Alex Schieferdecker

Miranda was certainly closest at the end of last season, and you have to wonder whether service time nonsense will still be applicable next year. Think Winder will have a shot to make the team out of spring training though. More likely midseason for him.

I'm pretty high on Jax as a reliever. He has been very good the first time through the order, and if only asked to pitch an inning at a time, I think his stuff would benefit from being dialed up a few degrees. I'd definitely keep him as a bullpen arm.

I think I'd go with moving Polanco back to short for a year until different options become available,

Would've liked to see Moran in the 9th last night with a four run lead. He has the potential to be a high high leverage guy, and it would be nice to give him slightly higher leverage roles in these games that don't matter.

That Jose Miranda fella seems good at baseball.

I definitely echo the thought that, beyond Miranda, the Twins' hitting prospect pipeline does not seem especially strong at the moment. Hopefully Austin Martin and Royce Lewis make an impression next season.

I want to watch that Moran vs Springer at-bat on repeat.

I assume Cedar Rapids will go with Varland in Game 5?

Super odd that Sabato struggled in Fort Meyers and then has excelled after being dubiously promoted. Sometimes you just need a change of scenery I guess.

The usage of Moran, both with the Twins and the Saints, has been extremely odd to me. He always gets sent out for two, sometimes three innings, like a long reliever. Given the pitches he has, shouldn’t he be used for an inning, maybe two on rare occasions?

Really nice to see some good pitching from Strotman. After a terrible start to life with the Saints, his last couple outings have been solid. Basically the same thing for SWR. He's so young for AA, it will be big for him if he's able to finish off the year with a couple more good outings. I expect next year he'll start in AA again, but a year older and wiser, and with the potential to move up quickly if he puts it together. Love these nights when Balazovic and Varland are paired. Hopefully another night of good pitching. I think Balazovic will start at AAA next year, but he needs to earn it. Varland will start at AA (maybe he could even be promoted for Wichita's playoffs? I don't know the rules there) next season and could move quickly. I hope he returns to striking more guys out however. His K/9 dropped off at A+ and that's something to watch. The Saints hitters are really putting up some incredible routs recently. Celestino's incredible hitting suggests that #13 is too low for him on the prospect rankings. He's hitting just a little bit behind Miranda, but is younger and in a more important position. His rise is making Max Kepler look like a very tradeable asset, or makes it easier to trade Buxton if a deal can't be reached.

Twins have to feel good about Celestino. He's hitting almost as well as Miranda. A lot of focus on how he pushes Byron Buxton, but I think ideally he pushes Trevor Larnach and Max Kepler instead. Rough game from Woods Richardson, but he's so young and was advanced so far for his age that it's really not a problem. He'll take his lumps and be better for it. He and Vallimont can work on their control in Wichita. Varland could make the majors next year, but I'm concerned about his strikeout numbers. I know he is working on things, but he won't progress much further if he can't return to getting punchouts like he did in Low A.

He's been pitching well, but his inability to keep inherited runners from scoring has been a major issue for the Twins this season. Ideally we'd have someone better as the bullpen fireman, and that would allow Thielbar to start innings fresh.

Winder has been out for a lot more than 2-3 weeks. I'm concerned that he's been shut down for the season. He is good though, but if he makes the rotation next year, expect him to be innings limited like Ober this year.

I'm not sure that throwing 10 pitches per out can be considered a highlight, but I was glad to see Simeon Woods-Richardson debut. I thought the Twins were going to shut him down, because clearly he was fatigued when he went to the Olympics. But now it looks like he'll have a couple short starts to close out the year, which is better than nothing. If nothing else, it'll get him comfortable in Wichita, which figures to be his home next year. I had hoped we may see Josh Winder make a return after a similar period of rest, but with every week that goes by, it seems as though he may be done for the season. Perhaps I missed an announcement.