Mariners After Midnight is now Baseball Things ... Let me Explain
In an effort to consolidate and avoid confusion...
I started Prospect Insider 20 years ago this month. I started the podcast eight and a half years ago. Because PI had an inherent “prospects-only” connotation, I moved my writing to newsletter form here at Substack and called it Mariners After Midnight.
Why Two Platforms?
This created a lot of positive things — Substack is far superior to Patreon (where the podcast lives) in terms of written content creation, and its delivery style options are years ahead of Patreon… which is why I didn’t simply put everything at Patreon. The podcast tools at Substack are about as limited, so I landed on two separate platforms.
Splitting up the podcast and written content creates some issues, however. Patreon and Substack don’t communicate, and there are a lot of heavy obstacles to lift to find a way around that, and it still may not be realistic, considering API access restrictions from both platforms.
So, at least for now and perhaps for the long haul, everything I write goes here, the podcast stays at Patreon.
The Subscriber Experience
Those issues are mainly and most importantly about you — the reader, the listener. I find a bit of solace in the fact both Patreon and Substack deliver TO YOU — it’s the modern model — rather than you having to check a website to see if there is an update. You are alerted via email when there’s a new post or episode. While this achieves some of the goals, it doesn’t solve all of them.
Subscribers to one platform aren’t automatically subscribed to the other. There’s no way to systematically offer packages to get access to both. Right now, that remains manual, meaning I have to send emails with discount codes, etc.
Unifying Under One Brand: Baseball Things
But another issue here is this: Baseball Things (podcast) and Midnight Mariners (written content) were two different brands by nature.
That is no longer the case. Mariners After Midnight is now Baseball Things. It lives at baseballthings.plus as well as baseballthings.com/newsletter. You’ll hear/read me start referring to this place as “Plus” in order to separate the content conversationally. Big picture, I’ll continue to seek ways to get everything in one place, but that is likely a year or five away.
What This Means for You
The good news is you don’t have to do anything different. Posts here will still be sent to your inbox, podcast episodes will still be emailed to you, as well as show up in your podcast feed.
But by eliminating the Mariners After Midnight site name and domain, I’m hoping it’s a bit easier for folks to understand who is behind the content and how to search for it.
New Subscription Benefits
In addition, if you are a subscriber here at PLUS, you qualify for a discount on the podcast. Moving forward, this will be how it works:
All PLUS subscribers get 40% off the monthly podcast price, or 50% off the annual price. In the coming days, discount codes will be sent out to all subscribers.
‘Top Prospect’ tier Podcast subscribers get 40% off PLUS monthly, or 50% off annual
‘Superstar Prospect’ tier Podcast subscribers get PLUS for FREE
These discounts will be applied using codes at checkout, along with some manual intervention on my part. I am always available to address any issues with your subscription or other questions via email at churchill@baseballthings.com. Not that I plan for things to go wrong or break, but it happens, and I like to fix things.
Join the Community
All subscribers to all tiers, including the FREE subscribers at either PLUS or the Podcast, are invited to join the Mariners conversation at the Baseball Things Discord. Feel free to invite your friends. No charge for that, it’s just a bonus of the Baseball Things content environment. The more the merrier.
Upcoming Content
Plus:
2026 Prospect Rankings & Projections Package
- Top 50 Mariners Prospects: Scouting Reports, Tools Grades, ETAs, Comps
- Top prospects by position group
- Top Strengths of the Farm System
- Projected 2029 Mariners Lineup, Rotation, Bullpen
Podcast:
2027 IFA Buzz & AL West Outlook
Have George Kirby & Logan Gilbert peaked?
Supplementary Quick Hits to further discuss prospect rankings, the evaluation process, insightful notes from the industry, etc.
