We all know Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia will do whatever it takes to win. So this report from Peter Gammons of ESPN.com should come as no surprise to anyone.

According to Gammons, the Red Sox have broached the idea of Pedroia moving over to shortstop for at least next year. The move would allow them to pursue a free agent second baseman that wouldn’t cost them a draft pick.

“They’ve asked me if I think I could play shortstop,” Pedroia says. “They’ve put it out there and I’ve told them I’m all for it. I can do it. I can’t wait for Tito [Terry Francona] to call me and ask, ‘Can you do it?’ I can do it. I really want to do it.”

“When the idea of moving back to shortstop was floated to me, I welcomed it,” Pedroia says. “I’m excited. Tell Derek [Jeter] to enjoy the gold glove and silver slugger awards while he can. Obviously, I’m not serious about the fun I have with Derek, but I’m never stopping believing in the goal. I believe I can play shortstop and help get the Red Sox back where they belong.”

Gammons says the Red Sox could pursue free agent Orlando Hudson or make a trade for Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips. Hudson is a Type A free agent and has won the NL Gold Glove at second two of the past three years (2007, 2009). Phillips won the NL Gold Glove in 2008.

Offensively for the Dodgers in a 149 games last season, Hudson hit .283 with 9 home runs and 62 RBIs. He’s a career .282 hitter averaging 12 home runs and 69 RBIs a season.

In 153 games for the Reds in 2009, Phillips hit .276 with 20 home runs, 98 RBIs and 25 stolen bases. He’s a career  .265 hitter averaging 21 home runs, 84 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. He is owed $17.75 million over the final two years of his contract.

If this is going to help the Red Sox then I’m all for it. I’ve got the utmost faith in Pedroia and I’m sure the Red Sox do too.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have asked him if he was interested in doing so.

UConn Football links

Season Finale Also Military And Veterans Appreciation Night [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Big East power rankings, Week 14 [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

‘There are no points for second place’ [Neill Ostrout – Connecticut Post]

The Photo UConn Fans Thought They Would Never See [Thoughts From a Fat White Guy]

Big East notebook: Pitt, Cincinnati to battle for bid [Connecticut Post]

Cincy’s BCS Hopes Hinge On Nebraska [Hartford Courant]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Huskies Rewind [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

2010 Women’s Basketball Championship Tickets on Sale Tuesday, December 1 [BigEast.org]

UConn Defense Impresses Even Auriemma [Hartford Courant]

As we heard earlier in the offseason, the Boston Red Sox have put Mike Lowell on the trade block. It’s more of a let’s see what kind of market there is for him thing than anything else at this point.

According to Jon Heyman of SI.com, the Philadelphia Phillies have had brief talks with the Red Sox about Lowell.

If the Red Sox were to trade Lowell then it most certainly seems they would make a trade for a first baseman with Kevin Youkilis shifting over to third.

You’ll remember that after the 2007 season, Lowell was very close to signing with the Phillies before accepting a 3 year deal to stay in Boston. I’d hate to see Lowell go but if a trade is going to help the Red Sox win and get a big bat in the process by all means go for it.

After all baseball is a business, isn’t it?

When I first saw the pre-Thanksgiving report that the Boston Red Sox were putting on the full court press of Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay, all I could say is why.

You have a potential rotation of Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz and Tim Wakefield in 2010. Of course if the Red Sox did trade for Halladay obviously Buchholz would be a center piece and no longer in the rotation.

But the question remains, do the Red Sox really need Halladay?

They can use him sure but what happens if the Red Sox lose Jason Bay to free agency. They’d be losing a power bat in the middle of their lineup. Wouldn’t you rather use Buchholz and the other prospects you’re going to give up for a bat such as Adrian Gonzalez of the San Diego Padres or even Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers.

The Red Sox could go after Matt Holliday in free agency to replace Bay should he sign elsewhere. But they would need to hope that Holliday would replicate his NL numbers and not the ones he put up his brief stay in the AL with the Oakland A’s.

If the Red Sox did get Holliday or even got Bay back, they could seemingly step up their pursuit of Halladay and bolster their rotation. But is that really the answer?

Even if they couldn’t get Gonzalez this season from the Padres, there’s the potential of going after him after the 2010 season. With former Red Sox assistant GM Jed Hoyer in San Diego now, he’s going to now what he wants and if you trade for Halladay, you’re losing valuable poker chips.

But we live in the now and the Red Sox want to win in 2010 which means that a trade for Halladay could happen. But let’s hope that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein makes sure the other parts of the puzzle are fixed first before losing some pieces.

Since 2004, the Boston Red Sox have used 19 different players at shortstop. It’s been a dark spot of sorts for them especially since the trade of Nomar Garciaparra.

Look we know the trade of Nomar ended up helping us win the 2004 World Series but you can definitely say shortstop hasn’t been the same since with the exception of 2006 and the latter part of 2009 (Alex Gonzalez). Rather than shore up the position with Gonzo, they let him go via free agency.

And now that he has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, the Red Sox have even more limited options at shortstop.

The flavor of the day remains Blue Jays free agent shortstop Marco Scutaro. The problem is that he is 34 and also is a Type A free agent. If he is offered arbitration by the Blue Jays, the Red Sox would have to give up their first round draft pick.

There has been conflicting reports on whether the Blue Jays would offer Scutaro arbitration by the midnight deadline tonight. The latest one though is that they would in fact offer Scutaro arbitration so if he declines and signs elsewhere, they would get two draft picks.

The Blue Jays would  be stupid not to offer him arbitration even with Gonzo signed and John McDonald re-signed as well. If he accepts it, they’ll find a role for him and if he doesn’t, they get two picks to build up their farm system.

So if he is offered arbitration and declines, is he worth a draft pick to the Red Sox?

Right now, he’s pretty much their only option. They could rest their laurels on Jed Lowrie coming back healthy but that doesn’t seem likely considering they’d have no real option at short should he get hurt or not recover fully from his wrist injuy.

There was a report in the  New York Daily News yesterday that the Red Sox were talking to the Florida Marlins about Hanley Ramirez. But according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, that rumor was quickly put to bed.

My best guess is that we’ll see Scutaro donning a Red Sox uniform for at least a year, maybe two until Jose Iglesias is ready to take over at the major league level.

And oh by the way, the Red Sox could have had Gonzalez back if they didn’t tell him their $3 million offer would be offered after the winter meetings if they couldn’t find a better option.

One week after being named the Big East Player of the Week in women’s basketball, UConn Huskies senior center Tina Charles was named to the Big East Honor Roll for her efforts in the WBCA Classic held over the weekend at Gampel Pavilion.

Charles, who was named MVP of the tournament, averaged 16.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2 blocks in the wins over Hofstra, Richmond and Clemson. Charles shot 61.8% from the floor as well.’

The Huskies, who are in the middle of a seven game homestand, return to action on Thursday night when the Vermont Catamounts come to Gampel Pavilion.

Sometimes I really wonder who votes on this stuff. I mean seriously how is making 17 tackles not good enough for Big East Defensive Player of the Week Honors.

UConn Huskies linebacker Lawrence Wilson, who is the leading tackler in the Big East East,  was named to the Big East Honor Roll for his efforts this past weekend.

In the 56-31 win over the Syracuse Orange, Wilson made 17 tackles and also had a sack.

On the season for the Huskies, Wilson has made 130 tackles, including 10 for a loss and has four sacks. He’s also forced two fumbles and recovered two as well.

And on another note while I’m ranting, how is the three touchdown effort by UConn running back Andre Dixon not good enough for the Honor Roll? Or even the kickoff return for a touchdown by Michael Lang?

UConn Football links

Sunday brings good and bad news [Chuck Banning – The Day]

Do You (SU Fan) Think Edsall Ran Up Score? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Big East bowl projections [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

Week 13 review/Week 14 preview [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

UConn linebacker Lloyd out for the season [Connecticut Post]

Huskies Lose Lloyd To Knee Injury [Hartford Courant]

UConn’s Lloyd out for rest of season [New Haven Register]

Third time … and still charming [The Day]

Huskies deserve to go bowling [The Republican-American]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

WBCA Classic, a look back [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Video: Post Game Interviews Following UConn’s Victory Over Clemson [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Video: John Altavilla On Sunday’s Victory Over Clemson [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Illness Limits Doty [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

UConn women roll to WBCA Classic title [Connecticut Post]

UConn Women Rout Clemson, Win WBCA Classic [Hartford Courant]

Huskies Still Thriving [Hartford Courant]

Extras … [Hartford Courant]

Greene, Huskies run over Tigers [New Haven Register]

Going Greene [The Day]

UConn women race through another tournament [The Republican-American]

Kalana Greene was never a fan of the Clemson Tigers growing up in South Carolina during her formative years. Maybe that’s why she had the best scoring game of her career on Sunday afternoon.

The fifth-year senior from St. Stephen, SC led the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team with 28 points as they went on to beat the Tigers 87-48 in front of 8,735 at Gampel Pavilion to take home the WBCA Classic Championship.

UConn, who went 3-0 in the tournament, is now 6-0 on the season and has won 45 straight games dating back to the loss to Stanford in the National Semifinals in 2008. It’s the thirteenth straight in-season tournament title for the Huskies. Clemson finished the tournament at 1-2 and is now 4-3.

The Richmond Spiders ended up going 2-1 while the Hofstra Pride were 0-3 in the three day round-robin tournament at Gampel.

Greene also finished the game with a season-high 8 rebounds and 4 steals. Tina Charles had 20 points, all in the first half and added 9 rebounds. Maya Moore had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks while Kelly Faris pulled down 7 rebounds and had a career-high 5 assists.

Caroline Doty found herself relegated to the bench for most of the second half after taking an ill-advised shot and had just 2 points in ten minutes.

Charles was named the MVP of the WBCA Classic while Moore, Greene and Tiffany Hayes were named to the All-Tournament Team. Lele Hardy of Clemson and Brittani Shells of Richmond were also named to the team.

Hardy led the Tigers with 17 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Lindsay Welker, who had scored 10 points in the first six games for Clemson, had 11 points.

For the first time all season, the Huskies found themselves trailing as Welker’s layup gave the Tigers a 5-4 lead. They held lead for a total of 2 minutes and 38 seconds until Charles hit two free throws to put UConn up 10-9.

With the score at 14-11, the Huskies used an 8-0 run to push the lead to 11. They then used an 11-0 run with the score 31-21 to push the lead to 21 points and would go into the locker room with a 27 point lead at 54-27.

Amazingly enough, UConn didn’t make a three pointer in the first half. They only made two all game and Greene started the second half with one and they never looked back. It didn’t really matter though as they had 62 points in the paint.

Honestly, it wasn’t UConn’s best effort as they looked a little sluggish on the offensive end at times. Defensively though, they were once again relentless as they forced 28 Clemson turnovers that they turned into 25 points.

The Huskies return to action on Thursday night when they will host the Vermont Catamounts at 7:30 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion. The game will be broadcast locally on CPTV.

The young UConn Huskies defense suffered a big blow on Sunday afternoon when head coach Randy Edsall announced during a teleconference with the local media that middle linebacker Greg Lloyd, Jr. was lost for the season.

Lloyd tore his ACL and MCL while blitzing in the fourth quarter of UConn’s 56-31 win over Syracuse on Saturday afternoon at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, CT.

“You won’t see him in the spring,” UConn Coach Randy Edsall said. “He won’t be ready for the spring. I would hope that he would be ready in August. We’ll know more when they go in and perform the surgery. He was blitzing and his leg was in the ground and a guy got him right there. It was nothing dirty. His leg was in the ground, he got turned and cut.”

The junior linebacker from Clermont, Florida, who had a monster hit in the win over Notre Dame, is second on the Huskies with 91 tackles behind Lawrence Wilson’s 130. He also has one sack this year.