1-2 in 3 Organizations
Former BlueClaws are ranked 1-2 in three different organizations among the recent Baseball America prospect lists released over the last few weeks.
We talked about the Phillies top ten prospects list awhile back with former BlueClaws in the one-through-four slots (Trevor May, Jesse Biddle, Sebastian Valle, and Jonathan Pettibone). May and Pettibone were in the BlueClaws 2010 championship rotation with Valle their catcher. Biddle, of course, was here this year. You can read more about those guys at the link.
The other two organizations where the BlueClaws go 1-2 are recent Phillies trading partners Houston and Toronto.
Houston (click here)
1. 1B Jonathan Singleton: Sent to Houston in the Hunter Pence trade in July, Singleton hit .290-14-77 with the BlueClaws in 2010, including a mammoth home run in his first at bat with the team, May 13th in Greenville. After the trade, Singleton was sent to Hi-A Lancaster (he was with Clearwater) and hit .333 with 4 HRs in 129 at bats. Baseball America says he is the best first base prospect in the minors.
2. RHP Jarred Cosart: Also in the Hunter Pence trade in July, Cosart went 7-3, 3.79 with Lakewood in 2010, pitching in the first half before an injury cost him the second half of the season. Cosart, unlike Singleton, was bumped straight up to Double-A Corpus Christi after the trade. He went 1-2, 4.79 in seven starts (though he did allow one earned run or less in five of those seven starts) and will likely go back there to open the 2012 campaign.
Toronto (click here)
1. C Travis d’Arnaud: He was traded to the Jays in the Roy Halladay in December of 2009. This year, he anchored the championship Eastern League Jays affiliate in New Hampshire, hitting .311-21-78 and was the league MVP. He hit 13 home runs and drove in 71 runs with the championship BlueClaws in 2009 under Dusty Wathan. d’Arnaud, who saw his brother Chase make his big league debut this year with Pittsburgh, is expected to go to Triple-A Las Vegas and could make his big league debut later in the season.
2. CF Anthony Gose: Gose has led his league in steals each of the last three years (including a franchise record 76 with the BlueClaws in 2009). This year, he was d’Arnaud’s teammate on the championship New Hampshire club. Gose stole 70 bases this year and hit 16 home runs, after hitting nine in his first three pro seasons. He’ll join d’Arnaud in Las Vegas this summer. He was actually sent to Houston in the Roy Oswalt deal in 2010 but was immediately flipped to Toronto for Brett Wallace. Toronto reportedly wanted him in the Halladay deal but the Phillies held onto him.
And that’s how you 1-2 in 3 organizations.
A few former BlueClaws (OF Michael Taylor and IF Adrian Cardenas) could appear on the Athletics top-ten list, which will be released on January 25th, though that list will not include the prospects the A’s have received this offseason in trading away Gio Gonzalez (Nationals), Andrew Bailey (Red Sox) and Trevor Cahill (Diamondbacks).
