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Earlier this year, former Phillies minor league third baseman Travis "Moose" Mattair made time to take fans along on his return to baseball, after a year off, by checking in with PhoulBallz.com and PhilliesNation.com, giving the fan base an in depth and unique glance into life as a prospect heading to and participating in spring training, occasionally at the big league level. On Thursday, Moose, a native of Washington state, was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the minor league portion of baseball's Rule 5 draft. As fans might expect, the slick fielding Mattair checked in, to offer his thoughts on that news, for what may possibly be the final edition of his recurring diary feature called Moose Tracks . I am really excited and really ready to start a new chapter in my baseball career! This is something I didn't expect and now that I know (about it), I'm very happy. My parents are probably more excited than I am, now that, with Cincinnati, I'll spend spring tr...

After missing more than a month with an oblique strain, Travis "Moose" Mattair found himself as the odd man out of the Class A Advanced Clearwater Threshers roster. Having lost his starting job to Jeremy Barnes, who has posted a .293 batting average since taking over for Mattair, the Washington state native was reassigned to the Class A Lakewood roster, where he became on of the club's most popular players during his previous stint there. The 6-foot-5-inch 230-pound Mattair batted .234 with 3 homeruns and 16 RBI in 21 April games as a member of the Threshers. Originally a 2nd round draft selection by the Phillies in 2007, Mattair was a member of the BlueClaws team that won the first of two straight South Atlantic League titles in 2009. After that, Mattair was placed on the retired list in order to try his dream of playing Division 1 college basketball. By late summer last year, Mattair got the itch for baseball and chose to return to the Phillies organization rather than ...

Phillies minor league third baseman Moose Mattair spoke with PhoulBallz.com's & PhilliesNation's Jay Floyd once again, to provide an inside glance at spring training in Clearwater. Mattair was the Phillies' second round draft pick in 2007 out of Southridge High School in Washington state. He later helped the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws win the South Atlantic League championship in 2009. After a rough spring training in 2010, Mattair, who was an all-state basketball player during his high school days, retired from baseball to chase his dream of playing Division I college hoops . After a year off from baseball and spending last summer with the Boise State University men's basketball, Mattair is back in Clearwater ready to start another season in the Phils' organization. He played in the Phillies' Major League spring training game this past Saturday against the Blue Jays and has described the event here for you readers. Photo by Joe Wombough To tell the truth, ...

Phillies minor league third baseman Moose Mattair spoke with PhoulBallz.com's & PhilliesNation's Jay Floyd once again, to provide an inside glance at spring training in Clearwater. Mattair was the Phillies' second round draft pick in 2007 out of Southridge High School in Washington state. He later helped the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws win the South Atlantic League championship in 2009. After a rough spring training in 2010, Mattair, who was an all-state basketball player during his high school days, retired from baseball to chase his dream of playing Division I college hoops . After trying his hand with Boise State University, Mattair has returned to Clearwater to continue his baseball journey. Read ahead to check out what Moose had to say on various subjects, live and direct from Clearwater. On his first official day of minor league camp since he left the Phillies organization last year to dabble in college basketball. The first full official day was full of meetings. ...

Phillies minor league third baseman Moose Mattair checked in, once again, to give readers an inside look at his journey back to baseball, after taking a year off to try his hand at Division I college basketball. Moose and his cousin Eric drove together from Washington state and stopped in central Florida to move Moose into his temporary Winter/Spring residence before wrapping up their bonding with a few days in Miami. Moose is now back in the Clearwater area and phoned in with a report on his past week, or so, in Florida. To read Moose's previous diary entries click here and here . Miami is an awesome place...just a fabulous place. The weather was beautiful. I got a nice sunburn, which prevented me from getting the tattoo that I originally planned to get on the trip. I wanted to add on to the cross that I have on my back, but I was just too sunburned that I couldn't get it. We went around the city and took in the beach and went to a couple different spots. It was a load of fun...

Phillies minor league third baseman Moose Mattair checked in once again on Monday night to submit another diary entry, detailing his road trip from Washington State to Clearwater, Florida. Moose is returning to baseball after taking a year off to dabble in Division I college basketball . On the road with Moose is his cousin Eric, who shared time behind the wheel and is helping with the move, as well as serving as a boisterous companion. Check out what Moose had to say below and check back for more in the coming days. We stayed in Dallas, Texas on Saturday night. We went out, there, and had a good time. It was an experience. We got to meet some southern belles and just had a good time there in Texas. We took some taxis around to see the city and watched the Seahawks/Bears game. Even though the Seahawks lost, it was still a good time. Then after watching football we drove from Dallas to Baton Rouge, Louisiana yesterday. We dealt with heavy rain the entire way. We drove for about 9 hours ...

This week, Phillies minor league third baseman and Lakewood BlueClaws fan favorite Travis "Moose" Mattair will be checking in to log diaries from the road, as he starts his cross country journey back to baseball, after taking a year off to dabble in Division I college basketball . Moose's trip began with terrible news, but with the blessing of his family to not delay his expedition, he trucked on. In this entry, Moose talks about his family, traveling from Washington state, rooming in Florida with an old BlueClaws teammate and the NFL Playoffs. Check back for more from Moose in the coming days. 18 hours on the road yesterday. We began at 4:15 yesterday morning and it started off as a really rough morning for us. I am with my cousin, Eric, and we found out our uncle actually passed away yesterday morning. He's been dealing with and fighting cancer everywhere in his body. We found out last January that he had it. It's just very unfortunate that he ended up passing a...