You might have noticed Chris Barnwell grounding out to end today's game, a welcome ray of sunshine amidst the the carnage. It's not that Barnwell is any great shakes, just that, as Jeff has repeatedly pointed out, the bottom of the bullpen was essentially useless. The gist of it is Barnwell and Rick Helling added and Allan Simpson removed with respect to the 40-man roster; there was already an open spot with Brad Nelson being outrighted to Huntsville last week. The article says Joe Winkelsas was also "outrighted," but I don't think that's correct; if he was indeed outrighted, that would leave the Brewers yet with an open 40-man spot, which doesn't make much sense. More likely, I think, is that Winky/Closer, Huntsville Stars (W/CHS) was optioned.
In any case, this isn't a major move, but speaks to someone (Robin Yount?) finally getting through to Ned Yost that the 13th pitcher, lately Simpson, was serving no purpose at all. If it took a Jeff Cirillo sprained ankle to prove they needed another middle infielder, so be it.
Bottom line, Helling probably isn't much of an improvement over Zach Jackson/Carlos Villanueva (now "co-fifth starters") but having one of those two guys replace W/CHS's innings and having Barnwell available late off the bench instead of having Simpson work on his hotfoots is definitely a good thing, if a minor one.