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At first I thought we'd keep Wilhelmsen as a starter for sure.  Let him open up at AA, make it to AAA by the end of the year, and then see whether he's ready for a starter shot in 2012 if all goes well.
 
Now?  He might be doing too well from the pen.  JJ Putz became a deadly reliever around the age Wilhelmsen is now.  Tom has far less experience, but with pitchers experience takes a back-seat to stuff, and Tom's stuff is as good as anybody's - and it'll be even better from the pen.
We can fix the pen now.  Right now.  Lueke + Cortes + Wilhelmsen = trifecta.  Cortes is gonna be all wild smoke, Lueke is an unhittable surgeon, and Wilhelmsen is the middle road between their skillsets.
Add THAT to Brandon League and RRS in the pen and you've got basically 4 closers, a long-man, and one spot for a lefty reliever.  And another wildman in Varvaro if you wanted him.
Maybe we'll choose to stagger our bullpen additions a little more, alternate their years of service so we don't wind up paying too much in future years at the same time.
Maybe we will choose to only MOSTLY rush Wilhelmsen instead of really rush him.
But Tom looks absolutely capable of pulling a Lowe and going from the low-minors to the bigs just on the strength of his arm.
 I hope to see him in AA to keep refining his game and building arm strength from the rotation.
But if we decide we want all the best arms in the pen, or we trade Cortes or Lueke for another player, then Tom's name would have to be at the top of the list of candidates for bullpen duty.
Though that list of candidates has to be long.  Between all the arms we added in the draft and the upper minors guys available for duty, bullpen is one thing we should be able to man internally for the next several years.
Another reason Aardsma won't be here in 2011, IMO.
~G