The Rays Bullpen: If the Season Started Today...

Much has been made in the media & on message boards about the failings of the Rays to win early Spring Training games, and even to point at the bullpen as being a failure so far.  So I thought it would make sense to look at which pitchers would probably make up the Rays' bullpen if the season started today.

Late innings: 
Juan Cruz- Only has pitched a couple innings, but sure has been impressive coming back from injury.

Joel Peralta, Kyle Farnsworth- Have identical stats 2.0 IP each, having given up 0 runs and one hit with 3 K's and a BB.

Jake McGee- Has yet to give up an earned run and has worked out of potential big innings due to errors behind him.  Young with great potential.

Middle relief:
Cory Wade - gave up his first run today, helped by an error behind him.Has been very solid in his outings early in games vs major league hitters. Adam Russell has struggled, but tall guys may take some time to get the mechanics in sync.

LOOGY:
RJ Swindle has been better against RH than LH batters this Spring, The Cesar's, Cabral and Ramos are other possibles, but this is tough to judge since they are all pitching vs LH & RH batters.  Realistiically only one of these guys makes the opening day roster, if any.

Long reliever:
Andy Sonnanstine has not had a great start to this season, but has proven to have the flexibility to fill the poisiton and makes much more sense for the role. Wasting a young arm in this position with erratic usage would be quite a gamble.

It is also very possible that one or more among Rob Delaney, Mike Ekstrom, Brandon Gomes, Dirk Hayhurst, Matt Bush and Dane De La Rosa or Chris Bootcheck could improve after this first week and be better than those mentioned.  I am expecting Torres, Archer & Cobb to remain starters so pretty much out of the running for bullpen roles this year; and also expect that Baker & Bayliss are headed to minor league camp next week. And please don't forget that at some point JP Howell will be coming back.

There have been some leads lost in the late innings, but almost exclusively by guys who are relative longshots to be in the major leagues to start the season.  Nobody likes to lose, and the late losses are even more painful, but to say, or even hint, that the Rays' bullpen is currently inadequate is not a realisitc way to portray things.