Cubs Go Dempster Diving

Apparantly the Cubs have re-signed starter-turned-reliever-turned-allstar-starter Ryan Dempster to a 4 year $52m deal. I don't think anyone is expecting Dempster to consistently do over the next 4 years what he did last year, and the Cubs didn't either giving him a pretty fair deal. When Kyle Lohse gets resigned for 4 years $41m, $3m more per year for Dempster seems like a bargain. The huge innings increase in innings (206 2/3 from 66 2/3) could be a cause for injury but if clubs were to not sign any pitcher with any cause for injury they'd be left with nobody on their rotation. I could see Dempster doing similarly to teammate Ted Lilly, being a consistent above average starting pitcher for the Cubs, who don't need an ace with Harden and Zambrano. Dempster is a guy that I wouldn't want my team to sign over some of the other free agent pitchers like Burnett or Lowe, but for the Cubs I think it's a good sign. The Cubs don't need much change on their roster from last year, if they retain everyone and just decide what to do with Fukudome and RF they should be the favorites in the NL again this year.