We’re inside of two months away from Opening Day so we’ll start taking a look at some potential 2010 BlueClaws. First up, Sebastian Valle…

Up, down, and back up for Valle in 2009. He began the year in Lakewood, hitting .217-1-15 in the first half, went to Williamsport to play for the Crosscutters, where he hit .307-6-40 in the NY-Penn League, and then finished the season with the BlueClaws.

Why did he struggle in Lakewood? Competition or playing time? Probably a bit of both. First, he was just 18 (turned 19 in July) and in this country for the second year. But don’t underestimate playing time.

• In the first half, he was in the lineup four-five days a week and catching only one or two behind Travis d’Arnaud.
• In the second half (when he was with Williamsport), he was playing and catching every day.

Valle had an outstanding winter, hitting 11 home runs in just 160 at bats in the Mexican Winter League, and he is now (after d’Arnaud was traded) the top catching prospect in the system.

Farm director Steve Noworyta on Valle from a recent ClawCast:

He’s probably better off going to Lakewood to make sure that what we saw at the end of the year is what we’ll see going forward. He had some nice power numbers in Mexico for a young player. We say Lakewood now, but sometimes those types of players change your mind in Spring Training. He came back and did what we expected, but we want to make sure it’s that way going forward.

Valle was ranked 31st in the system by Baseball America headed into 2009, and is now ranked 7th. He’s got a big bat, especially if they can keep him behind the plate. I would figure he’s the Opening Day catcher in Lakewood this year.

Changed it up a little on Facebook…we had (and still have for now) a page where you would be the BlueClaws friend. But we’re switching it up…I created a new Fan Page this morning, so if you wouldn’t mind, head over and be a fan of the Lakewood BlueClaws (click here).

Thanks.

To Ocean Twp Elementary School. Proceeds from the eBay auction went to BlueClaws Charities.

On the left, if we had a Thirsty Thursday today (yes I realize it’s Friday)…and what we’ll have soon on the right:

Some Thirsty Thursday promos this year…

• 5/6: replica SAL Championship Banners
• 5/20: BlueClaws cap giveaway / Rutgers Alumni Night with Jeremy Ito
• 6/17: Soccer Night with World Cup Jersey Auction
• 7/1: 2009 Hall of Fame inductee Andre Dawson autograph signing
• 7/22: Dusty Wathan SAL Championship Trophy bobblehead giveaway
• 7/29: The Goonies 25th Anniversary Celebration and jersey auction
• 8/19: Miles Austin Monmouth University bobblehead giveaway
• 9/2: The Famous Chicken

Click here for an order form to join the Thirsty Thursday Club, and click here to see the t-shirts you’ll get as a club member (which includes ten GA tickets to Thursday home games, the t-shirt, membership card, drink specials on non-Thursday nights, and a special section in the WRAT Trap exclusive to club members).

Below, the list of all of the former BlueClaws (16 in total) that will participate in big league spring training with the Phillies beginning next week (pitchers and catchers report on February 17th.

Non-roster invitees

• RHP BJ Rosenberg (2009): the closer for the majority of the 2009 season, he was promoted straight to Double-A Reading in August
• C Tuffy Gosewisch (2007): a catcher for the majority of 2007, Gosewisch ended 2009 with Triple-A Lehigh Valley and will have a chance to make his big league debut in 2010
• SS Freddy Galvis (2008): one of the best defensive players in all of Minor League Baseball, Galvis was promoted to Reading to end the 2009 season. He is ranked as the 13th best player in the system according to Baseball America
• OF Domonic Brown (2008): the top ranked prospect in the system and one of the top ranked prospects in all of baseball. He finished 2009 with Double-A Reading

On the 40-man roster

• LHP Antonio Bastardo (2007): went 9-0 with the BlueClaws in 2007 and was on the Phillies roster in all three rounds of the 2009 post-season
• LHP Sergio Escalona (2007-08): spent parts of two seasons in Lakewood and made the jump from Reading to the big leagues in 2009
• LHP Cole Hamels (2003): had a 0.84 ERA with the BlueClaws in 2003 and won the MVP of the 2008 World Series
• LHP JA Happ (2005): Won 12 games in his rookie season last year in being named the Sporting News Rookie of the Year
• RHP Kyle Kendrick (2004-06): spent parts of three years with the BlueClaws before breaking through and into the big leagues during the 2007 season. He is 24-14 over three years with the Phillies
• Scott Mathieson (2004): trying to make team after having third major surgery including two Tommy John surgeries in recent years. Pitched in the 2009 Arizona Fall League
• RHP Drew Naylor (2008): spent 2008 in Lakewood and 2009 in Clearwater, where he went 8-11
• RHP Jesus Sanchez (2009): converted catcher went 10-6 as a pitcher for the BlueClaws during the 2009 championship season
• LHP Mike Zagurski (2006): popular member of the 2006 championship team in Lakewood, he is recovering from Tommy John surgery and pitched for Reading last year
• C Carlos Ruiz (2001): an original BlueClaw, he is the only player left from the 2001 BlueClaws still with the Phillies. Has been the starting catcher on two World Series teams
• 1B Ryan Howard (2002): hit 19 home runs for the 2002 BlueClaws, won Rookie of the Year in 2005 and NL MVP in 2006. He was the first former BlueClaw to appear in the Major Leagues
• OF Quintin Berry (2007): speedster has stolen over 150 bases the last three years and was added to the 40-man roster in November

If you wanted to learn some job fair tips in advance of Saturday (9 am), click here.

Big day. It might be snowing outside but we’ve announced the bobblehead dolls to be given away in 2010! As follows:

• July 20th: Paint-your-own Clawd bobblehead (St. Barnabas Healthcare System)…you’ll get a bobblehead in the shape of Clawd and a paint kit. Then it’s all yours!
• July 22nd: Dusty Wathan SAL Championship bobblehead (RE/MAX of New Jersey)…he’ll be holding the SAL Championship Trophy
• August 19th: Miles Austin (in his Monmouth uniform)…the Jersey native and Monmouth Hawk gets his bobblehead on Monmouth University night
• September 4th: Buster…The first and last bobblehead of the first decade of BlueClaws baseball

Looking forward to those, no question.

Dusty Wathan on his bobblehead: It’s my first one. I’m excited. Just make sure they don’t make me too fat.

What is Buster doing today that the BlueClaws offices are closed? Probably something like this:

We speculated here that former Yankee Chien-Ming Wang might be a good fit for the Phillies. But according to this tweet from Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe, he is going to Washington.

Chien-Ming Wang has decided on#Nationals. Deal close to being completed. He could be in rotation by May.

No word on money yet but as the offseason progressed and the Phillies made it clear $140 million was their limit, they were probably priced out (if they were even interested, we were just speculating).

10:38: Jon Heyman just tweeted:

what i’m hearing on chien-ming wang is that he’s going to decide between #nats and 1 other team within 10 days.

Welcome to our second edition ofCountdown 2010, a collection of top ten lists as we lead into the 10th season in BlueClaws history.

Previously: entertainers, bobblehead dolls

Today: top ten celebrity visitors over our first nine years. These include formal attendees (autograph signings primarily) or those that came on the field for something, rehabs not included.

10. Tony Meola:  I always enjoyed Tony Meola. He was at FirstEnergy Park in 2008 for Soccer Night and hit a few home runs for charity. Below is a promotional video he filmed in regards to that appearance.

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That’s all we do here, bring in Hall of Famers. Last night, for those of you that missed WWE’s Monday Night Raw, Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man, was announced as a part of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010. He will be inducted at Wrestlemania (March 27th in Phoenix).

BlueClaws connection: The Million Dollar Man will be joining us here at FirstEnergy Park on June 19th for a special autograph signing.

Of course, as we’ve noted here before, Andre Dawson, who will be inducted this summer into the Baseball Hall of Fame, will also be joining us here at FirstEnergy Park. That’s 2-2. Anyone else looking to make their Hall of Fame? Give us a ring.

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Hall of Fame tally…on the baseball side, we’ve brought in the following: Steve Carlton, Bob Feller, Goose Gossage, Jim Rice.

And on the wrestling side, the following Hall of Famers have been at BlueClaws games: Sgt Slaughter, George “The Animal” Steele, and now the Million Dollar Man.

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Enjoy the Million Dollar Man theme song:

As you know, we have some snow on the ground here at the Jersey Shore. And as you know, more is on the way. So what does this mean to you? It means you have the chance to have some fun and win some prizes.

The BlueClaws will be having a Snowman Contest. Here are the rules.

• Build a snowman that is in some way related to the BlueClaws (wearing BlueClaws gear, holding a BlueClaws sign, etc). How the snowman is BlueClaws related is entirely up to you.
• Take a picture(s).
• Email them to dfoley@blueclaws.com.
• We’ll select two winners.
• Each will receive two tickets to a BlueClaws game and a ceremonial first pitch on the field that day.
• Deadline to email in the pictures is Monday, February 15th at 5 pm.

Happy Building!

Thanks to Jonathan Mayo of MiLB.com (blog here, Twitter here) for taking some time to answer a few questions for BlueClaws Blog about the recent MiLB.com top 50 prospects, which featured several former BlueClaws (14 Domonic Brown, 17 Kyle Drabek, 35 Michael Taylor).

Without further adieu…

Q: First, what was the basic criteria in selecting prospects? How much was age a factor?

A: I poll as many scouts as possible, asking them to give me their individual top 30 lists anonymously. I dump them all into a big spreadsheet and I use an AP poll type format to come up with the rankings. For example, if a scout put Jason Heyward atop his list, he’d get 30 points. Strasburg in 2nd would get 29 points, and on down. The cumulative points is how I rank the players. I’ll break ties and tweak things a little here and there, but I let the scouts’ opinions dictate how things end up for the most part. My only criteria is that a player should still have rookie status entering the season. The rest–age, ceiling, closeness to the big leagues, etc–I leave up to each scout.

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Sometimes expectations can rise and you can move up prospect rankings by doing, well, nothing. And that’s what happened to Trevor May this off-season.

A 4th-round pick in 2008 from Kelso, Washington, May joined the BlueClaws in June, and lasted a total of 6.2 innings in his first two starts. But from there he was lights out, going 4-1, 2.25 over the second half. He gave up three runs in his last 36 innings, including 11 shutout in the playoffs.

Then, with the trade of Kyle Drabek (in the Halladay deal), the expectation level and status of May have now gone up. He is now the premier starting pitching prospect in the organization.

Todd Zolecki of MLB.com caught up with May (read here) last week:

“There are a certain level of expectations,” May said recently. “You get bumped up [after Drabek left the organization]. Even though I haven’t pitched in the offseason, more is expected of me. It’s kind of exciting to me, because as a person I personally like to set high goals and expectations for myself. Having other people joining in on those expectations gives you more determination to get it done. I knew Kyle. He was a great guy, but it’s exciting to be held in high regards in the organization. I hope to fulfill those expectations.”

You can read our Q&A with May here (part one and part two). May heads down February 30th, and has been running a lot this offseason in preparation for the Florida heat he’ll experience this summer.

I’ll be there February 30th to get acclimated to the heat. People think, “Oh well it’s hot,” but you have to be in great shape to go eight innings in Florida. In June it’s literally 95 in degrees and humidity…I know from being there in the GCL and instructs. I ran in the offseason to get into better shape than I was going into last year.