Down on the Farm Podcast

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we highlight James Tibbs’ red-hot week and why our model is still not sold on the young outfielder despite his solid power metrics. We also look into three of the new additions to the Baseball America top 100, including two Oyster favorites: the Brewers’ Luis Lara and the Mariners’ Michael Arroyo. On the fantasy front, we discuss the challenges of projecting rookies in redraft leagues and why surefire future stars may not be present-day fantasy league winners.

We hope you enjoy!

Last year, we bravely invented the new concept of listing prospects in order of impressiveness. We’re back at it with the innovation this year, this time with an entirely novel audio-based media solution to all your prospect needs. We call it: the Down on the Farm “Podcast”.

The idea here is simple: we figure our readers, like us, spend more of their lives than they’d like to commuting and doing chores. We also are going to go out on a limb and say they’re not always able to dedicate the rest of their day to consuming baseball content, educating themselves about the entirety of the Oyster Top 100, and diving deep into each of our fairly extensive research pieces. So, we’ve put together a compact 20 minute weekly podcast that can get you up to speed on all this while you’re going about your usual mindless everyday tasks.

The focus for the podcast is on giving you all you need to know about the top offensive performances in MiLB each week and why we think they matter (or why we suspect they don’t). We’re aiming for the podcast to enable you to quickly and easily understand what you need to know about what’s happened from the DSL to Triple-A over the past seven days, complete with analysis that cuts through hype and panic and separates signals from noise. We may go off on a tangent or two here or there, but we’re keenly aware that you’re here not for a Max and Owen talk show, but for some interesting news and meaningful insight, so we keep things topical and grounded in our research, scouting, and experience.

You can expect the podcast to come out every Tuesday during the season. That’s not legally binding—we do have a lot to juggle—but we will aim to and we think mainly succeed in maintaining that cadence through the end of the MiLB season.

Have a listen, and let us know what you think! As with the Daily and Weekly Pearls articles, this is the first time we’re putting out a new format, so we are eager to hear your thoughts on how we can make it the best it can be!

Thank you for tuning in!

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

Today’s episode gets us in touch with another MiLB insider … this time it is Collin Wilber, Development Coach with the High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers. Bryan and Collin discuss a number of topics, with a lot of focus on Collin’s role working with catchers in the Pirates organization. Of course we get into detail on the two top prospects he coached in Greensboro last year–Henry Davis and Endy Rodriguez–but there’s also a lot of talk about the changing nature of the game, player development, and Collin’s road to his MiLB role. Make sure to listen!

We’re also live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher as well as all major podcast platforms! Thanks for supporting us, and leave a rating and review if you enjoy it.

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

Show #7 has a different style of guest than usual … it’s site contributor David Gerth! David and Bryan catch up on what we’re doing here at Down on the Farm, and David shares a bit about his combination of analytics and scouting background. Then the guys discuss David’s recent research pieces, the site’s great run of profiling recent callups (hopefully Brandon Pfaadt isn’t too far away!), and what we do at the site on a regular basis. It’s definitely an interesting listen.

We’re also live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher as well as all major podcast platforms! Thanks for supporting us, and leave a rating and review if you enjoy it.

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

Our sixth show has us catch up to Durham Bulls closer (maybe?) Ben Heller, whose pro career has carried him from Cleveland, to The Show as a member of the Yankees, and now to Durham as he takes the next steps in his recovery from years of injuries. Ben is a terrific guest, catching up to us after another clean sheet and his first save of the 2023 season. We talk about how he’s changed things up over 10 pro years, how he self-scouts, his relationship with analytics, and so much more. It’s a must-listen!

We’re also live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher as well as all major podcast platforms! Thanks for supporting us, and leave a rating and review if you enjoy it.

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

Show #5 features Melissa Lockard of The Athletic, who covers the farm systems (and more) for the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. Once Bryan gets past his issues with “The Athletic” versus “the Athletics,” they discuss the interesting new names that’ve come into the Oakland org, which prospects have made the most progress for both teams, and what 2023 holds for some of the more interesting minor-league names. It’s a must-listen for prospect followers and fans of each team.

(Bonus! Melissa mentioned a recent interview with Ed Sprague, farm director for the A’s … and you can check out that article here.)

We’re also live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher as well as all major podcast platforms! Thanks for supporting us, and leave a rating and review if you enjoy it.

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

Our fourth show is focused on guest Noah Woodward of The Advance Scout newsletter. Noah and Bryan discuss his recent articles on how the rules changes could affect the majors and minors, including how pitchers and catchers develop to attack the new pickoff rules, and how tough it is to change a small part of a player’s preparation and mechanics. Come give it a listen!

We’re also live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher as well as all major podcast platforms! Thanks for supporting us, and leave a rating and review if you enjoy it.

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

For our third show, Bryan visits with Craig Calcaterra of the Cup of Coffee Substack newsletter and the recent book Rethinking Fandom. Craig and Bryan discuss the recent rule changes, things they’re interested in for the upcoming season (and how rule changes might affect pitching performance), and the tough expectations young players face on their jump to the major leagues. They cover a lot of ground in half an hour, so make sure to check it out.

We’re also live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher as well as all major podcast platforms! Thanks for supporting us, and leave a rating and review if you enjoy it.

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

For show #2, Bryan visits with Jarrett Seidler of Baseball Prospectus and the For All You Kids Out There podcast (with Jeffrey Paternostro). Jarrett’s the Senior Prospect Writer at BP, and walks through what data helps him best understand minor league hitting performance, especially as it pertains to prospect analysis and future value. Of course there are tangents and digressions … somehow Deivi Garcia and Eric Campbell showed up here … but it’s a great, informative listen about how to help identify future offensive success.

We’re also live on Apple Podcasts now, with Spotify to come and you’ll find us on all major podcast platforms soon! Check this one out!

Hey there, everyone — welcome to the Down on the Farm Podcast. Host Bryan Grosnick will be covering an assortment of topics related to minor-league baseball with some of the game’s brightest minds from inside and outside the industry.

For our first show, Bryan visits with Eli Ben-Porat, proprietor of his own Substack newsletter Eli’s Baseball Research, and the two discuss Eli’s recent research into pitch movement synergy. Not only do they discuss the theory around how pitchers make their offerings look similar, they cover how their work is different from what’s come before, which pitch pairs tend to synergize the best, and a few minor-league relief candidates who could break out this year due to their solid synergy.

There’s a lot more to come in the podcast this year, and you can expect to see us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts sooner rather than later. Check it out!