The Silver Lining Within The Horrid Astros Bullpen

     Over the course of this tumultuous season, there has been all kinds of turnover regarding the line-up, rotation, bench, and the 25 man in general as the revolving door stop-gaps continue to make their pass through the roster. The offense and starting rotation at points this year have looked promising, and flashed glimpses of sustained brilliance, but the one constant game in and game out has been the abomination that is the 2013 Houston Astros bullpen. Once a group that proudly referred to themselves as the "regulators" this time last year, the bullpen this season has been bad. Very Bad. Michael Jackson bad. Go down in the books on the wrong side of history bad. If you've been living under a rock, and are unaware just how horrifyingly brutal this 'pen has been, brace yourself.

     Before delving into further specific and damning statistic, here's a look at the basic splits between the starters and relievers via baseball-reference..

Split	W	L	ERA	G	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WP	WHIP	SO/9
as Starter	27	48	4.69	115	0	643.0	693	365	335	77	263	467	25	1.487	6.5
as Reliever	10	30	5.39	331	23	374.1	416	250	224	70	172	305	18	1.571	7.3

As illustrated above, the rotation hasn't been all that bad if you disregard the abysmal performances of Phillip Humber, 33 earned runs in 33.2 innings of work, and Peacock's early struggles of 26 earned runs in  29 innings, inflating the starters ERA, you get a much more respectable 4.28 ERA. Granted, the rotation has struggled at times, but their difficulties pale in comparison to that of the bullpen's. The staff is responsible for surrendering a league leading 40 leads. FORTY. Seven more than the runner up Chicago Cubs at 33. High leverage scenarios, close games, and save situations, have been the Achilles of this bunch. So essentially they're bad at the definition of their job description to a T. Save situations have accounted for 92 innings thus far this year. In those 92 innings, the Astros own an ERA of 5.77, OPS of .872, WHIP of 1.5, surrendered 23 homerun's along with a .520 slugging percentage, and have blown 20 opportunities. The bullpen has been equally as bad in "late & close" games, (7th inning or later situation in which the score is tied, the Astros lead by one, or the tying run of the opposition is on deck) surrendering an .848 OPS, 95 walks, 174 hits, 108 runs, and 25 homerun's in 69 contests. Innings 6-9 display the ineffectiveness of the late inning hurlers, boasting a 5.10 ERA with a BB/9 over 4, and an astounding 77 homerun's  in 425 innings. The 7th and 8th innings have in particular been doozies, with an ERA and OPS of 5.40 and .857 in the 7th frame, and a 5.79 ERA along with a .899 OPS in the 8th. Recently, the late inning boys have put the icing on the crap cake that has been this bullpens campaign to this point. Since July 13th, so going on almost exactly a full month now, the 'pen owns an ERA of 7.35 in 61.2 innings of labored work. Are you sobbing uncontrollably yet?

     The pain cuts deep to the marrow of the bone. I believe we have reached our predetermined destination embarked upon the moment we fully committed to seeing a thorough rebuild through. We have arrived to the lonely dwelling place known as rock-bottom. It's dark and cold here. This isn't a place an Astros fan belongs nor a place one has grown accustomed to regardless of the ignorant trash that the media violently diarrhea's from their stupid mouths. I touch on and break down the already heavily documented struggles of the bullpen in attempt to shoot for the old "break them down, to build them back up" routine, a theme which our own fearless leader, wizard Jeffery Luhnow is familiar with. Granted we have given up 40 leads 116 games into the season. Yes, we have lost 36 of 58 ballgames decided by 2 or fewer runs, and the vast majority of those losses ended in indescribably frustrating late inning heartbreak. This season, headlined by the bullpen, has been incomprehensibly maddening, yet there's a ray of sunshine filtering through the steaming pile of excrement that is the 2013 campaign. The Astros have to their name 40 blown leads, and 20 blown saves. 58 of the 116 ballgames played thus far have been decided by 2 runs or less. We have been in a LOT of ballgames up until the point where it hit the fan. We are playing competitive baseball at a much higher frequency than years past. Give me a major league average bullpen, and I can see a win total anywhere in the range of 60-70 being very plausible. Now 60-70 wins is a number most scoff at, but that's huge for a rebuilding organization that has just endured two consecutive 105+ loss seasons. We may have not seen a trend north in the win column, but we can see it out on that field and what lies beneath soon to come.

     We're making progress, you may have to sift through the win-loss column quite a bit to find it, but it's there. Jarred Cosart, Brett Oberholtzer, and recently Brad Peacock have been huge bright spots for the Astros as they establish themselves at the major league level. They most certainly figure to contribute in the future. Brett Wallace, Jason Castro, Robbie Grossman, Matt Dominguez, Jonathon Villar, and Brandon Barnes have all acted as spark plugs and made adjustments this year and can possibly figure into future plans. Jose Altuve has had a somewhat down season, but he's established himself as a major league quality starting second baseman, and his defensive metrics have improved quite a bit. Even in the bullpen, the arrival of rookies Josh Zeid, Chia-Jen Lo, Kevin Chapman, Josh Fields, and Jorge De Leon is encouraging regardless of their performance thus far. All of them have major league quality arsenals, and at least a few of them figure to pan out and bolster the bullpen of competitive teams of the future. The kids are playing hard, and they're not getting blown out on a regular basis. The youngest team in major league baseball is playing competitive ball, and if the bullpen wasn't making the wrong kind of history, the win-loss column would reflect that. It's a long and painful process we're in the midst of, but we're making strides and brighter days are ahead. This season was all about making individual improvements, and we've seen them. The disastrous bullpen has inhibited us all year, and in a sense that's somewhat encouraging. A bullpen is the easiest piece of a roster to construct via low-cost free agency.

     With pieces like Ambriz, Blackley, Wright, and Gonzalez out of the picture, Luhnow has a clean slate to work with, and plenty of money to spend this offseason. The bullpen problem will be mended soon enough, and as a result the Astros will see increasing success at the big league level as the building tsunami begins to crest. The silver lining is there. Keep the faith! Fight the good fight! Go 'Stros!!