This team has a bit of a dilemma.

They have about 6 young arms, none of whom have shown that they are destined for stardom in their short auditions in the bigs. Let me name them: Sean Marshall. Carlos Marmol. Rich Hill. Juan Mateo. Angel Guzman. Jae Kuk Ryu.

All these kids have major league arms and ability in my opinion, but no one is a 100% certain top of the rotation guy at this point. Some may be. None are a 100% certainty as a bottom of the rotation guy, either.

Potential. The dreaded nine letter word.

So what should the Cubs do? With Carlos Zambrano and "Question Mark" Prior at the top of the rotation, there's nothing else. We'd like to think that two of these guys could come through and be the 4th and 5th starters next year, allowing the team to go out and sign one bona fide upper rotation guy out of a free agent class headed by Jason Schmidt and Barry Zito. Then there are trades. With six arms vying for at most 4 rotation spots (if Question Mark ends up injured again) that leaves at least two men out.

Were I Jim Hendry (the general manager of the Cubs) I think I'd spend some bucks and go after the top of the free agent class - Barry Zito. Then I would be looking at a middle of the rotation type. I don't know who's going to be available but there are always a few guys out there.

What I wouldn't do is depend on Glendon Rusch or Jerome Williams (two guys the team was hoping would be the answers at the 4th and 5th rotation spots) for anything in the majors. I know that the team has Wade Miller, a first class major league pitcher, rehabbing in the minors at the moment, but so far the returns on his performances haven't been outstanding. Bad, in fact, before this last rehab assignment.

Having young arms should open trading doors with a lot of teams, and perhaps that will be the way to go.

We still have to solve our run production problems; bringing back all the same guys probably won't do it. They need a big left handed bat somewhere, probably either left field or right field. And they need consistency at the top of the order. But I'll save that discussion for a potential future post.