It seems as though Andy Pettitte will be pitching for the Yankees after all in 2008. From the Houston Chronicle:

When reached by telephone this morning, Randy Hendricks, who was in route to Nashville for the start of baseball’s winter meetings today, confirmed that he has advised the Yankees that Pettitte will play for them in 2008.

“Many teammates have called urging Andy to return as well as manager Joe Girardi,” Hendricks said. “It’s well known that the Yankees have publicly stated that they were ready for Andy when Andy was ready.”

What does this mean for the Yankees in their pursuit of Johan Santana? Will it change their stance on him or will Hank Steinbrenner stick to his guns and pull the offer today?

Only time will tell the answers to those questions.

It was a crazy Sunday on “As The Santana Turns”, so let’s recap all the day’s actions.

Earlier on Sunday afternoon, Steve posted some information from Buster Olney that the Red Sox had decided to include Jacoby Ellsbury in the Johan Santana sweepstakes.

With the Minnesota Twins insisting on center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury in any trade for pitcher Johan Santana, the Red Sox have altered their offer and have told the Twins they are willing to include the outfielder.

But sources say the Red Sox have also told the Twins they will not trade left-handed pitcher Jon Lester and Ellsbury together in the package they are offering.

Keep in mind folks, that if Ellsbury is included in the deal, then the Sox will pull Coco Crisp from the deal because they will need a center fielder next year. Plus, you won’t see Clay Buchholz in the deal either if Lester or Ellsbury is included.Then Dan Roche of WBZ-TV in Boston confirmed the report that the Sox had indeed included Ellsbury.

The Red Sox have now made outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury the “centerpiece” of their trade offer to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for star pitcher Johan Santana.

The Sox had been reluctant to include the talented centerfielder in a deal, but have now done so after the Yankees reportedly upped the “ante” on their offer by including prize pitcher Phil Hughes.

Next up is a report from Ken Rosenthal at FOXSports.com stating that Santana won’t waive his no-trade clause during the season.

According to major-league sources, Santana has informed the Twins that he would not waive his no-trade clause during the season, ending any chance that he could be moved before the July 31 non-waiver deadline.

It is in Santana’s interest to be traded now because he will require a monster contract to approve a deal. It is expected that the contract would be at least six years and $120 million, and rather than enter the season with the risk of injury, he would prefer the deal to be struck as soon as possible.

More As The Santana Turns after the jump.

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All of the bowl matchups are set for the 2007-08 bowl season.

With Missouri and West Virginia going down last night, obviously they aren’t going to be playing for the National Championship. That honor goes to LSU and Ohio State as they will vie for the title in New Orleans on January 7th, 2008 in the Allstate BCS Championship Game. The rest of the BCS matchups are as follows.

January 1st – Rose Bowl – Illinois vs USC

January 1st – Sugar Bowl – Hawai’i vs Georgia

January 2nd – Fiesta Bowl – Oklahoma vs West Virginia

January 3rd – Orange Bowl – VA Tech vs Kansas

As for me, my favorite team, the UConn Huskies are heading down to Charlotte, NC to take on Wake Forest in the Meineke Car Care Bowl on December 29th. If you are interested in knowing where you’re favorite team is playing, you can click here.

Steve reported earlier today that UConn head coach Randy Edsall has withdrawn his name for the vacant Georgia Tech head coach position and has decided to stay at UConn.

“I announced today at the football banquet, that I’m staying here at the University of Connecticut. I’ll stay here as long as they’d like me to stay. I talked to Jeff (Hathaway). Jeff and Gary O’Hagen and Matt Baldwin, my representation over at IMG, will be getting together to hammer out a contract. It was based on my own family, my son, my wife and my daughter and considerations in terms of my family there and also considerations of my football family, most especially the players here in the program now at the University of Connecticut, and to understand that there’s still quite a bit of work to be done, and I want to continue to do that. We’re working very hard to accomplish that today, even now as I speak.”

The final rankings came out today as well. UConn finished in the others receiving votes category in both the AP and USA Today Poll but did finish 25th in the BCS Standings. This is a huge accomplishment for the Huskies considering they didn’t play this past weekend. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they are the Big East Co-Champions by virtue of West Virginia losing to Pittsburgh last night.

I will have a full recap of UConn football news tomorrow but the final rankings will be available after the jump.

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The Boston Celtics struggled through a listless Sunday afternoon game and beat the Cleveland Cavaliers minus an injured Lebron James 80-70 at the TD BankNorth Garden.The Celtics were led by Ray Allen who had 20 points and Rajon Rondo who chipped in 12. The defending Eastern Conference champs got a double-double each from Zydrunas Ilgauskas who had 12 points and 13 boards and Drew Gooden who had 10 points and 11 rebounds in a losing cause.

The C’s had built up a 21 point lead, 77-56 with 5 minutes left, but with subs on the floor Cleveland chipped away but never threatened.

Boston rookie Glen Davis, who is quickly becoming a fan favorite, played 21 minutes before fouling out with 9 points and 7 rebounds. Former UConn Husky Donyell Marshall did not play for the Cavs. He is still nursing a wrist injury.

The Green improved to a NBA-best 14-2 by beating one of the teams they lost to. The Cavs who were without James for the second game in a row dropped to 9-9.

The Celtics are off until Wednesday when they play the 76ers in Philly.

According to sources with knowledge of the Johan Santana trade talks the Boston Red Sox have made an offer that includes prized outfield prospect Jacoby Ellsbury and removes lefty starter Jon Lester as they pursue the two time Cy Young Award winner.

Ellsbury was part of one of the earlier trade proposals with the Twins asking for two players among the group of three prospects — Ellsbury, Lester and pitcher Clay Buchholz. Boston countered with the offer we have all become familiar with of Lester, center fielder Coco Crisp, minor league shortstop Jed Lowrie and a minor league pitcher, possibly Michael Bowden.

The Twins though continued to request Ellsbury over the last week as part of the package and the Sox have seemingly relented. They have also modified the offer to possibly include pitcher Justin Masterson but not Crisp.

UConn head coach Randy Edsall has informed the university and his players that he is staying at UConn “as long as you’ll have me”.

Edsall was considered a candidate for the vacant Georgia Tech job after head coach Chan Gailey was fired last Monday. Edsall informed the team of his decision at the annual banquet on Sunday afternoon.

The Huskies (9-3; 5-2) are heading to the Meineke Car Care Bowl on Dec. 29 in Charlotte, N.C. as Big East Co-Champions. It will be UConn’s second trip to a bowl. The 2004 team won the Motor City Bowl.

Rather than do two separate posts about the latest Johan Santana news and other Red Sox news, I will combine the two again because the Johan talks have heated up with both the New York Yankees and the Red Sox.

We now know the Yankees have upped the ante by adding Phillip Hughes into the mix. Now they have told the Twins that the following five prospects are untouchable: Dellin Betances, Alan Horne, Austin Jackson, Ian Kennedy and José Tabata. The Twins may still want Kennedy and Horne and/or Jackson to be included in the deal.

With the Yankees adding Hughes to the mix, it was thought that they could be the favorites to land Santana unless the Red Sox would offer up Clay Buchholz or Jacoby Ellsbury. So far that hasn’t happened although according to some reports, the Red Sox may have made some changes to their offer to the Twins.

The Twins could decide not to trade Santana and wait til the trade deadline or let him go at the end of the year in free agency. I highly doubt the latter would happen as I am sure the Twins would want to be compensated for losing Santana. Plus they are moving into a new ballpark in 2010 and would want the best team possible on the field when they do open the stadium.

As I mentioned briefly yesterday, Mike Timlin is back with the Red Sox in 2008. The deal is a 1-year deal for $3 million. The Red Sox also offered Eric Gagné arbitration although he doesn’t have to accept it. He wants to go back to closing and obviously we have some guy named Jonathan Papelbon closing for us. However if the market isn’t there for him, he could accept the arbitration and be a setup guy for the Sox in 2008 *gulp*.

They did not offer Doug Mirabelli, Eric Hinkse, Matt Clement and Bobby Kielty arbitration. The Red Sox are still talking with Mirabelli and Kielty. However Kielty won’t be with the Red Sox if Coco Crisp isn’t traded unless the Sox did decide to trade Ellsbury to the Twins and they ultimately accepted. I don’t see the Sox including Ellsbury.

The Red Sox also signed Jon Van Every to a 1-year contract and added him to the 40-man roster.The roster actually now stands at 38 players.

Now with the teams and their representatives flying into Nashville today for the Winter Meetings, you can definitely expect Twins GM Bill Smith to be very busy with Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman. While I thought a deal might get done before the end of the meetings, I am thinking it may not happen because the Twins are being adamant on who they want to be included in the deal.

All talk, no action, on Santana front [Boston Herald]

Twins Look for Yanks to Up Ante for Santana [New York Times]

For Sox, winter is when they try to stock up again [Boston Globe]

Hold on — Santana won’t be moved easily, if at all [Star Tribune]

Meetings could bring Santana, Twins full circle [Pro Jo]

Johan need favors NY [Boston Herald]

Minnesota Twins GM Bill Smith isn’t worried about public opinion [Pioneer Press]

Sox offer deals to Timlin, Gagne [Pro Jo]

Baseball’s winter meetings: Big deals brewing [Star Tribune]

Here is a look how the former UConn players fared in last week’s play in the NBA.

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Gonzaga’s Austin Daye hit 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch as A.J. Price’s 3-point shot rolled out at the buzzer giving the Bulldogs a hard fought 85-82 win over UConn in The Hartford Hall of Fame Showcase at the TD Bank North Garden in Boston on Saturday afternoon.

The Huskies (5-2) were led by Price who tied his career high with 24 points. Jerome Dyson scored 19 points while Jeff Adrien had 15 points and 9 rebounds. Stanley Robinson rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 11 points.

The victorious Bulldogs (7-1) were paced by Jeremy Pargo’s 23 points. Matt Bouldin chipped in with 19 points while Micah Downs added 14 points. David Pendergraft added 10 points for Gonzaga.

UConn started out shooting the ball very well as they got out to leads of 13-3 and 24-14 before Gonzaga battled back. Gonzaga made it’s comeback when Price and Hasheem Thabeet both picked up their second foul. A Pendergraft 3-pointer with 1 second left in the first half gave the Bulldogs a 45-44 lead.

The teams traded baskets in the second half before UConn pulled ahead by 4 with just over 6 minutes left to play in the. Bouldin scored the next 9 points for Gonzaga. The lead would change four more times down the stretch but in the end it was Gonzaga who had the lead and made their free throws to hold off the Huskies.

UConn is off until Thursday when they face Northeastern at Gampel Pavilion at 7:30 PM. After that, UConn will be off for final exams.

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