The Twins have sent 28-year old righty starter/reliever Nick Blackburn to AAA to make room on the roster for Matt Capps. Blackburn has pitched in 19 games (18 starts) for the Twins this season and he is 7-7 with a 6.66 ERA and a 1.68 WHIP. He has given up 148 hits (19 homers) in only 104 innings for the Twins this season and that is downright awful. Blackburn will have to learn how to miss some bats before he gets another chance for the Twins this season. This is addition by subtraction for the Twins’ pitching staff.

The Twins have finally demoted 28-year old righty starting pitcher Nick Blackburn to the bullpen. He has been awful this season for the Twins. Blackburn has started 18 games for the Twins this year and he is 7-7 with a 6.53 ERA and a 1.67 WHIP. He has given up a whopping 143 hits in only 102 innings pitched this season including a stunning 19 homers. Blackburn only whiffed 35 batters while walking only 27 so he was pitching to contact…..but it was very hard contact. He will likely be nothing more than a mop up man for the Twins. 27-year old lefty Brian Duensing will replace Blackburn in the starting rotation. Duensing has pitched in 39 games (0 starts) for the Twins so far this season and he is 3-1 with a 1.67 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. He has only given up 33 hits in 43 innings this season as he has been razor sharp this year. Duensing will likely strengthen the Twins rotation but the bullpen will suffer without him in it.

Coming into this season 28-year old Nick Blackburn was a so-so pitcher. In his first three years, Blackburn pitched in 72 games (66 starts) for the Twins in which he was 22-24 with a 4.14 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. Blackburn tries to get by with pinpoint control as he just doesn’t have the best stuff around. Blackburn has started 11 games this season and he is 6-3 with a 5.21 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP. He has given up 93 hits (9 homers) in only 67 1/3 innings this season. His win loss record is going to get corrected soon if he keeps pitching batting practice.

25-year old lefty Francisco Liriano has lost his job in the starting rotation. He has pitched in 24 games (23 starts) for the Twins this season and he is 5-12 with a 5.71 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP. He has whiffed 119 batters in 129 1/3 innings this season so he still has the ability to miss some bats. But, he has also allowed 139 hits (19 of them homers) and he has walked 58 batters. He will have to improve his control and keep the ball down in the strike zone if he wants his rotation job back for the 2010 season.

Livan Hernandez is giving the Twins a lot of innings this season but the problem is that many of them are bad ones. Hernandez has allowed a whopping 157 hits this season in only 110.1 innings for the Twins but he’s only walked 20 batters which is helping minimize the damage. He has been lucky this season as he is somehow 8-5 despite owning a 5.22 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP. It’s hard to imagine Hernandez finishing with a winning record when he has to put his whole butt behind his fastball to get it up to 85 mph.