I believe next year's starting rotation should be made up of Chris Tillman, Brian Matusz, Jeremy Guthrie, and Brad Bergesen.  That's what I would think most people believe makes up 4/5th's of the rotation.  Here's my question: Who do you think takes that last spot?...

Do we take the free agent route?.. If so, who would you target?

Or do we go with some more home grown talent?.. If that's the way we go, who do you have in mind?

If we look the free agents route, my 1st option would be to get a young veteran that can come in and be a #1 or #2 type pitcher and maybe not cost that much, since I don't MacPhail's gonna break the bank for a pitcher.  A couple of names that have caught my eye are : Brandon Webb, Jason Jennings, Shawn Hill, and Jon Garland.  A couple others that I would keep my eye on, would be : Erik Bedard, Ben Sheets, Rich Harden, and Mark Prior, if these guys have gotten / can get over their injuries, they could be cheap pieces to plug in.  My 2nd option would be to get an older veteran, who can be thrown into the middle / back end of the rotation, to serve as mentor and eat up some innings until the next wave of young arms get called up.  Guys like Jason Schmidt, Josh Fogg, Tim Hudson, and John Smoltz.

I really like the idea of signing Smoltz, because he could be the closer or a starter, and provide some leardership to the young staff. 

If we go the home grown route, I'd like to see Troy Patton win the spot.  His arm should be back to form from surgery and he hope he has spent the whole year in AAA ironing out the kinks. 

So what's your opinion... Throw your theory out there