Lefthander Craig Breslow has been claimed off waivers by Oakland and the club has called up righthander Anthony Swarzak to replace him on the roster. Swarzak is expected to start on Saturday against the Brewers.

He was 3-4 with a 2.25 ERA in seven starts at Class AAA Rochester. In 44 innings, he’s given up 40 hits and walked 11 while striking out 32. His WHIP is 1.16. Opponents are hitting .248 off of him. He’s turned his career around after serving a 50-game suspension in 2007 for violating baseball’s drug policy

 Joe C. will be at U.S. Cellular Field soon and should have more details.

The Breslow move is a little surprising. He’s hasn’t been effective  - he was 1-2 with a 6.28 ERA in 17 games -  but I thought the Twins would give  him more time to turn things around after pitching pretty well last season. But the Twins needed a roster spot and had three lefties in the bullpen. Someone had to go.

The Twins currently have 39 players listed on their 40-man roster.

In other news, Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson, speaking on Wednesday during his twice-monthly spot on KFAN, said the club got good news on lefthander Glen Perkins. There’s nothing seriously wrong with his elbow, so he’s expected to be ready to step into the rotation when at the end of his 15-day DL stint.

Class A Fort Myers outfielder Ben Revere, by the way, was named Florida State League player of the week after batting .625.

The Twins are expected to place outfielder Delmon Young on the family medical emergency list and call up catcher Jose Morales to replace him on the roster.
Young, following the Twins’ 6-5 victory over Detroit on Thursday, left for California to be with his family. A family member is very ill.

Players can be placed on the family medical emergency list (formerly the bereavement list) because of serious illness or death in the family. That player must stay on the bereavement list at least three days and no more than seven days.

Morales opened the season on the major league roster but was optioned to Rochester when Joe Mauer came off the disabled list on May 1. He was hitting .267 in nine games with Class AAA Rochester when he was pulled from the lineup before Rochester played Indianapolis on Thursday.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said before Thursday’s game that Young was dealing with a migraine. Now we know why.

As it turns out, Paul Schrieber, the home plate umpire yesterday,  had root canal surgery before working the game.

I wondered why he would still call a game. A couple Twins players told me that it’s like them playing with minor injuries - you don’t want to be considered a wimp. And there are different levels of root canals, I guess.

Don’t know if that affected his judgement last night. All I know is that I screamed, `that is NOT a strike,” at the television about five times.

Joe Mauer is catching today after being the designated hitter last night. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has picked the rights times to DH his all-star catcher. Mauer DH’d the rainfest in Baltimore and yesterday. “I have dodged a couple of bullets,” Mauer said this morning.

I walked into the Twins clubhouse at 9:02 a.m. Michael Cuddyer was the only player to have reported. Jerry White and Joe Vavra were the first coaches to arrive. There were stories about people not being able to fall asleep until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. I think White mumbled something about 5 a.m. It as a night for sleeping fast.

Delmon Young hasn’t felt well the past couple of days, and today he has a migraine.  Gardenhire said he was laid out in the trainer’s room before the game.

Tigers (17-15)

1. Curtis Granderson, CF
2. Ramon Santiago, 2B
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Jeff Larish, DH
6. Clete Thomas, LF
7. Brandon Inge, 3B
8. Adam Everett, SS
9. Dane Sardinha,  C

Pitching: Justin Verlander

Twins (17-17)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Matt Tolbert, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, DH (M & M boys 19-for-50 vs Verlander)
5. Jason Kubel, LF
6. Michael Cuddyer, RF
7. Joe Crede, 3B
8. Brian Buscher, 1B
9. Nick Punto, SS

Pitching: Scott Baker

We begin this week’s edition with a little rant.

Don’t know if any of you noticed, but lefthander Ben Julianel was released from Class AAA Rochester to make room for Alexi Casilla. Rochester had 13 pitchers on its roster, so no big deal there.

The problem is that Julianel was a reason why Anthony Slama wasn’t promoted to Class AA New Brtiain last year. Julianel was 28 years old last year while pitching in the Eastern League. Slama was 24 and toying with Florida State League hitters. Both should have been one level higher.

Last year, Rochester had three lefties in the bullpen - Mariano Gomez, Carmen Cali and Ricky Barrett. Cali already had his shot with the big club and didn’t gain the confidence of the coaching staff. None of those lefties are in the organization now - and Julianel is gone, too.

I keep being told that I’m off base with this argument, but Julianel should have been moved to Rochester so Slama could have been in New Britain last year, with a chance to be at Rochester now. With the Twins trying to stabilize their bullpen, it makes sense to me that they should put their prospects on line to help this year - especially when they are 24 years old and dominating in A-ball.

They did call Jose Mijares up from New Britain. Will they do that with Slama?

Slama is 3-0 with a 2.12 ERA at New Britain and has converted five of seven save opportunities. Those numbers look good to me - but I’m not a farm director.

REVERE HAS A SORE KNEE

Class A Fort Myers outfielder Ben Revere had surgery last August to remove particles from his left knee. He’s been having trouble with the same knee, which is why he’s missed some recent games. Revere is batting .308 with 15 steals in 21 attempts in 29 games.

Jim Rantz, the Twins’ director of minor leagues, said that Revere should return to action soon.

 ETC.

New Britain third baseman Danny Valencia missed a few games last week with a sore wrist but has returned to action.

Heard that Aaron Hicks, the Twins’ first-round pick last year, is batting .300 in extended spring training games. “He’ll move fast soon enough,” Rantz said. Here’s another case where you wonder why the Twins don’t have him at Beloit now. But I’m sure the Twins wanted to give all those power hitters at E-Town last year a shot at Beloit first. They aren’t hitting that well now - Angel Morales, a top prospect, is batting .183 -  but I guess Hicks can work on things at extended spring training before he goes to short-season ball and dominates. 

Catcher Danny Lehmann was sent to New Britain while Wilson Ramos recovers from the his broken left index finger. Scott Baker was impressed with Lehmann’s catching ability when he pitched for Fort Myers last month during a rehab stint.

Baker also praised second  baseman Steve Singleton, who got off to a fast start but is down to .232 now.

NEAL WINS BET. TWINS INSIDER NATION BENEFITS! 

Blackhawks 7, Canucks 5 (Chicago wins series 4-2)

I’ll begin discussions with Justin Morneau this afternoon about when he’ll produce y something for this blog. I wouldn’t expect anything right away because I want to give him plenty of time to write something good.

MINOR LEAGUE NOTES

As Seth pointed out, Evan Bigley is on his way to Class A Fort Myers from Class A Beloit. Unfortunately, Aaron Hicks won’t be going to Beloit to replace him. Infielder Ramon Santana is close to coming off of the disabled list, so that will be the move to replace Bigley.

Bigley is headed to Fort Myers to replace Joe Benson, who will miss 4-5 weeks with a broken hand. How? He punched a wall in frustration after making an out - although he was 2 for 4 in the game!

“We have some guys who will punch a wall from time to time,” said Jim Rantz, the Twins’ director of minor leagues. “Unfortunately, the wall wins every time.”

And, to repeat, Wilson Ramos will miss two weeks with a broken left ring finger.

PROGRAMMING NOTE

Stay tuned to www.startribune.com today for the latest video report from your favorite Twins beat writers.