The injury prone Scott Williamson is still injury prone. The Cubs have placed Williamson on the disabled list with what they are currently calling tennis elbow. It's possible that it's nothing serious, but the Cubs need relievers who are ready to go. And so the next rookie to make his big league debut this year is going to be Carlos Marmol, who had been in double-A West Tenn's rotation.

Marmol is a 23-year-old righthander. He has a 2.33 ERA for West Tenn this year in 58 innings, with a 2.7 K/BB ratio. He's only allowed 1 home run. Last year, Marmol split time between high-A Daytona (2.99 ERA in 72.1 innings) and West Tenn (3.65 ERA in 81.1 innings). Marmol hasn't pitched in relief since 2 games for low-A Lansing in 2004. Let's hope Dusty Baker and Larry Rothschild figure out a good plan for utilizing Marmol.

Michael Wuertz still wasn't an option to bring back because he was sent to Iowa less than ten days ago.

The best relief options at Iowa other than Wuertz were Kerry Ligtenberg (1.47 ERA in 18.1 innings; 3.3 K/BB ratio) and Brandon Emanuel (2.41 ERA in 33.2 innings; 2.8 K/BB ratio). Neither pitcher is on the 40-man roster, however, and the Cubs currently have no room on the roster.