In the Fanshot that apparently got out of hand and is now closed, I brought up the point that I thought that the 2012 bullpen is the best going into the season that the Rays/Devil Rays have ever had. It was brought up that the 2010 was better. I was at work so I couldn't get back to it before it was closed but I decided to do some research and was surprised by my findings. The 2010 bullpen was a veteran group whereas the 2012 group has a couple youngsters (Gomes, Mcgee).

Using WAR values I compared the opening day bullpen in 2010 which consisted of Rafael Soriano, Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler, Randy Choate, Lance Cormier, Mike Ekstrom, and Andy Sonnanstine and for this purpose I am putting the 2012 Bullpen of Kyle Farnsworth, Joel Peralta, Brandon Gomes, Jake Mcgee, JP Howell, Burke Badenhop, and Fernando Rodney.

in 2009 these were the WAR values of the 2010 Bullpen guys

Soriano- 1.8

Balfour- -.1

Wheeler- 1.0

Choate- 1.0

Cormier- .5

Ekstrom- -.4

Sonnanstine- .2.1

for a total of 1.7 WAR in 2009 from the pen guys

as for the 2012 guys here is what they did in 2011

Farnsworth-1.8

Peralta- 1.3

Gomes-.4

Mcgee-0

Howell-.9

Badenhop-.5

Rodney- .3

The 2012 group had a 3.4 WAR with Gomes and Mcgee spending part time in AAA and Howell coming off an injury and unlike the 2010 group none of the 2012 pen had a negative WAR the previous year.

Even with having more of a veteran group and with Gomes and Mcgee being rookies in 2011 the 2012 Pen actually has a higher career WAR with a 14.5 Career WAR compared to a 14.2 Career War from the 2010 group. The 2010 Group was led by Soriano and Wheeler whom combined for 13.4 of their total of 14.2, the two highest in the 2012 group (Farnsworth and Peralta) combined for just 8.3.