TORONTO -- For nearly six months since the Twins quiet exit in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, the in-season rituals have waited. Analyzing box scores, for one. Thinking along with Manager Ron Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson as they navigate their bullpen through the late innings.

Heading into tonight's season opener against the Blue Jays, last year's bullpen blue prints are almost useless. Jon Rauch is Toronto's closer now. Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier and Brian Fuentes are gone, too.

In this sense, it's a whole new ballgame for the Twins. Here's a quick look at the new bullpen seven:

RH Jeff Manship appears to be the long man. He came through the minors as a starter. Anderson sees comparisons to Guerrier because Manship can change speeds and throw multiple pitches for strikes. Righties have hit .344 off Manship, but lefties .236. That's strange, and there's a lot of that in this bullpen.

LH Dusty Hughes might remind people of Craig Breslow. Neither is big in stature, but both know how to pitch. Again, nothing overpowering. Hughes' best pitch is his change-up, and his breaking stuff hasn't been the same since he had Tommy John surgery in 2006. Still, he didn't give up a run in 12 spring training appearances.

LH Glen Perkins, like Hughes, is not a prototypical lefty reliever, with dominant breaking pitches. Both will be called upon to get both righties and lefties out. In fact, lefties have hit .319 off Perkins, compared to .289 for righties. But with his shoulder injuries behind him, Perkins is back to throwing a fastball 91-93 mph and even touched 95-mph this spring. Not only that, but he hides the ball well, so it jumps on hitters.

RH Kevin Slowey has been so impressive in the bullpen, Gardenhire is talking about using him with Mijares in a set-up role. As often happens to converted starters, Slowey has been throwing harder in relief. You know he's not going to get in trouble by walking people. The big question here is how well Slowey will be able to bounce back outing-to-outing, and how quickly he'll be able to get loose, especially when the Twins get out in the cold Monday in New York.

LH Jose Mijares is excited about his two-seam sinking fastball. The Twins are trying to pump him up. They really need him to be good.

RH Matt Capps had a very good spring, aside from a slight hiccup in Tuesday's loss in Atlanta.

RH Joe Nathan is a huge question mark, coming off Tommy John surgery, but in some ways he's right where he was in 2004, when the Twins weren't sure what kind of closer he'd make. His velocity was down that whole spring. But then the regular season started, the adrenaline kicked in, and Nathan became one of the best closer's in the game.

The big thing to watch now is the consistency of Nathan's slider. If he finds that soon, this whole bullpen could go from a potential weakness to a surprising strength.

Enjoy the season, folks. Check back here this afternoon for tonight's starting lineups. Also, if you haven't yet, be sure to read Howard Sinker's latest post from Section 219. Here's wishing him a speedy recovery.