Brad Lidge has struck out 149 batters in 119 2/3 career innings. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

The whispers began soon after Mike Piazza's game-tying home run landed beyond Minute Maid Park's right-center field fence.

This was on May 16, when Astros closer Octavio Dotel had blown a save, his second in three chances. Many began to wonder why the setup man, Brad Lidge, shouldn't be elevated into the closer's role.

After all, Lidge has been more dominant for much of this season, striking out 13.85 batters per nine innings. Dotel has struck out 12.86 per nine while allowing four home runs in 21 innings; Lidge has given up three homers in 26 IP and looked nearly untouchable until two poor outings against the Reds this weekend.

Conventional wisdom states the better pitcher should be the closer. He should have the fat contract, the heavy metal intro song and be doused with gold, frankincense and myrrh, right?

Nope.

Whether they planned it this way or not, the Astros have the ideal situation with the back end of their bullpen: two ace relievers, with the more dominant one as the setup man. This allows manager Jimy Williams to bring in Lidge when he needs him most, the seventh- or eighth-inning jam with runners on base and a lead to protect. Then Dotel can come in with a clean slate in the ninth to pad his all-important save totals.

The Astros aren't alone in their good fortune. Here are some other teams that use their best pitchers in the high-leverage situations instead of anointing them the "closer" and letting them gobble up easy saves:

Anaheim Angels
 Closer: Troy Percival
 Ace reliever: Francisco Rodriguez
 Comment: The Percival we remember from the 2002 World Series is long gone. His numbers since the start of 2003: 65 2/3 IP, 57 Ks, 33 BBs, 9 HRs. The gopher balls in particular are distressing, considering he gave up only eight homers in 2001-02 combined. K-Rod has whiffed 37 batters walked five in 24 2/3 innings this season.

Baltimore Orioles
 Closer: Jorge Julio
 Ace reliever: Take your pick
 Comment: B.J. Ryan (23 IP, 31 Ks, zero HRs) and Rodrigo Lopez (0.33 ERA as a reliever) have been a nasty pair. At least they were until Lopez was moved into the rotation last week. Julio blew eight saves last year and has a career strikeout rate of 6.63 per nine innings.

Chicago Cubs
 Closer: Joe Borowski
 Ace reliever: LaTroy Hawkins
 Comment: At least the Cubs have the salaries right: Hawkins makes $2.7 million compared to Borowski's $2 million salary. Hawkins has been well worth it, posting a 0.72 WHIP and .150 batting-average against.

Oakland A's
 Closer: Arthur Rhodes
 Ace reliever: Chad Bradford
 Comment: If any team were taking Bill James' bullpen advice to heart, it would have to be Billy Beane's sabermetrically-inclined A's. Bradford's batting-average against is a measly .197. If Rhodes falters, they will go to Jim Mecir before taking Bradford out of his setup role.

We all know what happened last season when the Red Sox unveiled their plan to use James' closer-by-committee plan. The bullpen faltered and the relentless Boston press had a field day all the while. Maybe the Red Sox's mistake was in advertising their intentions to the Flat Earth Society that makes up most of baseball's establishment. As long as these five clubs keep the press clueless and their best relievers working out of the tightest jams, they should be fine.

Jacob Luft is a Baseball Producer for SI.com.