Down on the Farm Podcast

It’s back to normal on this week’s pod, as we return to the tried-and-true format. We start with a discussion on which players still in the minors could boost your fantasy championship push, and how prospect pedigree doesn’t always mean immediate production. Then we move to each of our personal top prospect catcher lists and discuss the ceilings, floors, and injury risks of the top young backstops. We close with a revision of old scouting reports, highlighting the challenges of scouting and how similar toolsets can result in different outcomes, even when we ourselves are the evaluators.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

We’ve got a special guest on this week’s edition of the Down on the Farm Podcast, as Jake McKinley joins the pod! We start with a discussion on his playing and early coaching career, and how his previous experience prepared him for his MLB gig. We then move on to the unique nature of his Field Coordinator role, where player-coach trust, a focus on fundamentals, and a relationship-centered analytical approach are all key to positive career outcomes. We then bring things home with a conversation on smart decision-making and Jake’s “welcome to the show” moment.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks to Jake for coming on the podcast, and, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

Link to Thinking in Bets, mentioned by Jake as an inspiration for his decision-making framework.

We’ve got a special bonus podcast for you all! Because of the trade deadline, we didn’t have enough time to get into the second half of our baseball tour, as we travelled from North Carolina to Norfolk, up the Delmarva Peninsula to Reading, and back to New York. From Orioles standout Jaiden Lo Re to new Cardinal Alexander Frias, we share our observations on a slew of hitting prospects.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we discuss the happenings of the trade deadline and give our thoughts on the prospects who now find themselves at new homes. Did the Angels get a steal in Arjun Nimmala? Will the Brewers regret parting with now-Cardinal Alexander Frias? Is new Orioles man Enddy Azocar a sneaky good second piece in the Adley Rutschman deal with the Red Sox? We’ll cover nearly all the hitting prospects on the move, including a slew of Oyster sleepers!

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we share our insights from the first two games of our Minor League tour! First, we talk bats, focusing on approach and centering on Pirates’ prospect Murf Gray and Reds’ man Tyson Lewis. We then move to fielding, talking again about Lewis and Twins High-A standout Yasser Mercedes, who showed elite instincts in center field. In-person scouting is essential to judge glove skills, and we talk about how to balance metrics, physical projection, and the eye test when judging young gloves. We finish by highlighting a pair of underrated prospects who have been red hot this month: Dodger Charles Davalan and Brewer Blake Burke.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we begin with our fantasy segment, tiering out the prospects that we’d stash for the future, both in leagues with limited minor league focus and leagues with deep systems. We then discuss the trade possibilities for the Yankees’ Spencer Jones and Jasson Domínguez, both high-upside but flawed young players who are the Bronx Bombers’ best deadline assets. Which teams should be interested in one or both of the pair, and could the hitters benefit from finding new, less crowded homes? We finish by discussing how the lack of financial incentives for winning in MLB affects development strategies, and how the European soccer model’s Champions League structure can be viewed as a pro-development foil. However, financially incentivizing winning creates its own flaws!

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we’re excited to interview Quin Cotton, a former Reds minor leaguer, current London Met, and friend of the program! We start by discussing his career path as an amateur and professional, focusing on the ins and outs of player development and swing refinement. We then speak about players’ and coaches’ use of analytics and the challenges of turning data into meaningful action, and how good makeup allows players to make the most of their time in the minors. We finish in Europe, talking about Quin’s recent experience at the Honkbalweek Haarlem international baseball tournament and the fun of playing baseball in areas where the sport is on the rise.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks to Quin for joining us, and as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we start by talking about the fantasy prospects of the A’s Joshua Kuroda-Grauer: can his contact skills overcome his relative lack of pop? We also look at Ryan Clifford’s (NYM) struggles to see what’s going so wrong for him this season after a stellar 2025. We then move to the prospect implications of a possible lockout, with an eye on the trade deadline. Should teams just out of contention be keener to part with their early-arb MLB talent with a chance of a missed 2027 on the horizon? We finish with a World Cup/ MLB fusion discussion about sporting technology, how it’s used (and possibly overused), and how tech intersects with unwritten rules and development traditions.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we kick things off by discussing whether elevating batted balls is a developable skill and whether it’s a trait worth the effort. You’ll see more on this topic in Thursday’s article. Then, we look at how the stickiness of different skills dictates prospect development and analysis. By understanding which skills are flexible and which are more sticky, we can get a better idea of expected prospect growth. Ks and HRs don’t grow the same way! Finally, we discuss why baseball villains (like recent new villain Dalton Rushing) add to the fun of baseball, and we postulate which up-and-coming prospects could embrace hero and villain roles with their teams. (We somehow omitted Max Clark from this discussion, who wears one too many chains for a certain subset of the baseball community, and isn’t afraid to bite back at their flak).

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we begin by revisiting our recent prospect hot take article, discussing how and when bias and mistakes occur, and why accountability is essential to creating strong and consistent projections. Then, we debate the fantasy projectability of the Cardinals’ Joshua Báez: will his massive power overcome his K concerns, even if he’s made improvements in the contact department this June? Finally, we close with a discussion of MLB’s proposed changes to high school eligibility and the draft, evaluating what the shift could mean for players, the structure and composition of the minor leagues, and why the league’s owners would benefit from the proposed standards.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden for her stellar jingle work!