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Fill in the blank: Bull____

By Jeff Sackmann

Okay, this is just getting bizarre. First we DFA our long man so that our eight-man bullpen can have a situational lefty. That I can understand. Then we send our struggling fill-in starter back to Nashville so that , a recent waiver-wire pickup, can pitch in middle relief.

Of course, we couldn't do that, so we borrow for a few days. To be the ninth man in the pen. Now, after has continued to struggle, he's been DFA'd in favor of yet another alternative. Brewers fans, meet pitcher #21, Joe Winkelsas:

Winkelsas, a 32-year-old right-hander, made 13 relief appearances for Double-A Huntsville this season and compiled four saves and a 1.72 earned-run average. He allowed runs in only two outings and recorded at least one strikeout in 10 of his 13 appearances.

His only Major League appearance was an extremely brief one with Atlanta in April 1999, when he surrendered two runs on four hits and a walk in one-third of an inning. Winkelsas, who also pitched one game for Triple-A Nashville this year, has pitched parts of 11 seasons in the Minors.

I guess I just don't quite understand. I'm convinced this team could make do with 10 or 11 pitchers. With Turnbow, Wise, Capellan, de la Rosa, Kolb, and Shouse all pitching reasonably well, why fly a bunch of guys in and out to pitch trash innings? Somehow, even teams with poor starting pitching manage to get through entire games with 5- or 6-man pens.

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