I never thought I would hear myself say this but I am starting to really enjoy watching Jorge Julio pitch.  With the crappy track record, his resemblance to Armando Benitez, and his atrocious start to the season, it was easy to hate this guy.  Really easy. 

When I was on an early season Jorge-bashing spree and was calling for a demotion to AAA, my friend Will told me not to panic: 

"I don't think it makes sense to send Julio to the minors." he said, "he's got great stuff but needs confidence - or something.  And Rick Peterson's magic."

As is often the case, Will seems to be right on base.  Call it good managing by Randolph, playing him regularly but not putting him in dangerous situations, call it good schooling by Peterson getting him to keep his fastball down or just call it good pitching but all of a sudden, with the exception of the gopher ball to Francoeur, the guy currently looks unhittable. 

It seems that Peterson/Randolph have successfully sold him the premise that a 93 MPH heater thrown with control is more difficult to hit than 97 MPH cheese hung right over the plate.  As Don Adams would say, "The old Sandy -Koufax-take-a-Little-off-the-fastball- and-knock-em-dead-trick". 

The 5 K's over 2 innings yesterday look nice on paper, but do not fully convey how dominant the big man looked yesterday.  The fastball was humming, but that was only a set up pitch for the real nasty stuff, his ferocious breaking ball.   Coming in at 94 MPH and then spinning violently downward at the last moment, it looks like there is a reverse magnetic reaction at play, the ball repelling the wood as it approaches the bat. 

Its early, and I am sure Will would tell me to be cautiously optimistic about Julio.  In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due though, I wanted to put on record that the Armando doppelganger is starting to make a believer out of me.

5/5/06 - The renaissance continmues

Julio tossed a scoreless ninth against the bucs last night. After allowing an inning-opening walk, he procedded to strike out the side.  Last nights performance now gives him 27 K's in 14.1 innings.      

As pointed out on Metsblog, Since allowing four runs in his first 4.1 innings pitched, Julio has a 1.76 ERA in 10.2 innings, and the two runs he allowed in that span both came on a Jeff Francoeur home run in Atlanta.  In that stretch, he has fanned 27 of the 62 batters he has faced, while walking only six