After spending countless spring trainings in Arizona with the San Diego Padres, Adrian Gonzalez is now spending the first of what we hope is many spring trainings in Ft. Myers, FL with the Boston Red Sox. And if he stays around, which is expected, he’ll even get to play in a mini-Fenway Park when the Red Sox new spring training home opens in 2012.

Speaking of that contract, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that Gonzalez is not worried about his contract situation right now.

Gonzalez indicated he has not imposed deadlines for an extension, so there won’t be any contentious contract squabble, at least not now.

In fact, Gonzalez’s agent, John Boggs, won’t arrive in Fort Myers until around March 8 and that would appear to be the first time the sides will meet face-to-face since the 48-hour summit they held in Boston at the time of the Gonzalez deal.

It appears both sides have a general idea of how many dollars and years it would take to get a deal done.

The rumor has been since Gonzalez was traded to the Red Sox that a deal for around seven years, $152-$154 million would be announced after opening day. Gonzalez has also stated in the past that he’s not looking for Albert Pujols money which for the Red Sox can be a good thing.

And with Carl Crawford around for the next seven years that’s a pretty good duo plus you have the core of the team in Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester and Josh Beckett around. And that’s not to mention having Clay Buchholz under team control for the next few years.

Gonzalez also told reporters that he expects to be ready for opening day.

So things are looking up here in Red Sox Nation for 2011 and years to come. And I, for one, can’t wait for it.

Photo credit: Steve Silva – Boston.com

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On Wednesday afternoon, the Boston Red Sox made the signings of Dennys Reyes and Alfredo Aceves official. They also have designated pitcher Robert Coello for assignment to make room for Aceves on the 40-man roster.

Here’s the release from the Red Sox:

The Boston Red Sox today signed right-handed pitcher Alfredo Aceves to a one-year contract through the 2011 season and signed left-handed pitcher Dennys Reyes to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training camp as a non-roster player. No further terms were disclosed. To make room for Aceves on the 40-man roster, the club designated right-handed pitcher Robert Coello for assignment.

The announcements were made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

Aceves, 29, went 3-0 with one save and a 3.00 ERA (4 ER/12.0 IP) in 10 relief appearances with the New York Yankees in 2010 before being placed on the disabled list on May 9 with a strained lower back. He missed the remainder of the season but made seven rehab appearances between New York’s Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliates in August. The right-hander has a 14-1 record with a 3.21 ERA (45 ER/126.0 IP), 87 strikeouts and 30 walks while holding opponents to a .221 batting average (104-for-471) in 59 career Major League games (five starts), all with the Yankees from 2008-10. Aceves led the Major Leagues with 10 wins as a reliever in 2009 and finished fourth in the American League with 80.2 relief innings that season. He owns the longest active winning streak in the Majors with a 10-0 mark since suffering his only career loss on May 26, 2009. The native of San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as an international free agent in 2001 and the following season was traded to the Mexican League, where he played from 2002-07 before signing with the Yankees as a minor league free agent prior to the 2008 season.

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The 33-year-old Reyes made 59 relief appearances for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2010, going 3-1 with one save, a 3.55 ERA (15 ER/38.0 IP) and 25 strikeouts compared to 21 walks. The left-hander held opponents scoreless in 51 of his outings and ranked fifth among National League relief pitchers with 1.66 double plays induced per 9.0 innings. He leads all Major League left-handers (minimum 275 games) with a 2.63 ERA (60 ER/205.1 IP) over the last five seasons beginning in 2006. Reyes has appeared for 10 different teams over 14 Major League seasons, including the Dodgers (1997-98), Reds (1998-2001), Rockies (2002), Rangers (2002), Pirates (2003), Diamondbacks (2003), Royals (2004), Padres (2005), Twins (2006-08) and Cardinals (2009). In 660 career Big League games (40 starts), he is 35-35 with a 4.18 ERA (337 ER/775.0 IP) and a .238 opponent batting average (252-for-1,059) against left-handed hitters.

Coello made his Major League debut with the Red Sox last season as a September call-up, posting a 4.76 ERA (3 ER/5.2 IP) in six relief appearances for Boston. The 26-year-old led all Red Sox farmhands with a combined 130 strikeouts for Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket in 2010 while compiling a 7-6 record with one save and a 3.86 ERA (46 ER/107.1 IP) in 32 games (13 starts) between the two stops. He is 13-10 with a 2.91 ERA (65 ER/201.0 IP) over three minor league seasons in affiliated ball with the Angels (2007) and Red Sox (2009-10) organizations. This winter, he pitched in both the Dominican Winter League and the Mexican Pacific League.

The addition of Reyes brings Boston’s total number of non-roster players in Major League Spring Training camp to 21.

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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.

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 Women’s Basketball links

Geno on Tennessee, Taurasi [Joe Perez – Norwich Bulletin]

Big East Regular-Season Title Could Go To A Coin Flip [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Some Tidbits From Tuesday’s 57-51 Win At West Virginia [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Huskies Learn That Each Day Presents New Challenges [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

UConn women hurt by foul trouble but hang on to beat W.Va. [CT Post]

UConn’s Moore on track to lead nation in scoring [CT Post]

UConn Women Turn Back West Virginia, 57-51 [Hartford Courant]

Huskies Have Motivation To Keep Big East Record Clean [Hartford Courant]

UConn Women’s Notebook Extras … [Hartford Courant]

Caroline Doty back on the comeback trail [New Haven Register]

Mater Dei’s Mosqueda-Lewis a real hot shot [OCVarsity.com]

No. 17 Mountaineers can’t maintain halftime lead, fall to UConn 57-51 [The Daily Athenaeum]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Looking Into The Past For Words On UConn’s Future [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Ray Allen Signs Marketing Deal With Webster Bank [Hartford Courant]

Huskies among teams returning to past glory [Norwich Bulletin]

UConn Football links

Big East spring practice dates [Brian Bennett – ESPN.com]

Big East mailbag [Brian Bennett – ESPN.com]

16 UConn Football Players Big East All-Academic Selections [Hartford Courant]

Other UConn related links

UConn Baseball Has High Hopes for 2011 [UCHuskies]

When it came time for teams to offer contracts to their players, the New York Yankees didn’t feel as though Alfredo Aceves was worthy of one so they non-tendered him. After all, he did only pitch 12 innings last season in the big leagues due to a back injury.

Of course, he didn’t help himself out too much by breaking his collarbone in a biking accident in Mexico in July. And after being thrown to the curb by the Yankees in November, they only felt he was worthy of a minor league deal to come back to the Bronx.

But obviously Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein doesn’t feel that way as Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that the Sox have signed Aceves to major league contract. According to Cafardo, the deal is worth $650,000 if Aceves makes the big league roster and $200,000 if he pitches in the minors. When the signing does become official, the Red Sox will have to remove someone from the 40-man roster.

Aceves made 59 appearances (three starts) for the Yankees during the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons and was 14-1 with a 3.21 ERA.

We all know the bullpen is already crowded as you already have Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard, Bobby Jenks, Dan Wheeler and Tim Wakefield down there for righties. And of course that doesn’t include the lefties, Dennys Reyes, Rich Hill, Andrew Miller, Lenny DiNardo, Hideki Okajima, Randy Williams and Felix Doubront, who will all be competing for the final two spots in the bullpen as well.

But it may appear the Red Sox see him as a starter as Dan Roche of WBZ tweeted earlier in the day that Aceves will be stretched out as a starter in spring training and then have his role determined at the end.

Of course given the fact that he was injured during the offseason, the Red Sox could very well start the season by putting him on the disabled list and letting him “rehab” with the Pawtucket Red Sox. But we’ve still got about six weeks before anything has to happen so we’ll just sit back, watch and see how the bullpen shakes out.

Photo credit: Reuters Pictures

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Most Americans believe the hype when Puxatony Phil reveals whether or not we will have six more weeks of winter or an early spring. But we here in Red Sox Nation believe that when the truck leaves Fenway Park that spring is definitely coming sooner rather than later.

Of course it really means that spring training is around the corner for the Boston Red Sox as the truck left Boston on Tuesday afternoon bound for the Red Sox Player Development Complex in Ft. Myers, FL. While there are already a good group of players there, the equipment isn’t.

So when the truck gets there in a few days, everyone will be ready for the pitchers and catchers official report date on Sunday.

With all of the moves that general manager Theo Epstein made this offseason, there is a lot of optimism about the Red Sox getting back to the World Series this year. And that all really began with the truck leaving Fenway Park.

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Photo credit: Sopan Deb – Boston.com

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.

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

It’s game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they are in beautiful Morgantown, WV to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be nationally-televised on CBS College Sports. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

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

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Fernandes fitting in at Farifield [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Bird, Charles to play in EuroLeague all-star game [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Dolson Stepping Up For Huskies [Rich Elliott – CT Post]

Judging by the Dominion Post, It Is A Big Game Tonight [Rich Elliott – CT Post]

UConn’s Dolson in a stretch of steady play [CT Post]

Chris Dailey’s Contributions To UConn Women’s Team Don’t Go Unnoticed [Hartford Courant]

Chris Dailey’s Advice Pays Off For Stefanie Dolson [Hartford Courant]

Hartley, Dixon perfect complements [New Haven Register]

Dolson continues to develop for UConn [The Day]

Huskies face fading West Virginia [The Republican-American]

Dolson freshman of the week [Times Herald-Record]

WVU has lost three of four and face Connecticut tonight [The Daily Athenaeum]

Carey: No weaknesses with UConn [American Chronicle]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Allen’s Quest For Perfection Never Ends [Hartford Courant]

Other UConn related links

W. Ice Hockey. Gross Named WHEA Rookie Of The Week [UConnHuskies.com]

M. Ice Hockey. Billy Latta Named AHA Rookie of the Week [UConnHuskies.com]

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Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon was one of the early arrivals to spring training this year. He’s got a fat new contract of $12 million in his last arbitration contract before hitting free agency.

He’s got former Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Jenks down there in the bullpen with him. With Jenks under contract for 2012 and Daniel Bard waiting in the wings, it would appear the writing is on the wall that this could be the last season we see the outgoing closer in a Red Sox uniform.

He’s coming off a season where he was 5-7 with a 3.90 ERA and 37 saves. But he did blow eight saves last year.

But as Papelbon tells Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston, he’s not paid to think.

“They don’t pay me to think,” Papelbon said here Monday morning, one of the early arrivals in camp. “If I’m a thinker, then I’m not a closer. That’s the way I look at it, man. I don’t think, man, I just do. Sometimes that gets me into trouble.”

“I realize my situation,” he said. “I realize the possibilities that could and could not happen, and I accept them and I move on. I’ll go out and try and win a championship. When that’s all said and done, whatever happens, happens.”

This will definitely be an interesting season down in the Red Sox bullpen. With Jenks and Bard down there, you have to wonder if skipper Terry Francona will give them a chance if Paps blows one.

Hopefully with the improved offense and the other bullpen additions, Papelbon will be able to just go in and throw strikes and not have to think. It’s probably better for all of us here in Red Sox Nation if he didn’t.

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Photo credit: Reuters Pictures

On Sunday in his weekly baseball notes, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote that Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew was still battling some hamstring issues.

He had some lingering hamstring issues this offseason and may be slowed up a tad to start spring training. The Sox have Ryan Kalish ready to go as Drew’s eventual replacement in right field, as this is the last season of Drew’s five-year, $72 million contract. He gave indications last spring that this could be his last year in baseball but backed off that when he felt healthy during the season. He still appears to have something left in the tank at age 35, going into his 14th season.

On Monday night, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com caught up with Drew via the phone and confirmed what Cafardo reported. Here’s what Drew had to say about his lingering hamstring issues.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a major issue when I get to camp, but there are going to be some questions from me when I get there to make sure that thing is good,” Drew explained. “I’m kind of in the process now of doing some light running to see where I’m at. It feels better than it did, but that being said, baseball speed is a lot different workout speed.”

“I’ve had the whole offseason trying to figure out what direction we have to go to heal it up. It seems to feel a little bit better with exercise and things like that. We’ll see where it ends up when I get down to camp,” Drew  said. “But that thing really bugged the heck out of me for the whole second half of the season. It was extremely painful. It wasn’t like it was blown out or anything, but it wouldn’t allow me to extend it out to run like I wanted to. I dealt with it. Day games were really brutal on it because getting out of bed and trying to get warmed up for a one o’clock game was really tough. I was able to manage most of the night games.

“I’m hoping it will be a non-issue, but that being said it is aggravating because it is one of those things that has lingered. It’s just in a spot that doesn’t get a lot of blood flow. It’s not the belly of the hamstring, but just the attachment point. It gets irritated and when it does it’s extremely painful when trying to run down fly balls and running down the line. That being said, it is a lot stronger than it was during the season, so hopefully that will help overcome some of the issue when I get into camp and we can ease into things are good and go from there.”

Let’s hope Drew is right when he says the hamstring won’t be a major issue. But as everyone who’s had a hamstring issue at some point in their life, they just don’t go away. So it is concerning that it’s still bothering him with the spring training right around the corner.

Photo credit: AP Photo

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We all know how good UConn Huskies women’s basketball senior All-American Maya Moore is. And on a nightly basis, she goes out there and shows the Big East teams and the rest of the country just how great she really is.

For the seventh time this season, Moore has been honored as the Big East Player of the Week. The seven wins by Moore ties former Louisville Cardinals player Angel McCoughtry and former Husky Nykesha Sales for the most all-time. Moore has won the award 11 times in her career.

Stefanie Dolson continues to get better each and every game and for her efforts last week, Dolson was named the Big East Freshman of the Week.

In UConn’s 2-0 week, Moore averaged 31.5 points, 10 rebounds and 6.5 assists while Dolson averaged 14.5 points and nine rebounds.

In the 87-51 win over the Duke Blue Devils, Moore had 29 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. In that game Dolson added eight points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. In the 89-66 win over the DePaul Blue Demons, Moore had 34 points, 11 rebounds and six assists while Dolson had a career-high 21 points to go along with six rebounds.

Moore, Dolson and the rest of the UConn women are back in action on Tuesday night when they head to Morgantown, WV to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be nationally-televised on CBS College Sports.

Photo credit: Cloe Poisson – Hartford Courant (No. 11)

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Springfield, Mass. – The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts announced today that UConn junior guard Kemba Walker (Bronx, N.Y.) has been named one of the final-ten candidates in consideration for the 2011 Bob Cousy Award.

This annual award is given to college basketball’s top point guard and is named after Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic great Bob Cousy. An original list of 70-plus candidates made up of players from around the country was trimmed by a Hall of Fame appointed, nationally based committee to 20 and has now narrowed that list to a final ten.

“This final list of ten players represents the best of the best in college basketball at the point guard position,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Basketball Hall of Fame. “We look forward to recognizing the nation’s top college basketball point guard and wish all the candidates best of luck.”

“We have many excellent candidates for the 2011 award that share Mr. Cousy’s vision of a point guard. We look forward to following each of these players as the season heads to the final weeks and recognize the top player in college basketball at the point guard position at the Final Four,” said Ken Kaufman, Chair of the 2011 Bob Cousy Award.

Walker has led Connecticut to a No. 6/7 national ranking and an 18-4 record. UConn currently sits at 6-4 in the BIG EAST. Walker ranks second in the BIG EAST and sixth in the nation at 23.2 points per game. On the season, he’s averaging 5.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists. Walker also ranks second in the BIG EAST with 2.0 steals per game.

Beginning February 8, via the Bob Cousy Award’s website – www.cousyaward.com – fans will be able to vote for the top point guard. The player that receives the most fan votes will receive one vote toward the final committee vote. Fan voting will run one month – beginning February 8 and will conclude March 8.

For a full look at the finalists, click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

The current listing of ten finalists for the 2011 Bob Cousy Award will be narrowed down to five players by March 10th. The final five players in contention for the award will be presented to Mr. Cousy and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. These Hall of Fame committees are made up of top college basketball personnel including media members, head coaches, Sports Information Directors and Hall of Famers. The winner of the 2011 Bob Cousy Award will be awarded at the Hall of Fame’s Class Announcement on Monday April 4th in Houston, Texas as part of NCAA Final Four weekend.

2011 Bob Cousy Award Finalists

Norris Cole Cleveland State
Corey Fisher Villanova
Jimmer Fredette BYU
DJ Gay San Diego State
Brandon Knight Kentucky
Demetri McCamey Illinois
Mickey McConnell St. Mary's
Nolan Smith Duke
Isaiah Thomas Washington
Kemba Walker Connecticut

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