Will quality beget quantity?

That appears to be the Red Sox’ hope when it comes to rounding out their bullpen for the 2011 season. The team already appears to have five spots filled, with closer Jonathan Papelbon joined by setup men Daniel Bard and Bobby Jenks, Dan Wheeler standing as a shutdown right-on-right option and Tim Wakefield operating in a swing role.

Assuming that the Sox operate with a seven-man bullpen, that leaves the team with two vacancies to sort out during spring training. That will be no small task.

The Sox have invited 12 non-roster pitchers to big league camp, while featuring an additional eight pitchers on their 40-man roster who don’t have guaranteed big league jobs for the start of the season. (That does not include Alfredo Aceves, whom the Sox signed to a $650,000 major league deal on Tuesday.)

Clearly, the Sox will select one and perhaps two left-handed pitchers to round out their big league roster. There will be six left-handers competing for the job of being a lock-down left-on-left pitcher (if the pitcher can also stymie right-handers, the Sox would not object), while the other pitchers in big league camp will be right-handers who face what appear to be fairly daunting odds, in that — assuming the Sox’ core group of relievers remains healthy — the righties will be competing for no more than one open relief spot.

So, who are these pitchers? The Sox will feature an eclectic group of established and highly successful big leaguers, journeymen and pitching prospects. With apologies to Jason Bergmann, Brandon Duckworth, Matt Fox, Tony Pena Jr., Clevelan Santeliz and Randy Williams, here is a look at 15 of the pitchers who will be in big league camp without any guarantee of a job at the big league level in the coming year.

THE LEFT-HANDERS

FELIX DOUBRONT
Age: 23
Throws: Left
Status: 40-man roster
Options remaining: 1
2010: 12 games, 25 innings, 4.32 ERA, 8.3 SO/9, 3.6 BB/9
2011 contract: Team control
Doubront made a strong impression in three starts and nine relief appearances, starting out nearly a batter an inning in 25 innings of work. In the middle of the year, he unveiled a solid curveball to go with his low-90s fastball and swing-and-miss changeup.

His stuff played up in impressive fashion out of the bullpen, and he attacked the strike zone aggressively, striking out 13 and walking just two in his 9 2/3 relief innings. He was also tremendous against lefties, who hit just .189 with a .225 OBP and .351 slugging mark against him. Interestingly, of the 23 curveballs he threw to lefties, just three were put in play — all grounders. Lefties were 0-for-9 against the pitch.

Both general manager Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona said repeatedly during the offseason that the young left-hander is ready to be a major league contributor now, and they made no secret of their belief that he could be a meaningful bullpen contributor.

That said, if the Sox view him as having greater long-term value as a starter — perhaps even this year as a rotation depth option — then they could send him back to Triple-A to keep him on a regular turn of the rotation.

RICH HILL
Age: 30 (turns 31 in March)
Throws: Left
Status: Minor league deal
2010: 6 games, 4 innings, 0.00 ERA, 3 SO, 1 BB
2011 potential major league salary: $580,000
Hill features a dazzling curveball that he can employ in different fashions. It is particularly effective as a potential left-on-left weapon. Last year, in a brief September cameo with the Sox, Hill held lefties to a 1-for-8 mark with a pair of strikeouts. In his career, lefties have a .216 average against him, though his command inconsistencies have allowed southpaws to forge a .327 OBP against him.

ANDREW MILLER
Age: 25
Throws: Left
Status: Minor league deal
2010: 9 games, 32 2/3 innings, 8.54 ERA, 7.7 SO/9, 7.2 BB/9
2011 potential major league salary: $1.3 million
Coming out of the University of North Carolina, when he was the sixth overall pick in the 2006 draft, his high-90s fastball, devastating breaking stuff and rangy, 6-foot-7 frame resulted in comparisons to Randy Johnson. Unfortunately for Miller, thus far the Big Unit comparisons have been most apt for the initial stages of Johnson’s career, when severe command woes raised questions about whether the pitcher could ever emerge as effective.

The Marlins essentially cut bait with Miller — a key to the deal that sent Miguel Cabrera to the Tigers — following a 2010 season in which he suffered woeful command while allowing more than two baserunners per inning. The Sox are hopeful that, given the right instruction, he might be able to rediscover the college delivery (and stuff) that made him such a tantalizing prospect a few years ago.

Miller features a fastball/slider/changeup mix. While there was little that he could take from last year, when throwing strikes, he was able to get bad contact from right-handers on his changeup (.217 average, .261 slugging) and from left-handers on his slider (.178 average, but with a .455 slugging mark).

Everyone agrees that Miller’s development was hindered by being rushed to the majors. He is at a crossroads, hoping to salvage his potential. The Sox, meanwhile, are hoping to maximize the yield on that potential. As such, it would be surprising if, even with a strong spring, he were to open the year anywhere but Pawtucket.

That said, it will be interesting to see whether the Sox employ him out of the bullpen or starting rotation if he does end up in Triple-A. The Sox view his most likely 2011 big league contributions as a reliever, so they might well be inclined to have him work in the bullpen in the minors as well.

HIDEKI OKAJIMA
Age: 35
Throws: Left
Status: 40-man roster
Options remaining: 3
2010: 56 games, 46 innings, 4.50 ERA, 6.5 SO/9, 3.9 BB/9
2011 contract: $1.75 million
In a way, Okajima is a more extreme version of Reyes. However, his decline has been more gradual and steady. He produced several career-worst marks in 2010, including ERA, strikeouts per nine, walks per nine, innings and appearances.

While he has seen his performance get progressively worse against right-handed hitters in each of his major league seasons, he actually enjoyed a reasonable measure of success against lefties in the second half of last year. After the All-Star break, lefties hit .206 with a .270 OBP and .206 slugging mark against him. That offers some grounds for optimism by the Red Sox that he can enjoy some bounceback.

DENNYS REYES
Age: 33 (34 in April)
Throws: Left
Status: Minor league deal
2010: 59 games, 38 innings, 3.55 ERA, 5.9 SOs/9, 5.0 BB/9
2011 potential major league salary: $900,000 salary, up to $500,000 in bonuses
From 2006-09, Reyes was among the most effective left-handed specialists in the game. His 2.42 ERA was second only to Billy Wagner among left-handed relievers (min. 100 games). Against left-handed hitters, he ranked among the best in the game in opponent batting average (.206, 12th), OBP (.281, 15th) and slugging percentage (.259, 2nd).

It is often said that a pitcher’s results stem first and foremost from his fastball command. That being the case, one need not look far to figure out why Reyes’ 2010 season ran counter to the rest of his career.

He faced 84 lefties, throwing roughly the same number of fastballs (157) and breaking pitches (155). Of those fastballs, just 58.5 percent were strikes (whether called strikes, swinging strikes, foul balls or balls in play). The result? Lefties hit .343 with a .511 OBP and .457 slugging mark when Reyes’ fastball was the decisive pitch of an at-bat.

That represented a contrast with the 2009 season, when Reyes was more reliant on his heater against lefties (throwing 218 fastballs, compared to 178 breaking balls) and had 61.9 percent of them produce strikes. Lefties did not have a single extra-base hit against him, as he produced a line of .231/.333/.231 against his fastball.

Reyes — whose fastball last year averaged just over 90 mph, very much in line with his velocity in previous years — may have been, in part, the victim of weird luck. Against lefties last year, he was hammered for a .307 average, .409 OBP, .453 slugging mark and .862 OPS. His line against righties was .177/.288/.194/.481.

But his batting average on balls in play (a statistic that tends to fluctuate in unpredictable fashion) against lefties was .396, while his BABIP against right-handers was .190. Those marks were well off of his career norms of a .310 BABIP against lefties and .325 mark against righties.

If luck and his fastball command return, then he represents a pitcher with a proven track record of shutting down lefties.

THE RIGHT STUFF? RIGHT-HANDED OPTIONS FOR THE BULLPEN

MATT ALBERS
Age: 28
Throws: Right
Status: 40-man roster
Options remaining: None
2010: 62 games, 75 2/3 innings, 4.52 ERA, 5.8 SO/9, 4.0 BB/9
2011 contract: $875,000
The product of San Jacinto Junior College (where Roger Clemens began his college career), Albers spent the last few years in the AL East with the Orioles, having been traded by Houston to Baltimore in the Miguel Tejada deal.

Albers has never been a dominant reliever, but he is intriguing as a pitcher who elicited boatloads of grounders last year. Of the 241 balls in play against him last year, 56.8 percent were grounders. By comparison, Justin Masterson — widely considered as extreme a groundball pitcher as there is in the majors right now — had a 57.8 percent groundball rate on balls in play.

However, he has a relatively low strikeout rate and a relatively high walk rate, elements that do him few favors.

Albers has similar splits against both lefties and righties: Lefties have a .281/.372/.434/.806 mark against him, while righties have marks of .281/.354/.408/.762.

Albers is the lone pitcher in the bullpen competition who is on the 40-man roster but lacks minor league options.

SCOTT ATCHISON
Age: 34 (turns 35 in March)
Throws: Right
Status: 40-man roster
Options remaining: 1
2010: 43 games, 60 innings, 4.50 ERA, 6.2 SO/9, 2.9 BB/9
2011 contract: $454,000
Atchison was a terrific find for the Red Sox, and he emerged as a surprisingly important member of the bullpen. The Sox appreciated the fact that he was a strike-thrower who maintained poise regardless of the situation.

Atchison enjoyed far more success against right-handers (.220 with a .271 OBP, .374 slugging mark and .645 OPS) than left-handers (.290/.353/.486/.839). That said, he could be more than a one-trick pony, since his slider is a swing-and-miss weapon against lefties when he’s able to bury it down and in. (Atchison got more misses from lefties (23) on his slider than righties (17).)

That said, when he makes mistakes, they tend to get hammered, as evidenced by his 1.4 homers per nine innings. His strikeouts per nine were also a career low.

While he was one of the most important members of the Sox bullpen last year, in some ways, he would appear to be in the same position he was last spring: fighting for a job in the majors. The acquisition of Dan Wheeler could render Atchison redundant unless he is able to perform against lefties.

MICHAEL BOWDEN
Age: 24
Throws: Right
Status: 40-man roster
Options: 1
2010: 14 games, 15 1/3 innings, 4.70 ERA, 7.6 SO/9, 2.3 BB/9
2011 contract: Team control
Bowden endured a transitional year with Pawtucket and the Red Sox in 2010, having worked to smooth out his delivery and then getting shifted from the rotation to the bullpen. He continued working out of the bullpen in Venezuela this winter, and it now appears that his most likely path to the majors is as a reliever.

Somehow, as a 24-year-old, Bowden is sometimes a forgotten man in the Red Sox system. Even so, there were elements to build on from his time in the majors last year, most notably the fact that he attacked the strike zone out of the bullpen and elicited swings and misses.

The issue for Bowden is that his fastball doesn’t have much movement, and he tends to work up in the zone, resulting in high fly ball rates (and a lot of extra-base hits).

He generates deception against right-handers, getting swings and misses on 13.4 percent of his pitches against hitters from that side of the plate. He had swings and misses on just 5.3 percent of his pitches against southpaws, however. Unsurprisingly, he had a significant disparity in his splits against lefties and righties, with a .379/.438/.586 line against lefties and a .273/.294/.515 line against righties.

ROBERT COELLO
Age: 26
Throws: Right
Status: 40-man roster
Options: 3
2010: 6 games, 5 2/3 innings, 4.76 ERA, 5 SOs, 5 BB
2011 contract: Team control
Since entering the Red Sox’ farm system out of the Golden Baseball League following the 2008 season, Coello has struck out 10.9 batters per nine innings. He had a terrible big league debut, giving up three runs on three hits and two walks while recording just one out on Sept. 6. In five subsequent appearances, however, he gave up just one hit and no runs while striking out five and walking three.

The Red Sox like the fact that he can get swings and misses with his fastball, something that separates him from some pitchers who amass big strikeout numbers in the minors due to a good breaking pitch but who then can’t replicate their success in the majors.

Even so, he just 24 combined appearances in Triple-A and the majors, and he likely stands to benefit from further time at Pawtucket. If he can improve his control, then he could be a potentially significant second-half option.

THE REINFORCEMENTS: PITCHERS WHO MIGHT INFLUENCE WHETHER THEY RECEIVE A CALL-UP IN LATE 2011 OR 2012

ALFREDO ACEVES
Age: 28
Throws: Right
Status: 40-man roster
Options remaining: 2
2010: 10 games, 12 innings, 3.00 ERA, 1.5 SO/9, 3.0 BB/9
2011 contract: $650,000
The 2010 season was essentially a lost season for Aceves, who was sidelined for most of the year by a lower back injury and then required offseason surgery to repair a broken clavicle after a bicycling accident in his native Mexico.

That led the Yankees to non-tender Aceves, but he has recovered from his surgery and the Sox feel that he should have few if any restrictions in spring training, resulting in his signing a major league deal on Tuesday.

Aceves features a fastball/cutter/curveball/changeup arsenal that permits him to attack hitters from both sides of the plate. Interestingly, in his fine 2009 season with the Yankees, he held left-handers to a .226 average and .278 OBP and right-handers to a nearly identical .227 average and .278 OBP. His changeup was a particular source of frustration to lefties, producing a .118/.151/.118/.269 line by lefties; Aceves elicited a swing-and-miss on nearly one of every four changeups he threw to lefties that year.

While most of his success with the Yankees came as a reliever, the Sox feel that they might benefit more from having him as a rotation depth option. As such, barring an injury — and given the amount of time he missed last year — it would seem likely that Aceves will end up in Pawtucket to start the year. Even so, depending on how he is pitching and the shape of the Sox’ relievers, he has proven an ability to help an AL East bullpen.

STOLMY PIMENTEL
Age: 21
Throws: Right
Status: 40-man roster
Options remaining: 3
2010: High-A Salem — 26 games, 128 2/3 innings, 4.06 ERA, 7.1 SO/9, 2.9 BB/9
2011 contract: Team control
Pimentel ranks among the top Sox starting pitching prospects. Moreover, he hasn’t pitched above High-A ball to this point. While Pimentel could become a bullpen consideration at a later point in his development — perhaps even in the final weeks of 2011, at a time when he might otherwise be done with his minor league season — the Sox have every intention of letting the young right-hander with an impressive three-pitch mix continue toward a future as a starter.

JASON RICE
Age: 24
Throws: Right
Status: Minor leaguer, not on 40-man roster
2010: Double-A Portland – 48 games, 60 innings, 2.85 ERA, 10.7 SO/9, 4.5 BB/9
2011 potential major league salary: Pro-rated minimum
Rice features a pair of potential swing-and-miss pitches in a fastball that touched as high as 98 mph (Rice, in fact, probably had the highest velocity readings of any Sox minor leaguer in 2010) and a curveball. Though he was passed over in the Rule 5 draft, if he can make strides with his command and reduce his walks, he has the stuff to be a big league reliever, perhaps even this year. For the start of the year, he will likely be slated for the Pawtucket bullpen.

JUNICHI TAZAWA
Age: 24
Throws: Right
Status: 40-man roster
Options remaining: 3
2010: Missed season (Tommy John surgery)
2011 contract: $550,000
Tazawa progressed in his recovery from Tommy John surgery as far as throwing bullpen sessions in November. He is back in Fort Myers now, working on a deliberate spring progression back toward game activity. His future could well be as a reliever, though the jury remains out. Short term, he will likely be stretched out on a very deliberate progression in games starting in April. In other words, if he is to become a big league relief option, it won’t be until later in the season.

KYLE WEILAND
Age: 24
Throws: Right
Status: Minor leaguer, not on 40-man roster
2010: Double-A Portland — 25 games, 128 1/3 innings, 4.42 ERA, 8.4 SO/9, 3.4 BB/9
2011 potential major league salary: Pro-rated minimum
Weiland spent most of his college career at Notre Dame as a closer, but the Sox have developed him as a starter, and that has helped his development of an improving changeup to complement a powerful fastball (which clocked as high as 95 mph last year in Double-A) and a nasty curveball that gets swings and misses from both righties and lefties.

Still, Weiland’s path to the majors could well come as a reliever — the role that they believed represented his most likely future when they drafted him in 2008. While he will almost certainly open the year in the Pawtucket rotation, Weiland’s second straight year as a non-roster invitee to big league camp represents an opportunity to solidify the positive impression he made in 2010 spring training.

He is viewed as a potential impact bullpen arm, and he could position himself as an important bullpen reinforcement later in the season. At the least, given that — barring a setback — he will have to be added to the 40-man roster before next season, he would appear a likely candidate for a September callup.

ALEX WILSON
Age: 24
Throws: Right
Status: Minor leaguer, not on 40-man roster
2010: High-A Salem — 11 games, 55 2/3 innings, 3.40 ERA, 8.1 SO/9, 2.4 BB/9
Double-A Portland — 16 games, 78 1/3 innings, 6.66 ERA, 6.4 SO/9, 3.9 BB/9
2011 potential major league salary: Pro-rated minimum
Like Weiland, Wilson represents a pitcher who is being developed in the minors as a starter but whose future may be in the bullpen. The 2010 season was his first full pro season, as he was taken by the Sox in the second round of the 2009 draft. Wilson became the first Sox prospect since Masterson in 2007 to secure a spot in the Double-A rotation during his first pro season.

Developmentally, he is a year behind Weiland. He was highly inconsistent in Portland, alternating dominant outings with poor ones. Depending on how Wilson’s development proceeds, he, too, could position himself for a potential end-of-season call-up on the strength of a fastball that can touch the mid-90s and a wipeout slider.