Good news. Buster can now deliver a Valentine’s Day gift pack to your friend or loved one!

We’ve put the auction up on eBay (bid here), with all proceeds going to BlueClaws Charities.

From the eBay page:

This Valentine’s Day, have the BlueClaws’ mascot, BUSTER, personally deliver a Valentine’s Gift Package to that special someone in your life. Now is the chance to bid on this unique experience and have a Valentine’s Day to remember!

Whether it’s at home, work, or school, Buster can deliver to any site within a 25 mile radius of FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood. Buster’s appearance time is available for either February, 12th, 13th, or 14th, and at the time of your choice. The winner of the auction will be contacted shortly thereafter.

Included in the Valentine’s Gift Package:

* Box of Chocolates
* Dozen Roses
* Personalized Valentine’s Day Card
* BlueClaws T-shirt (S, M, L, XL, or XXL)
* Ticket Voucher for two seats to any 2010 Regular Season Home BlueClaws Game

Three former BlueClaws were ranked among MLB’s top 50 prospects announced tonight on MLB Network. Below, find snippets of the comments on each of the players and a link to a brief video.

• 14. Domonic Brown (2008)…“He has the potential to be a five-tool player. He’s unique in size alone. When you talk about athleticism, you usually don’t talk about somebody 6-foot-5 in our sport, but he truly has the size, the leverage and the athleticism to make him unique.” – Phillies assistant GM, Chuck LaMar.
• 17. Kyle Drabek (2007)…Now with Toronto…Drabek has a very good fastball that sits in the low 90s and has touched 95-96 mph. He’s got one of the best curve balls in the Minor Leagues, a true plus pitch that he commands well. The changeup lags behind, but has the chance to be a very effective pitch, as well. He’s a bulldog on the mound, a real competitor. He’s matured a lot since being drafted, with the year off allowing him the time and space to grow up, and it’s been reflected in his pitching.
• 35. Michael Taylor (2008)…Now with Oakland…“Michael Taylor is an impressive physical specimen. Brute strength, athletic, pure hitting instincts, baserunning ability and solid defensive acumen. His skill level in a perfect world would be equivalent to a right-handed hitting Dave Parker.” – A’s director of player personnel, Billy Owens

Here is the full top 50. Phillipe Aumont, by the way, a big reliever acquired by the Phillies in the Lee deal, was ranked 48th. More on this list in the coming days. But it’s always good to get a ranking, and thus a perspective.

We’re not surprised with any of these rankings by the way. The Phillies obviously had a higher grade on Brown than Taylor. So did Baseball America, who ranked Brown first in the system the last two years. So that MLB.com does is not a shock at all. Who would be next? Travis d’Arnaud? Anthony Gose? Trevor May? Safe to say that those three have a good chance to fall somewhere in a top 100 list.

Of note…before the Halladay/Lee deals, the Phillies had three of the top 35. Only Texas and Tampa Bay could say that. This is important to note, showing the quality of player that the Phillies are producing in their system.

Also, I think tomorrow the Baseball America Prospect Handbook will arrive. That’s when you know you’re close to baseball.

Welcome to our first edition of Countdown 2010, a c

ollection of top ten lists as we lead into the 10th season in BlueClaws history.

We start with entertainers. These great folks have joined us throughout our first nine years and put on some great shows like those that you’ll see below in these YouTube videos. We hope you enjoy (note: these lists were voted on by us and you).

And then don’t forget to check back next week for our next top ten list. We’ll have one per week leading into Opening Day 2010.

Without further adieu:

10. Reggy

(more…)

Good news for the hundreds of minor league baseball players that travel thousands of miles on a bus each summer. A per diem boost. They’ll get $25 per day this year after getting $20 for the last few years. The move was approved last week by MLB owners, and reported by the Wall Street Journal.

That may seem like a decent amount. But remember, the players have to play clubhouse dues, which are usually at least $10 per day (they were around $14 in the Pacific Coast League). Throw in a tip, that’s $15 or $16 of the $20 in the PCL (the dues are lower in the lower leagues). That doesn’t leave that much for a quality lunch.

By the way, figuring 70 road games, a 30 person traveling party (including coaches and training staff), and six teams in a minor league system, you’re looking at, give or take, an extra $63,000 in per diem paid by the big league organizations this year.

Big leaguers, mind you, get $89.50 per day (which is roughly $7,250 per year just on the 81 road games, not including travel days, ie leaving on a Wednesday off day for a series that begins on Thursday). Of course, their clubhouse dues are much higher.

According to this story, players usually give the big league clubbies $40-50 per day. From the story:

Former Indians ace Sam McDowell recalled that in 1962, his first full season in the majors, he made $6,000 and was given $9 a day in meal money. That was when a guy could order cereal with fruit and a cup of coffee for a buck at the team hotel, which he usually did.

“Back then, it almost lasted each day,” McDowell said. “A big dinner for me was $6 or $7 with a dollar tip.”

Baseball’s per diem had climbed to $19.50 when Tribe center fielder Rick Manning made the club in 1975, and reached about $40 by the time he retired in 1987. The allowance has more than doubled again since, but that’s not all that’s changed, foodwise. When he played, postgame clubhouse meals consisted of boxes of pizza and buckets of fried chicken.

“You go into a clubhouse now,” the Indians broadcaster said, “the spreads they put out are just like restaurants.”

One recent postgame menu posted in the visitors’ clubhouse at Progressive Field featured grilled pork chops with hunter sauce, roasted salmon with maple bourbon glaze and ginger-smoked chicken in lemon thyme jus.

With just 22 days left until pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel met the media today at Citizens Bank Park and let everyone know “We owe the Yankees one.”

Some other selected snippets from the skipper…

Of course, it would have been nice to have Halladay, Lee, Hamels, I’d be looking good. I might be buying more expensive furniture than me and the missus have been buying lately.

I haven’t talked to him at all. I left him a message at Christmas and told him he didn’t have to call back if he was caught up in things. I don’t need to talk to Haladay. I’m just going to give him the ball every five days and tell him to go get them … He likes to pitch. He likes to throw his game. He’s my kind of pitcher.

Lidge and Madson are mentally tough guys. They are not going to go to the trainer or the doctor. That makes me feel good. Both of them can pitch two innings and they will take the ball wherever I want to give it to them.

JA Happ should feel real good about himself. He sits right there in the rotation. He’s going to pitch on a regular basis. He has to pitch himself out of that. He will have to hold his own … Last season was not a fluke. He was a big reason why we got there and won some games. He’s going to be a big part of our rotation.

I’ve always told Hamels, ‘I used to tell you to throw more curveballs. You used to get by’ … I didn’t really push him. If he gets more consistent, he’ll get lefthanded hitters out better. That will make his changeup and his fastball better when he comes inside. Lefthanded hitters have good success off him. That’s one of the big things about his pitching. The big thing is he has to improve his curveball. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s his curveball or if he comes up with a slider.

For the full transcript, click here (David Murphy’s High Cheese blog).

2005-2006 BlueClaw Greg Golson has been acquired by the Yankees from Texas in exchange for Hi-A IF Mitch Hilligoss. This is the second time 14 months Golson has been traded, as the Phillies sent him to Texas last winter for John Mayberry Jr.

Golson hit .264-4-27 with Lakewood in 2005 and .220/7/31 with Lakewood in ’06 before being sent to Clearwater. He was drafted out of high school in Austin, TX 21st overall in 2004.

Hilligoss, you may remember, had a 38-game hitting streak with Charleston in 2007 (of note on that page is that Joe DiMaggio has the second longest hitting streak in Minor League Baseball history in addition to his 56-game big league hitting streak).

You can read a Q&A with Golson from the Washington Times (from 2008) here. I liked his answer to the question “What is your favorite part of the game.” I’d have to say defense, because you can really impact a game, where people will remember stuff. If you hit a double, someone might remember it for a couple days, but if you make a great catch that saves the game, people remember that for a long time. It’s something that’s kind of lost in the game now, I feel like – people don’t really appreciate defense as much as offense.

Golson made his Phillies debut in 2008, becoming the 23rd former BlueClaw to reach the big leagues. He’d be the first to play for the Yankees. He’s likely Brett Gardner insurance.