Julio Mateo combines wife beating and terrible pitching. He's truly the whole package.
Mateo, at one point (2003-5) consistently ran good strikeout to walk ratios of 3 or better, which made him a valuable long relief pitcher despite his penchant for yielding homeruns, mostly due to his extreme flyball nature.
Since 2006, Julio Mateo has doubled his walk rate and stopped striking people out and thus, sucks. Mike Hargrove is unaware of both this fact and Mateo's flyball nature. Mike Hargrove is also unaware plants need water to grow.
Julio Mateo had an uncanny ability to enter into a game that the Mariners were winning, blow the save / hold, then still be the pitcher of record when the Mariners retake the lead, thus earning Mateo with a win. Because of this, Mateo became known as the Win Vulture.
Mateo is also not blessed with handsome good looks and is nicknamed "Camel Face" for obvious reasons.
Mateo's wife beating issues are as follows.
On 5/5/2007, it became possible that Julio Mateo was some sort of wife beating criminal…allegedly.
On 5/5/2007, he was optioned to AAA Tacoma
On 5/6/2007, he was suspended 10 days without pay
On 5/7/2007, he apologized for being some sort of wife beating criminal without actually apologizing.
The Mariners finally ridded themselves of Mateo by trading him to the Philles right before the 2007 Trade Deadline, allowing Pat Gillick to continue his quest to get every pitcher who ever pitched for the Mariners onto the Phillies roster. In return the Mariners essential received nothing, but the trade was truly just addition by subtraction.
