Down on the Farm - 7/1/22

Trending prospects, Jared McDonald (OAK) has a three homer game, strong starts from Eury Pérez (MIA) and Hunter Brown (HOU), Brayan Rocchio (CLE) homers twice, Chris Sale makes rehab start at Portland

Good morning and welcome to July!

Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?

It’s starting to feel like Gunnar Henderson finds his way into the newsletter nearly every day, but that’s probably because his strong play means he’s consistently among the top performers. There are a handful of players who’ve made a significant jump up prospect lists after the first half of the 2022 season and Henderson is certainly on that list. He’s 13 for his last 42 with four of those hits coming on Wednesday when he hit for the cycle. Someone who hasn’t been mentioned as much, but probably should be, is Miguel Vargas of the Dodgers. The 22-year-old third baseman is hitting .291/.384/.498 (121 wRC+) with 12 home runs and eight stolen bases. No player has been hotter than Vargas over the past two weeks — over that span he’s carrying a wOBA north of .450 while walking nearly as much as he’s striking out.