No, I think our young guys are young guys.
I think that one or two of them could actually become top of the rotation guys as projected, but expecting them to be competent full-time starters right now is unrealistic and planning to fail.
My main problem with prospects is that they are just that. If you look at a list of top prospects in baseball from just about any year, you see the same thing...a superstar or two who panned out and at least just as many guys you've still never heard of.
Will Buchholz ever figure it out? How about Nieve? Will Hirsh pitch in the majors like he did in the minors? Who knows. For the most part, I'd rather trade some prospects for proven MLB talent. Again, I don't have the research to back this up (so I could be wrong), but I bet you most of the proven-player-for-a-couple-high-prospects ends up being better for the team that got the proven player.
Back to the original question: no, I think a rotation with Hirsh, Buchholz, Albers, and/or Sampson is last year's Cubs rotation.
