The deadline has came and gone without any moves, and you know, that's not such a bad thing. It's apparent the team didn't feel we were getting any value in trading Al Reyes, so we held on to him, fair enough, we now have a bullpen set for this and next year, but how good is it compared to what we had before? Well that's what we're looking at now.

Using the Pitcher VORP estimation formula, a la: (6.50- Run Average) x (IP/9) let's judge our top four pitchers from the first half of this season to what we have now, with a few variations, namely Al Reyes isn't an indication of the top four relief pitchers, he will be represented on both, but not in judging which is better, and Juan Salas will count for the second half.

First Half: Brian Stokes, Casey Fossum, Shawn Camp, Gary Glover
Second Half: Scott Dohmann, Grant Balfour, Juan Salas, Dan Wheeler

Reyes:  6.5 - 4.8 RA x 39/9 = 7.4 VORP
Stokes:    6.5 - 7.9 RA x 49/9 = -7.6 VORP
Fossum(RP only): 6.5 - 7.4 RA x 22/9 = -2.2 VORP
Camp: 6.5 - 7.4 RA x 40/9 = -4 VORP
Glover:6.5 - 5.3 RA x 54/9 = 7.2 VORP
Total = 0.8 VORP

Reyes: 6.5 - 4.8 RA x 39/9 = 7.4 VORP
Balfour (as Ray): 6.5 - 6 RA x 3/9 = .2 VORP
Dohmann: 6.5 - 5.1 RA x 7/9 = 1.0 VORP
Wheeler: 6.5 - 4.9 RA x 51/9 = 9.1 VORP
Salas: 6.5 - 5.6 RA x 16/9 = 1.6 VORP
Total = 19.3 VORP

Net Gain: 18.5 VORP

I believe Value Over Replacement Player estimates that for every 10 `runs gained prevented' you can add a `win'. So in the Rays case they have basically added two victories just by changing bullpens.