Two former BlueClaws, Michael Taylor (#2) and Adrian Cardenas (#9) have been ranked among the top ten Oakland Athletics prospects by Baseball America. Kind of like the Philadelphia Athletics re-incarnated.

Taylor, of course, was a BlueClaw in 2008, where he had probably the best half of any hitter in team history (.361/10/50). He finished 2008 with Clearwater (.329/9/38), began 2009 with Reading (.333/15/65) and finished it with Lehigh Valley (.282/5/19) before being sent to Toronto in the Roy Halladay trade. He was then immediately traded to Oakland for third base prospect Brett Wallace.

He turned 24 in December and has a chance to win an Opening Day roster spot with the Athletics, perhaps as their everyday leftfielder. It’s rare that you see a guy cover four levels in two years, but that’s what Taylor did, and we wish him luck now that he has a clear path to the big leagues.

Cardenas was here in 2007, when, as a 19 year old second baseman, he hit .295/9/79 with the BlueClaws and made the Futures Game. A piano and guitar specialist, Cardenas hit .326 at Double-A Midland and .256 with Triple-A Sacramento.

Oakland got him in the Joe Blanton trade in 2008, and logically Cardenas will get a full shot at Triple-A in 2010. He just turned 22 in October.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Baseball America, Past BlueClaws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.