Wowsers.

Color me surprised. I thought Chulk was sort of useful.

Surprised. Maybe they think he will clear waivers. Of course, he would have to agree to pitch for Columbus.

Over Masa? Ugh. Not a fan of this decision.

Funny. I was just thinking earlier that we now have two long men for blowouts/whatnot. Guess we don’t anymore.

Huh. I would have had Masa and Jensen before Chulk. That is surprising.

Parse Not, Lest Ye Be Parsed

Hope this isn’t too long a clip from mlb.com

Classic Shap, in real time, under the gun

“We still respect everything every guy has done here and we’re still going to be always cognizant of that,” Shapiro said. "But we’ve reached a point now where we’re going to make the moves that help us right our bullpen. And feelings are not going to get in the way of that. We’re not going to look to disrespect anybody but we’re going to look to get this thing turned around as quickly as we can.

“We’ve always had a set way of doing things here and tried to respect. But now I think we’ve got to have a little greater sense of urgency where those things are not going to be as important.”

Shapiro said he is looking to rectify by internal and external means the inconsistencies — both short-term and long-term — that have plagued the bullpen, but "there are not natural changes waiting for us in Triple-A.

“So, we’re going to have to try and be creative,” he said. “We’re going to have to look at things from top to bottom in our system and look for solutions. Those are conversations we’re having right now. We are pushing the envelope on internal considerations. The reason we’re doing that is we’re not going to be able to turn over the whole bullpen from external alternatives. We’ve got limited external alternatives. We’ll continue to be aggressive in pursuing external alternatives, but the reality is the answers are probably going to have to lie internally.”

I find this strange. Masa’s usage suggests that Wedge has absolutely zero faith in his abilities – which pretty much means he is useless. May 3rd is the only game he has been used in a situation where the run differential was less than 4 runs all season.

I wonder if they told him right after the game last night. I was sitting pretty close to the Indians bullpen and Chulk stepped out to the track in the middle of the ninth and threw some balls to Grady in center. I thought it strange to see him – I thought for a second they were gonna bring him on to pitch.

Nice to see we’re not desperate for bullpen depth or anything.

Hoynes:

Right-hander Vinnie Chulk, a pleasant man, was designated for assignment by the Indians after Wednesday’s 9-2 victory over Boston.

Um, WTF?

Um, ok…

how did i miss this? i have no idea what’s going on anymore.

They must feel Herges provides a similar set of skills.

This is even more baffling considering Arnal and Valdez are the middle infielders for Columbus right now. They couldn’t send Barf down to get some atbats since we have ValGood up?

I really have to stop thinking about this move, because I’m really stewing. I know, I know, it’s only Vinny Chulk. But it still doesn’t make any sense. I know he’s walked a ton of guys, but he’s still been one of our best. This is way worse than the Breslow move to me.

/resume banging head against wall.