Late Innings

The Cubs have had a busy off-season so far. They have been speculated to be in the hunt for Randy Johnson (a good move if they pull that off), rumored to be trading for Mark Teahen (muy malo if they give up Felix Pie), and have been all over the place with pitching. On that note, this afternoon, they resigned one of their integral parts from the 2008 season, Ryan Dempster. He’ll get 52MM over four years.

Any ways I don’t despise this move, but it isn’t that bad. Simply put, the Cubs paid market price for Dempster. He won 17 games last year and had a very nice 2.96 ERA. Still there is growing disgust over this move. Roto Professor sums up the reactions best:

Maybe I’ll be proved wrong, but it’s an awful lot of money to be throwing at someone off one good season.

I agree with the sentiment. People thought he wasn’t even going to be in the rotation in 2008, however he was the #5 starter out of the gate. He pitched like an ace the rest of the way. Granted many people refer to this season as a “fluke", however he just didn’t get many opportunities. Dempster was always a solid starter with the Marlins, and I look at this season as him getting himself “back on track". He may win 60 games over the next four years, he may save 100 games. We don’t know…

Still consider this. The Cubs shelled out 10MM a year for Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly. These moves clearly worked. They shelled out 12MM a year for Kosuke Fukodome, and that didn’t work. I know it’s an irrelevant analogy, but when the Cubs pay for pitching, it usually works out well for them. And it should be noted that Dempster, only being 32 right now, will be pitching in his prime throughout the duration of the contract.