Brewers Sign Jorge Julio- 1 year/$950,000: New Closer?

[stoutdude04]

Yet McClung pitched an inning which means he was available.

As someone else mentioned...im sure he was used because Julio got nobody out. If Julio does his job, McClung is not used. Instead, hes used because he had to be used. Coffey had a bunch of pitches in his first inning of work to get out of that jam. If Coffey has a quick inning maybe he goes an extra inning and saves McClungs arm. I would guess Macha doesnt plan on using McClung tonite...unless of course he HAS to.

[JJHardy7]

He hadn't given up a run in his last 4 appearances which covered 5.2 innings - It was time to put him out there and see if he was going to be able to perform in close games, At some point it had to happen.

 

If you want to bring him in the game, that's fine. I just think IMO he was struggling pretty bad last night. 'You play to win the game'. Julio has been up and down this year and when he's letting guys on base and not getting outs I think you need to make adjustments quicker than you would with a more consistent pitcher. It was pretty clear to me that he was putting the Brewers in a spot that they were going to be down a few runs and that proved to be too big of a gap for the team to close. If you want him to pitch, that's fine. He's the kind of guy though that can struggle and when he does it's not pretty. In other words, get on the bullpen phone a little quicker if he's on the mound (ironically enough it looked like the phone was 'broken' last night when they made the call for Coffey).

[Daubs]

I just think IMO he was struggling pretty bad last night.

There's no doubt that Julio struggled last night and I doubt you'll find anyone that disagrees with you. What I've read indicated that Julio had trouble gripping the baseball - bad excuse? Maybe. But as you noted, Julio is prone to lose control at any time.

 

In any case - was Julio's struggles due to having a bad outing at a crucial time or was it because he was finally placed into a high-pressure situation? Granted the defense didn't help him out, but the entire bases-loaded situation was caused by himself.

 

All we know is that last night's outing caused Macha to completely lose faith in Julio and led to his release.

 

But it was interesting that the Brewer bullpen phone just happened to stop functioning when Julio came in the game...hey?

[naivin]

I think this was probably win-win for Macha. Julio was probably a good enough choice to come in given the overall state of the bullpen last night. He keeps him in and gives him a chance to get out of trouble. If he does that, he demonstrates he was worthy of that opportunity. If he doesn't, yes they probably lose the game (although given the Brewers' O, I don't think Macha is necessarily afraid falling a run or two behind in the 6th inning.). If he struggles as he did, he's gone the next day as we saw. You don't need to look too hard at the way Julio was(n't) used by Macha to conclude that he really had no use for him. I would say Doug Melvin received that message loud and clear last night...thus the DFA today.