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UConn Football links

DC answered a few questions in his mailbag [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Robert McClain signs with Panthers [Neill Ostrout – CT Post]

UConn vs Michigan Football Ticket and Travel information [UConnHuskies.com]

Spotlight on Dahna Deleston [Hartford Courant]

EA Sports releases UConn’s roster for NCAA Football 11 [The UConn Blog]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Paper or Plastic? [David Borges – New Haven Register]

Scared straight [Neill Ostrout – CT Post]

Calhoun: No assistant coach news this week [CT Post]

Spotlight on Robert Garrison [Hartford Courant]

UConn’s assistant search may carry into next week [New Haven Register]

USC ruling should scare UConn, Kentucky hoops fans [Athletic Business]

Other UConn related links

Women’s Volleyball: Connecticut Native Joins University of Connecticut Volleyball Team [UConnHuskies.com]

Women’s Ice Hockey: Six Women’s Ice Hockey Players Earn All-Academic Honors from Hockey East [UConnHuskies.com]

Arizona Diamondbacks @ Boston Red Sox 7:10 p.m. Fenway Park – Boston, MA SP: Ian Kennedy vs Clay Buchholz TV: NESN, MLB.tv Radio: Red Sox Radio Network

Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 6/15 [SOX & Dawgs]

Up, up, and Ellsway!?

Now let me get this straight. There’s ‘talk’ that the Boston Red Sox want to trade away Jacoby Ellsbury this offseason?

And I write ‘talk’ because this isn’t exactly a rumor being concocted. Actually, it’s more of a prediction, literally.

This past week, all ignited by The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, Ellsbury’s name has been swirling around, along with Jonathan Papelbon, in what appears to be some sort of scare tactic by Red Sox management.

Some people are claiming that Boston’s center fielder (sorry Mike Cameron, you are not Boston’s true center fielder) isn’t as achy as he says to be, which is posing some problems.

Let’s see. Cracked ribs?

Now I have no experience whatsoever with cracked ribs, let alone a broken bone (knock on wood), but can we cut the kid some slack?

Yes, it was a blow when he finally came back off the disabled list on May 25, then five games later was put back on it. But to throw out there, trade Ellsbury away to send him a message is asinine.

He is what the Boston organization has been dreaming of in a long time. Speed (70 steals in 2009), defense, and small ball seems to be a rare find in Beantown and you want to oust him? What seems to be the issue lately with Red Sox management and their players? Is this the second coming of George Steinbrenner?

Pre-Madonna Red Sox or messed up management?

Unless you’ve been living underneath a rock, there have been no question, a lot of issues this season. The Ellsbury deal is now the sixth.

It all started with Mike Lowell trying to be traded away and we all know how that turned out.

The Texas Rangers wanted him to have his physical and it turned out Lowell had a broken thumb. So Lowell returns to the Sox and ends up on the 25-man roster on Opening Day.

Next was who to play more in the designated hitter role, Lowell or David Ortiz?

Apparently Lowell doesn’t like to DH very much, he’d rather play in the field, then of course you get Ortiz who literally had hissy fits when he wasn’t getting enough of at-bats. Then all of a sudden Papi started popping home runs left and right leaving Mikey in a predicament.

If that wasn’t enough, when Daisuke Matsuzaka returned after being placed on the 15-day DL to start the season, someone has to be kicked into the bullpen.

Well hello Tim Wakefield.

Even though you’ve been pitching great we really got no choice. I mean we can’t demote Josh Beckett to the pen who we just signed to a four-year, $68 million contract extension. And Clay Buchholz is finally becoming the pitcher we all thought of him to be in 2007 when he dished that no-hitter to the Baltimore Orioles.

And what’s up with Jonathan Papelbon?

The base of Cafardo’s Sunday notebook was about Daniel Bard being the next Red Sox closer.

Well, we all heard that before…last season…spring training…now. What’s the difference?

And it’s Nava here!

At least there is some happy news to report about.

His name?

Daniel Nava.

You weren’t alone being mind boggled on Saturday. ‘Who the hell is Daniel Nava?’

Ron Chimelis of The Springfield Republican has the background story on this 27-year-old who didn’t even make his college team as a walk-on and had to settle being the equipment manager at Santa Clara.

Nava joined Bill Duggleby Jeremy Hermida, and Kevin Kouzmanoff as the only other players in the big league to smash a grand slam in their first career at-bat. Nava is the second to do it on the first pitch as Kouzmanoff did it in 2006 for the Cleveland Indians.

That makes two great stories for rookies this season for the Sox. First it was Darnell McDonald and now Nava.

Hhhmmm, I guess the Ellsbury and Cameron injuries have been blessings in disguise after all.

Amanda Bruno is a freelance sportswriter for The Springfield Republican. She also writes over at Batter-up with Bruno where she shares her thoughts about the Boston Red Sox and the Boston sports media. You can follow her on Twitter @batterupbruno and can reach Amanda through email at brunosportshawk[at]gmail.com.

STORRS, Conn. – The University of Connecticut football games on September 11 against Texas Southern and on September 18 against Temple will both kickoff at noon it was announced on Tuesday. The Texas Southern game will be the 2010 home opener at Rentschler Field while the Temple game will be played at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Kickoff times have now been finalized for three of UConn six games at Rentschler Field with the Texas Southern game, the West Virginia game on Friday, October 29 at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN2 and the Pittsburgh game on Thursday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN. Game times are still to be announced for the Buffalo (September 25), Vanderbilt (October 2) and Cincinnati games (November 27).

In terms of road games, three of those kickoff times have been set with the Temple game, the season opener at Michigan on September 4 at 3:30 p.m. on ABC and the Rutgers game on Friday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN. Still to be announced are times for at Louisville on October 23, at Syracuse on November 20 and at USF on December 4. The USF game will be televised either on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

Information on additional television appearances will be announced at a later date.

After a day off on Monday, J.D. Drew and the Boston Red Sox will welcome Stephen Drew and the Arizona Diamondbacks for a 3-game interleague set at Fenway Park.

Tonight’s game will start at 7:10 p.m. and will be shown on NESN in the Red Sox television market. If you live in the Diamondbacks television market, you can catch the game on FOX Sports Arizona. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2010 Red Sox radio network.

Clay Buchholz looks to continue his recent string of good outings in his 13th start of 2010. In his previous 12 starts, he is 8-4 with a 2.52 ERA. Buchholz has never faced the Diamondbacks in his career.

Ian Kennedy, the former Yankees prospect, has made 13 starts for the Diamondbacks this season. In those 13 starts, Kennedy is 3-3 with a 3.19 ERA. Kennedy has never faced the Red Sox in his career.

Keep reading for lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and pregame links.

Here’s the hitters have fared against this evening’s starting pitchers in their careers:

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

Scutaro (neck) out at least one day [Clubhouse Insider]

Scutaro has neck ‘procedure’ will miss tonight’s game [CSN New England]

Scutaro receives nerve-root injection [CSN New England]

Red Sox prospect Doubront to start vs. Dodgers Friday [CSN New England]

Scutaro injection; updates on Beckett, Dice-K [ESPN Boston]

‘He brought laughter and RBIs’ [ESPN Boston]

Sox, Scutaro are pretty tough team [Extra Bases]

Francona on D&H: Nava’s grand slam ‘only happens in Fenway’ [Full Count]

The Factors – Six Good Weeks! – Part One [Full Count]

Boo Manny? [Hit and Run with Dan Roche]

Don Orsillo returning to NESN booth for series opener vs Diamondbacks [NESN.com]

Red Sox’ new spring training home clears hurdle [Projo Sox Blog]

Scutaro has nerve root injection in neck [Projo Sox Blog]

Matsuzaka progressing, no starter named for Friday [Projo Sox Blog]

Beckett long-toss out to 120 feet [Projo Sox Blog]

Buchholz’s dad helps during highs, lows [RedSox.com]

Pedroia seeking return to All-Star Game [RedSox.com]

Manny and Papi: The myths and magic of once dynamic duo [Rob Bradford – WEEI.com]

With 40% of the season done, the Boston Red Sox find themselves with a 37-28 record and are sitting four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. At this time last year, the Red Sox had a 38-25 record and were in first place over the Yankees by two games.

At some point you have to figure the Yankees and Rays will hit a little lull but with their talent it may not happen. And with the trade deadline just over seven weeks away, you have to figure both teams will be players in the market as well as the Red Sox.

For the most part, the Red Sox have been playing good baseball as of late despite all the injuries they’ve suffered. The catalyst at the top of the lineup, Jacoby Ellsbury, has spent most of the season on the disabled list with the rib injury suffered in the collision with Adrian Beltre. Mike Cameron has battled an abdominal injury all season and Jeremy Hermida is on the DL with a rib injury suffered in a different collision with Beltre.

And that’s not including the pitchers. Currently two starters are on the DL in Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dustin Pedroia had been struggling due to a knee injury, Marco Scutaro’s been battling a neck issue and Kevin Youkilis has had back spasms.

But throughout that, the Red Sox have one of the best records in MLB since May due to the strong starting pitching they’ve gotten. Plus the defense has gotten better and has started to look like what Theo Epstein promised. Even the offense, which by some pundits wasn’t supposed to be strong this year for the Red Sox, has performed.

So what do the Red Sox need to do right now. Just get healthy. A healthy Red Sox team is a team that will give problems to everyone. I would expect the Red Sox to be looking at relief pitchers as we get towards the trade deadline.

Before we go, please take a few moments and vote 25 times for the Red Sox in the AL All-Star voting. Lord knows they need it.

We’ll be back later today with the lineups for tonight’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, batter/pitcher matchups, news and any links from the day.

For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal and WEEI websites.

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UConn Football links

DC’s still answering questions in his mailbag [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

UConn staying put in Big East, guess so [Lee Lewis – The Republican-American]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

UConn to learn from USC process [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

UConn staff hiring process [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Jim Calhoun recognized by Connecticut Bar Association [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Jim Calhoun at Middletown Price Chopper Tuesday [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Meet Roscoe Smith [UConn Huskies Basketball]

UConn men closing in on hires [CT Post]

With the Boston Red Sox taking three players with ties to LSU in the MLB Draft last week, I decided to reach out to Kris over at Saturday Night Slant to get his take on them.

So before we get to Kris’ thoughts on Anthony Ranuado, Garin Cecchini and Lucas LeBlanc, I just like to thank him for him for his time.

In last week’s Major League Baseball amateur draft, the Red Sox selected three players with ties to LSU. I’m glad to help out Sox and Dawgs with my take on these three players.

The first Tiger selected was right hander Anthony Ranaudo who was selected in the first compensation round with the 39th overall pick. Ranaudo enjoyed a dominant sophomore campaign going 12-3 with a 3.04 ERA and 159 strikeouts in 124.1 innings pitched. Following that season, many projected Ranaudo to be a Top five pick in the 2010 draft. He was set to be the rock of LSU’s pitching staff and a team leader. However, 2010 did not go as planned. Very early in the season, Ranaudo complained of elbow soreness in his right elbow. LSU was very cautious with him, working him slowly back into action. However upon his return, he could never regain his 2009 form. Finally at the end of the season, especially in the SEC Tournament, Ranaudo looked like his old self.

Ranaudo is your classic power pitcher. He throws very hard with a fastball in the mid 90s, and he also throws a very nice curve that can be an out pitch. He has struggled at times with his control throughout his career. Standing 6’7″, he often has trouble getting the ball down in the strike zone. He is a rhythm pitcher that really competes on the mound. When he’s in his rhythm, he can be un-hittable. Ranaudo still has the same stuff that caused many to project him as one of the top picks in the draft. It’s just a matter of consistency for him. I think the Red Sox got a tremendous value pick with Ranaudo at #39 overall.

In the fourth round, the Sox selected infielder Garin Cecchini from Barbe High School in Lake Charles, LA. Cecchini has signed a letter of intent to play at LSU. Cecchini is listed in some places as a shortstop, but he projects much better as a corner infielder, probably at third base. He has the power to be a legit corner infield prospect.

He injured his knee this spring and missed several months. Without that injury, he may have been drafted even higher. It sounds like he is going to play summer ball prior to negotiating with Boston, and that might impact what they offer him. It also delays negotiations until August, so they’ll have to come to an agreement quickly. Obviously, my readers hope that Cecchini never suits up for the Red Sox but instead shows up to Baton Rouge this fall. He reportedly has a high asking price but if forced to guess, I’d say that Cecchini will sign.

The Red Sox took another LSU signee in outfielder Lucas Leblanc in the 11th round out of Delgado Community College. The athletic outfielder stands 6’3″ 200 pounds. He hit .420 with 17 doubles, 7 triples, and 11 homers and 67 RBIs in 57 games for Delgado this season. At LSU, Leblanc could slide right into a starting outfield spot if he shows up. At his draft position, most LSU folks consider Leblanc to be a coin flip to sign with Boston.

Unless a major miracle occurs, it’s quite likely that we won’t be seeing any Boston Red Sox players in the starting lineup at the 2010 MLB All-Star Game in Anaheim on July 13th.

With the latest totals coming out today, we only find Dustin Pedroia near the top in voting at second base and he trails Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees by roughly 800,000 votes. Last week, Pedroia trailed Cano by around 568,000 votes.

First baseman Kevin Youkilis is in 4th place and trails leader Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins by roughly 760,000 votes. Third baseman Adrian Beltre is in 4th as well and is around 1.5 million votes behind Evan Longoria. Catcher Victor Martinez is in 3rd but has no chance of catching leader Joe Mauer of the Twins as he is 1.65 million votes behind. Same goes for designated hitter David Ortiz, who sits in 4th, as he trails leader Vladimir Guerrero of the Texas Rangers by 1.2 million votes

None of the Red Sox outfielders are in the top 15 of the voting.

So fans of Red Sox Nation, it’s time to vote Red Sox across the 2010 MLB All-Star Game Ballot. You’re allowed 25 votes per email address so go to yahoo or gmail and make multiple emails up and then vote. Let’s make a push to get at least one Red Sox starter in the All-Star Game.

A full look at the voting totals after the jump.

There was plenty of buzz around Fenway Park on Sunday afternoon especially with Daniel Nava’s historic grand slam on Saturday. And to top it off, the Boston Red Sox were looking for a three-game sweep of the struggling Philadelphia Phillies.

But the Red Sox ran into Cole Hamels who’s had good success against them in his career and earlier this season. Hamels was strong for seven innings as he used his nasty cutter to keep the Red Sox hitters at bay. The only run they were able to get off of Hamels came off the bat of Adrian Beltre, who belted a solo shot into the Green Monster.

This season has been a strange one for Tim Wakefield. He started in the rotation, then was sent to the bullpen, but injuries to Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka have him back in the rotation. For the most part when he’s in the rotation he’s pitched well but when it goes bad for him, it’s usually just one bad inning that does him in.

And that’s exactly what happened to Wake on Sunday afternoon.

Although he allowed the Phillies to load the bases in the 1st inning with no outs, he was able to work himself out of that jam. His problem inning though was the 4th inning when the Phillies broke open the game with four runs.

After striking out Chase Utley, he gave up a double to Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth followed an RBI single. A few moments later, Werth was crossing home plate on a home run off the bat of Raul Ibanez. Another double, this time by Ben Francisco, and an RBI single by Juan Castro followed as the scoreboard now read Phillies 4 Red Sox 1.

The Red Sox rallied for two runs in the 9th but it wasn’t enough as Brad Lidge was able to close it.

And oh by the way, Wakefield joined another exclusive club on Sunday afternoon. With his 7 1/3 innings, he moved past 3,000 innings pitched in his career, making him just the third active pitcher to do it. Jaime Moyer of the Phillies and Andy Pettitte of the New York Yankees are the others.

The Red Sox are off today and return to action tomorrow night when the Arizona Diamondbacks come to the Fens for a three-game set. Clay Buchholz will toe the rubber for the Red Sox and he’ll be opposed by Ian Kennedy.

For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal and WEEI websites.

And if you must check out the enemy papers, head over to the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer websites.