(Woo, first post, and all that jazz.) Obviously game 7 is an all hands on deck situation as far as the bullpen situation is concerned. But who gets the call from the pen depending on what happens in the game? More details after the jump...

To have a look at who should go, first we should see who's been used recently, and how effective they've been:

Everyone in the pen is listed above except Garza (who's starting anyway) and Shields (who is unavailable since he started yesterday).

From looking at this, the only pitchers used in both of the last two games have been Balfour and Howell. Howell looked okay in both games (despite picking up the loss in Game 5) but Balfour's results have been... not so good, to say the least. I wouldn't be too sure that these guys would get the call -- even though Howell has a rubber arm and all, I'd be he and Balfour would be used for maybe one or two same-handed batters, at most.

Bradford was also used yesterday but he was actually efficient, throwing 1.2 shutout innings and only 14 pitches. Miller got 1 out on one pitch in the ninth. Both of these guys will be available for their usual roles: Bradford to get groundballs (DPs) and as a righty killer, Miller as a LOOGY.

Price hasn't gotten on the mound in the last three games at all, and Jackson hasn't been since game 5. Both are the long relief type, although I'd hope that Price would be called on for 1 or 2 innings when lefties are coming up. Jackson shouldn't be in the game unless he's the last man standing.

Wheeler's the last regular bullpen guy. He... kinda sucked in Game 5, no two ways about it. But, he'll probably still be available for an inning, hopefully against a part of the order with less power to offset his flyball tendencies.

Then, we have Sonnanstine and Kazmir. Kaz did well in Game 5, going 6 scoreless with his usual high pitch count. He'd probably be okay for an inning or two if absolutely necessary. But the key here is Sonnanstine -- if Lester gets bombed early in the game, the Sox would probably prefer to go to Matsuzaka to bridge the gap to their middle relief. Dice-K threw 82 pitches in game 5, and probably couldn't go more than 50-60 pitches (which is going to be < 3 innings for him), but he's still a better option than Wakefield or Byrd. On the other hand, the Rays have Sonnanstine, who did pretty damn well in game 4, and who is on normal rest so he could pitch for as long as he is effective.

So here's what I think should happen, depending on how Garza's start goes. Ideally he'd go 6, and if we have the lead, we go Sonny/Price/Bradford (in some order) to close it out. But if he starts running into trouble, it might be prudent to immediately use Bradford and/or Miller to get out of the inning and bring Sonny in at the start of the next frame. Your thoughts?