31-year old righty reliever Dan Wheeler has been pretty solid this year for the Rays. He has pitched in 64 games out of the bullpen for the Rays in which he is 4-4 with 2 saves, a 3.33 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP. He has only allowed 39 hits and walked only 8 batters in 54 innings this season which is pretty darn good pitching. But, he has allowed 10 homers this season and that’s way too many for a reliever. Still, he has been the Rays’ 2nd best reliever this season behind J.P. Howell.

25-year old righty starting pitcher Matt Garza deserved better this season based on how he has pitched. Garza has started 29 games for the Rays this season and he is 7-10 with a 3.84 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. Garza has only allowed 162 hits in 185 innings for the Rays this season while whiffing 167 batters showing how nasty his stuff is. Garza should have probaby twice as many wins as he has right now as the bullpen and offense have failed to back him up.

The Rays were thinking about going with a closer by committee after losing Troy Percival to injury. But, lefty J.P. Howell has stepped up and took ahold of the job. Howell has pitched in 39 games this season for the Rays and he is 4-2 with 6 saves, a 1.63 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. Howell has whiffed 46 batters in only 38 2/3 innings while allowing only 26 hits. The amazing thing about those numbers is that you would think he throws heat but his fastball never gets much higher than 87-88 mph. Still, the important thing for Howell is that he throws strikes and misses bats.

J.P. Howell, Grant Balfour and Dan Wheeler have really tightened up the Rays’ bullpen this season. Lefty J.P. Howell has been a huge surprise as he has never pitched well in the majors before this season. Coming into the 2008 season, Howell had a 5-14 record with a 6.34 ERA and a 1.61 WHIP in 33 starts in his major league career. Howell has really taken to the role of long reliever as it appears that he’s picked up a couple of mph on his fastball. Howell is 6-0 with 2 saves, a 2.68 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP this year and it would even be better if he had better control. Howell has walked 27 batters this season while allowing only 38 hits in 57 innings this year. Dan Wheeler has been outstanding in his role as set up man this season for the Rays. He is 2-4 with 3 saves, a 2.38 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP this year and he should continue to have a fine season for the Rays. Grant Balfour has been filling in for the injured Troy Percival as the closer and he has been nasty. Balfour is 2-1 with 3 saves, a 1.64 ERA and a 0.95 ERA so far this year. He has only allowed 10 hits while whiffing 33 batters in only 22 innings this season. The Rays hope he can keep up the good work the rest of the season.

The Rays felt good coming into this season about the starting rotation but they still wondered what they would get out of the #4 and #5 starting jobs. But, Edwin Jackson and Andy Sonnanstine have stepped up big time and have solidified the back end of the rotation. Jackson is 5-6 with a 3.93 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP so far this season and even though he has been up and down this year he has been solid overall. Jackson does need to tighten his control a little bit as he has walked 47 batters in 110 innings and that has gotten him into some trouble this year. Andy Sonnanstine is the opposite of Jackson as he gives up a lot of hits but gets disappointed if he even walks one batter in a game. He is 10-4 with a 4.58 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP this year. He has only walked 20 batters in 114 innings this season which keeps the Rays’ defense on their toes. Scott Kazmir (7-5, 3.04), James Shields (7-6, 3.83) and Matt Garza (7-5, 3.96) should all have better records than they have if the Rays just hit a little better when they were pitching. Still, not many teams can match the starting rotation of the Rays 1-5 and that should help them maintain the first half pace they have set.