(Image Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)

Singleton, 21, released a statement through his agents to apologize for his actions:

I was informed today that I have tested positive for marijuana. As a result, I am being suspended for the first 50 games of the 2013 season. I accept the penalty and take full responsibility for my actions. I apologize to my parents, the Houston Astros, and 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 my team.

The left-handed first baseman has been considered among the game’s top prospects, checking in at #39 and #34 on Baseball America’s Top 100 rankings each of the past two seasons, and is expected to rank highly once again when this year’s list is released. He spent this past season with Houston’s Double-A affiliate, batting .284/.396/.497 with 21 HR and 79 RBI over 555 plate appearances in 131 games. A former 8th Round selection in the 2009 Draft (by the Philadelphia Phillies), Singleton holds a career line of .291/.394/.470 across four minor league seasons.

Houston acquired Singleton (along with Jarred Cosart and two others) from the Phillies at the July trade deadline in 2011 in return for Hunter Pence.

So many deals have gone down in the past 24 hours that it would be impossible for me to provide detailed analyses of all of them in a timely fashion. Instead of only getting one or two analyses done today, I thought I’d condense all my thoughts into a slightly more concise format.

If you’ve got any more specific questions about certain aspects that I don’t touch on here, feel free to ask in the comments.

And without further ado, here are my thoughts on the winners and losers of 2011′s MLB Trade Deadline.

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Late last night, the news broke that another important trade had gone down in the baseball world, as the Astros shipped starting right fielder Hunter Pence to the Phillies for prospects Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart, Josh Zeid, and a player to be named.

As the Phillies reinforce their win-now mentality and the Astros continue to look toward the future, let’s take a look at what went down here.

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Then, after Carlos Beltran was off the market, interest in Pence again exploded yesterday and it’s gotten to the point where a deal could be announced as soon as today for the outfielder.  The Phillies, Braves, Red Sox, Pirates, Reds, Rangers and Angels were all tied Pence Thursday. (more…)