanging numbers with arbitration-eligible players, Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington is staying busy getting the rest of his arbitration-eligible players signed.

After agreeing to terms with Franklin Morales last night, the Red Sox and Jacoby Ellsbury have agreed to a one-year, $8.05 million deal according to MLB Trade Rumors’ Ben Nicholson-Smith. It’s a big raise for Ellsbury after making $2.4 million last year in his first arbitration-eligble season.

The big raise is warranted for Ellsbury after his monster season last year where he finished second in the AL MVP voting, won a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove and was named to the AL All-Star team. He hit .321 with 32 home runs, 105 RBIs and had 39 stolen bases.

This coming after a 2010 season that was lost to injury and he actually came into the 2011 season with a lot of questions. Instead, he went out and proved all the doubters wrong and set himself up for a nice payday which he got.

Cherington now has five contracts to go to avoid going to the arbitrator. They are Alfredo Aceves, Mike Aviles, Andrew Bailey, Daniel Bard and David Ortiz. He’s avoided going to arbitration now with Matt Albers, Andrew Miller, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Ryan Sweeney and Morales.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: Reuters Pictures

Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams as well as some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

Thank you for stopping by and making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Omar Calhoun Ready For The Challenge At UConn [Dom Amore – Hartford Courant]

Dom also answered a question in his mailbag [Dom Amore – Hartford Courant]

UConn Prospect Omar Calhoun Plays At Hoop Hall Classic [Hartford Courant]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

UConn crushes North Carolina [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Tuck stars in McDonald’s Shootout [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Notes From UConn’s Win Over North Carolina [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Geno Auriemma On Brianna Banks Injury [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

No. 3 UConn routs No. 24 North Carolina [CT Post]

UConn’s pounding of UNC a sign that physical play is here to stay [CT Post]

UConn Hands North Carolina Worst Loss, 86-35 [Hartford Courant]

No UNC Next Year; At Least Not In Regular Season [Hartford Courant]

Huskies rout 24th-ranked Tar Heels [New Haven Register]

UConn women dominate North Carolina 86-35 [The Day]

Tar Heels feel the power of UConn blue [The Hour]

UConn Football links

Football Welcomes Five Mid-Year Enrollees [UConnHuskies.com]

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

While Boston Red Sox GM Ben Cherington continues to shop in the bargain aisle for pitching, he’s also been busy trying to avoid arbitration with all of the arbitration-eligible players the team has.

After avoiding arbitration with Matt Albers, Andrew Miller, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ryan Sweeney, we can cross one more off the list.

Late Monday, the Red Sox avoid going to arbitration with Franklin Morales as they signed him to a one-year, $850,000 contract according to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.

Morales came over from the Colorado Rockies in a trade on May 19, 2011. He made 36 appearances for the Red Sox going 1-1 with a 3.62 ERA.

Cherington still has six contracts to go to avoid going to the arbitrator. They are Alfredo Aceves, Mike Aviles, Andrew Bailey, Daniel Bard, Jacoby Ellsbury, and David Ortiz. The two sides have until tonight to exchange salary figures.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Whenever you play a ranked team in women’s college basketball, you expect the game to be fairly close. That wasn’t the case on Monday night.

Bria Hartley led six Huskies in double figures with 17 points as the UConn Huskies went on to a very easy 86-35 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels in front of 9,221 and nationally televised audience on ESPN2 at Gampel Pavilion on campus in Storrs, CT.

With the win, the Huskies improve to 15-2 while the Tar Heels fall to 12-5. The 51 point loss for the Tar Heels was the worst in the history of their program.

Besides her 17 points, Hartley paced the Huskies with eight assists. Despite shooting 5-of-16 from the floor (3-of-13 from three, reigning Big East Freshman of the Week Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had 15 points and six rebounds. Tiffany Hayes added 13 points and seven rebounds while Caroline Doty and Stefanie Dolson both chipped in with 10 points.

One game after being benched for her lack of effort in practice, Kia Stokes responded with her best game of the season. She had 11 points and 11 rebounds in 14 minutes of action. Kelly Faris also had a nice all around game with eight points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Tierra Ruffin-Pratt paced the Tar Heels with nine points and eight rebounds. Krista Gross added eight points and six rebounds while Laura Broomfield had six points and eight rebounds.

Besides the score being 0-0, the closest the Tar Heels got in this was when they trailed 6-4. The Huskies put this one out of reach early using a 15-0 run to open up a 20 point lead at 26-6.

UConn would use another 15-0 run to push their lead to 35 points at 49-14 before the team exchanged baskets before half giving the Huskies a 51-16 lead.

The only question that remained in the second half was how much the starters would play.

They did see some action early in the half as the Huskies continued their dominance building the lead to 50 points at 71-21 in the first eight and half minutes. From there, the bench took over for UConn allowing them to get some valuable minutes.

Those minutes proved to be good ones for Stokes who showed what she can do. Now she needs to carry over her great effort into practice and into the next game.

That next game will come on Thursday night when former Husky player and coach Jamelle Elliott brings her Cincinnati Bearcats squad to Gampel Pavilion. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally on CPTV.

To continue reading the North Carolina Tar Heels @ UConn Huskies recap, click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

Notes and musings:

North Carolina Tar Heels @ UConn Huskies 1.16.12 box score

Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma and North Carolina head coach Sylvia Hatchell. There are player quotes as well.

Today was Kelly Faris’ 21st birthday.

UConn has won their last five games against the Tar Heels by an average of 32 points. They now lead the series 7-5.

This was UConn’s 95th straight home win.

The starters for the Huskies were the usual five suspects of Bria Hartley, Caroline Doty, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris and Stefanie Dolson.

The Huskies shot 48.6% (34-70) from the floor. The Tar Heels shot 23.2% (13-56).

UConn had 26 assists on their 34 made baskets.

The Huskies were 8-of-29 (27.6%) from beyond the arc while UNC was 1-of-9 (11.1%).

UConn was 10-of-13 (76.9%) from the charity stripe.

The Huskies won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Tar Heels 48-36.

UConn outscored the Tar Heels 42-14 in the paint and 22-9 on the fast break.

The Huskies had 30 points off of 26 UNC turnovers. The Tar Heels had 14 points off of 17 UConn turnovers.

UConn had 19 second chance points to just eight for UNC.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: John Woike – Hartford Courant (No. 9, 10 in gallery)

If it seems like Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington is shopping in the clearance aisle for pitching, well folks he is doing just that.

According to Peter Gammons, the Red Sox have signed Vicente Padilla to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. John Tomase of the Boston Herald reports that Padilla will earn $1.5 million if he makes the big league club.

Padilla missed almost all of the 2011 season for the Los Angeles Dodgers after undergoing forearm surgery and also had neck injury. He made nine appearances (all out of the bullpen) and had no record with a 4.15 ERA and three saves in 8 2/3 innings. He last pitched on May 13, 2011.

The 13-year veteran has pitched in the American League before with the Texas Rangers and started his career with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He’s also spent time with the Philadelphia Phillies.

In 330 career games (237 starts), Padilla is 104-90 with a 4.31 ERA. His best season came in 2006 with the Rangers when he finished with a 15-10 record and 4.50 ERA.

Padilla figures to compete with the recently signed Aaron Cook, Carlos Silva and Justin Germano along with Alfredo Aceves, Felix Doubront, Andrew Miller and a cast of others for the fifth spot in the Red Sox rotation. I’m going to assume that unless things change during spring training, that Daniel Bard is penciled in as the fourth starter behind Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: AP Photo

Here’s the release about UConn Huskies women’s basketball freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis being named the Big East Freshman of the Week honors for the fifth time this season.

STORRS, Conn. – Freshman forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis earned her fifth BIG EAST weekly accolade of her career as she was tabbed the BIG EAST Freshman of the Week as announced by the conference office on Monday.

Mosqueda-Lewis, chosen as the 2011-12 BIG EAST Preseason Freshman of the Year, earns this award after an impressive week of averaging 14.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game as the Huskies went 2-0.

Mosqueda-Lewis shot 50 percent from the field and 57 percent from the three as she tallied 13 points against Providence and 16 points at Villanova. She is the third leading scorer on the team averaging 14.4 points per game and has the second highest average from behind the arc with 39.2.

DePaul’s junior guard Anna Martin was named as the Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the BIG EAST. Martin scored 29 points and brought in nine rebounds against conference foe Pittsburgh.

The Huskies return to the court on Monday, Jan. 16, to take on the No. 22 Tar Heels at 7 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: David Butler II – US Presswire

One could say that Andre Drummond has been a difference maker in the middle for the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team. His improved play has helped the Huskies along the way and for the fourth time this season, he’s been honored by the Big East.

Drummond was named the Big East Rookie of the Week for his play helping UConn to a 2-0 record last week averaging 15 points and 12 rebounds in those games.

In last Monday’s 64-57 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers, Drummond had 20 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. In Saturday’s 67-53 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Drummond had 10 points, 13 rebounds and two blocked shots. He had put up double-doubles in four of his last five games.

Drummond and the Huskies return to action on Wednesday night when they’ll host the Cincinnati Bearcats in a Big East matchup. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN2.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: Bettina Hansen – Hartford Courant