Down on the Farm Podcast 6/30/26: The (Lift) Ceiling is the Roof, Ch-Ch-Ch Changes, Heroes and Villains

Down on the Farm Podcast 6/30/26: The (Lift) Ceiling is the Roof, Ch-Ch-Ch Changes, Heroes and Villains

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 [https://www.fangraphs.com/players/dalton-rushing/31382/stats/batting]) 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 [https://www.fangraphs.com/players/maxwell-clark/sa3022683/stats/batting] 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 [https://www.lauravanderheijden.uk/] for her stellar jingle work! Get full access to Down on the Farm at downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Down on the Farm Podcast 6/23/26: No Armchair Prospecting, Big Bopping Báez, MLB's Draft Proposal

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we begin by revisiting our recent prospect hot take article [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/p/how-have-everyones-preseason-prospect], 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 [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Joshua%20Baez]Báez [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Joshua%20Baez]: 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 [https://www.lauravanderheijden.uk/] for her stellar jingle work! Get full access to Down on the Farm at downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Down on the Farm Podcast 6/16/26: Blazing Fantasy Start, Cyborg Projections, How Many is too Many?

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we lead off with a discussion on the fantasy projectability of a triad of promoted prospects: Blaze Jordan (STL) [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Blaze%20Jordan], Cooper Pratt (MIL) [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Cooper%20Pratt], and Cole Carrigg (COL) [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Cole%20Carrigg]. We’re quite bullish on the former two prospects, but do their skill sets translate to fantasy productivity? We then discuss our recent cyborg projections article [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/p/the-mid-season-oyster-top-25-cyborg], and provide further insight on how and why we disagree with our modeling, and share our personal emphases in prospect evaluation. We close the pod by speaking on prospect-loaded teams that struggle to find MLB playing time for their young stars. Is this really a problem? And how do prospect-rich teams like the Dodgers find ways to remain elite while growing young hitting talent? We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden [https://www.lauravanderheijden.uk/] for her stellar jingle work! Get full access to Down on the Farm at downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Down on the Farm Podcast 6/9/26: Mailbag Edition! Walk Rates, Hindcasting, and Swing Profile Analysis

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we open the mailbag to answer questions from our Substack subscribers and followers on X and Bluesky. We talk about walk rates, when and why they matter, and why we can’t transpose MLB free pass expectations onto minor league prospects. We then move on to our hindcasting strategies and discuss how we construct and improve our models. We conclude by talking about swing types and hitting profiles, and what types of swings we like to see given a player’s skillset. One size does not fit all! We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden [https://www.lauravanderheijden.uk/] for her stellar jingle work! Get full access to Down on the Farm at downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Down on the Farm Podcast 6/2/26: EVs Change Lives, Quad-A Fantasy Assets, To Send or Not to Send

This week on the Down on the Farm Podcast, we dive into the profiles of a pair of minor league breakouts: the newly promoted Jacob Gonzalez (CWS) [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Jacob%20Gonzalez] and Triple-A destroying Seaver King (WAS) [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Seaver%20King]. They’ve flourished as they’ve added power, turning uninspiring out-producing hitting profiles into RBI-hunting MLB-quality production. We then take a peek at two of our favorite older prospects on the cusp of the show to see if Abimelec Ortiz (WAS) [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/Abimelec%20Ortiz] or James Tibbs III (LAD) [https://oysteranalytics.com/#Player-Cards/James%20Tibbs%20III]is worth your fantasy attention. Finally, we discuss the firing of the Giants’ third base coach, Hector Borg [https://x.com/BNightengale/status/2060452305749897543], and why third base coaches minimize mistakes to avoid criticism. We invoke our first-ever Down on the Farm piece on send decisions [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/p/how-caution-is-costing-teams-on-the] to argue that the numbers encourage a level of send/hold aggression that, under the current standard, would get coaches run out of town. We hope you enjoy. Thanks, as always, to Laura van der Heijden [https://www.lauravanderheijden.uk/] for her stellar jingle work! Get full access to Down on the Farm at downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe [https://downonthefarm.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]