That's a tiny sample size and is unreasonably skewed by a closer who was hurt but didn't let on how hurt he was until it couldn't be denied. It's not like the Astros have only converted 25 out of 75. If they'd replaced Lyon with Melancon earlier, or if Lopez hadn't gotten hurt, it might be 10 of 15 which would be bad but still a very small sample size and not an "unbelievable" 33%. Measuring something that isn't likely to be a trend against those two teams is not a good comp, IMO.
I am not sure you can look at it with the "there are reasons why...". It is what it is. This bullpen is inconsistent and that is the bottomline regardless. Not one of these guys inspires a "when he's in, you have a very good chance the job will get done" feeling for me. Not one. Melancon is very talented, but you have to give him the opportunity to fail and learn in order to be more consistent. That is why a good mixture of veteran and young talent is perhaps the best recipe for a solid bullpen.
In days past, the un-sung heroes of the bullpen who provided leadership and good performances were guys like Tom Gordon or Dan Miceli that helped young arms like Dan Wheeler, Chad Qualls and even Brad Lidge be much better. That is one area and the other is a the role definition for a bullpen. It is critical and when one particular role is not functioning well, then it has a ripple effect. It is not that overtly evident, but it's there and the bullpen guys try to do much more than the role calls for when they are expected to cover for another role is *not* doing well.
A seventh inning guy tries to do much more because he knows the eighth inning guys is shaky and so forth. In short, Houston has none of that and that is why at this point of the season, if I were doing a Memorial Day evaluation like most GMs do, I'd say the biggest problem area for my team right now is the bullpen because of the two areas I just talked about. It is just not there in my team.
