Joe Nathan News

With plate appearances and innings pitched piling up a bit, we can finally start to look -- though there are still small sample size caveats -- at what some of our old friends are up to in their current locations.

It's definitely possible to turn an excellent relief pitcher into an excellent starting pitcher.

That season-opening sweep at Baltimore no longer looks so bad for the Twins. The first-place Orioles entered Saturday with the American League's second-best ERA , including a major league best 2.07 ERA from the bullpen.

With the 2012 Major League Baseball first-year player draft less than one month away, it seems timely to look back on the Minnesota Twins' draft history.

Closer Joe Nathan is back to his old form. At least that’s the way manager Ron Washington sees it.

It's still early in the season, but it's starting to become clear where some of the holes in the St.

Yu Darvish gave up a first-inning run but then settled in to help the Rangers to a 4-1 win over the Oakland A's on Wednesday .

It's interesting how the current situation for the Twins bears some similarity to the situation when Terry Ryan first became GM back in the mid 90's. Following the strike-shortened 1994 season, the Twins were replacing general manager Andy MacPhail, the architect of Minnesota's two World Series Championships in 1987 and 1991.

Pinch-hitter Adrian Beltre hit a three-run homer in the 11th inning to lift Texas over Cleveland.

Sacrificing coaches and managers temporarily satisfies the public's lust for accountability and change, but Minnesota sports fans should know better.

That offense is picking up right where they left off from the past 2 seasons, and Yu Darvish has been a little better than I thought he'd be.

The Texas Rangers entered the 2012 season with some question marks. They lost their top ace in C.J. Wilson, and many wondered whether the team could rebound after losing the 2011 World Series in heartbreaking fashion .

This July 17, 2011 file photo shows Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Nathan throwing to the Kansas City Royals in the ninth inning of a baseball game in Minneapolis.

While most of us associate the number with Jackie Robinson and Mariano Rivera , these digits hold a different meaning for Yu Darvish.

On the same night Twins catcher Joe Mauer missed his first start of the season because of a sore knee, slugger Justin Morneau went down with a wrist injury that sidelined the designated hitter midway through a 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night, April 30.

Seattle ace Felix Hernandez faces the Rays and Twins this week. Leon Halip/Getty Images The following slideshow is a top-10 ranking of two-start pitchers for the week of April 30-May 6. The listing does not necessarily account for a pitcher's season-long prospects, nor does it promise sustained dominance from this point forward.