28-year old lefty reliever Glen Perkins has pitched solid baseball out of the pen for the Twins this year. Perkins has pitched in 57 games (0 starts) for the Twins this year and he is 4-3 with 2 saves, a 2.47 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. He gave up only 46 hits in his first 54 2/3 innings this year and he has whiffed 60 batters while only walking 17 batters, which is impressive. Perkins has really taken to the bullpen after being a starter most of his career until 2011. He has been the best reliever on the Twins this year. Perkins has now pitched in 137 games (44 starts) in his first six years in the majors and he is 23-15 with 2 saves, a 4.45 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP.

36-year old righty reliever Joe Nathan has regained his closers job with some solid pitching from June through August. Since June 1st, Nathan has pitched in 16 games (0 starts) in which he is 0-0 with 5 saves, a 2.40 ERA and a 0.67 WHIP. Nathan has now pitched in 33 games (0 starts) overall this year and he is 1-1 with 8 saves, a 5.04 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. Nathan is now tied with Rick Aguilera for the all-time lead in Twins’ history in saves with 254 of them. It’s nice to see Nathan getting back to the pitcher he was before missing all of the 2010 season while recovering from Tommy John Surgery.

29-year old righty starting pitcher Nick Blackburn has been on fire lately for the Twins. In his last three starts, Blackburn is 2-0 with a 1.77 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. Blackburn has now started 14 games for the Twins so far this year and he is 6-4 with a 3.16 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP. He has given up 96 hits in 91 innings this year but he has limited the damage by attacking the strikezone as he has only walked 24 batters so far this year. Blackburn has been the Twins’ best starter so far this year and that has been a complete surprise.

25-year old righty starting pitcher Anthony Swarzak has really stepped up since replacing Francisco Liriano in the starting rotation (Liriano is on the D.L.). In his last two starts, Swarzak is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP. He has only given up 8 hits in 14 innings in his last two starts and he’s been very aggressive in attacking hitters with his pretty good arsenal of pitches. Swarzak has now pitched in 5 games (3 starts) for the Twins so far this year and he is 1-2 with a 3.43 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. If he continues to pitch well, he could bump Brian Duensing out of the rotation when Liriano comes off the D.L.

29-year old righty starting pitcher Nick Blackburn has been very solid so far in May for the Twins. Blackburn has started 4 games for the Twins so far this May and he is 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. He has now pitched in 9 games (all starts) for the Twins so far this year and he is 3-4 with a 3.40 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. Blackburn is pitching the best baseball of his career right now and the Twins need him to keep up the good work because they have not been scoring many runs this year.