Former Phillies prospect Singleton suspended 50 games

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Jonathan Singleton, the ascending first base power prospect the Phillies sent to the Astros as part of the 2011 Hunter Pence deal, tested positive for marijuana, he said in a statement released Wednesday, according to MLB.com.

It's a 50-game suspension for Singleton, now a two-time offender. Singleton was the centerpiece of the 2011 Phillies trade with Houston for Pence. The 20-year-old lefty hit .298.392.441 the year of the trade, and this past season hit .284 with a .396 OBP and .497 slugging percentage in his first full season in the Astros' system with Double A Corpus Christie.

"I accept the penalty and take full responsibility for my actions, Singleton said. I apologize to my parents, the Houston Astros and general manager Jeff Luhnow.

The Astros have been nothing but supportive of me and good to me in my short time with the organization. My hope is to use this as a learning experience and spend the rest of my career proving to myself and the baseball community that this was a lapse in judgment, and is not in any way indicative of my character or my dedication to baseball or to my team.

Players on the 40-man rosters of big-league teams are not tested for marijuana, as pointed out by HardballTalk. Singleton, though, wasnt on Houstons 40-man roster.

Singleton was the minors' 34th-best prospect prior to 2012, as rated by Baseball America. Five spots up from No. 39 the previous year. ESPNs Keith Law has him as Houstons second-best prospect.

The Phillies sent Singleton, outfielder Domingo Santana and righthanders Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid to Houston for Pence, who they then traded 367 days later to the Giants for catcher Tommy Joseph, pitcher Seth Rosin and veteran outfielder Nate Schierholtz.

Schierholtz was later non-tendered, meaning the Phillies in essence dealt ...

Singleton,
Santana (2012: .302 batting average, 25 HR and 97 RBI at High-A),
Cosart (6-7, 3.30 ERA, 7.2 K9 in 114.1 innings at AA and AAA), and
Zeid (5.59 ERA, 10.5 strikeouts-per-nine in 47 appearances at Double A)

... for San Franciscos prospects and two half-seasons of Pence, one of which led to a franchise-record 102 wins but a first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Cardinals.

The Phillies gave up serious talent in the Pence trade. Santana, the deals player to be named later, is an athletic 19-year-old rightfielder from the Dominican Republic with a strong arm, who had a .921 OPS last season at High-A. The Phils dont have many impact bats in their own system, in part because they dealt two to Houston.

For all the heat former Phillies and Astros GM Ed Wadenow a special consultant with the Philstakes for what were once deemed lopsided trades to the Phils, a look back shows a pair that worked out very well for the Astros.

In all, the Phillies traded Wades Astros: Singleton, Santana, Cosart, Zeid, four years of Michael Bourn, Anthony Gose (flipped for Brett Wallace), shortstop Jonathan Villar, J.A. Happ, Geoff Geary and Mike Costanzo for Brad Lidge, Eric Bruntlett, Roy Oswalt and Pence.

Salary relief, four projectable major-leaguers and three current big-leaguers in Bourn, Gose and Happ for Lidge, Bruntlett, Oswalt and Pence. The deals are basically equal. Lidge was a key figure in the 2008 World Series, Pence was on a Phils team that went 36-21 in the second half of 11, Oswalt was 7-1 with a 1.74 ERA in the second half of 2010 and Bruntlett turned an unassisted triple play and hit a World Series home run off David Price. And Houston, which has lost 213 games the last two years and will play its first year in the American League West in 2013, has the makings of its next core.

Singleton will be eligible to return the final week of May.
E-mail Corey Seidman at cseidman@comcastsportsnet.com

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