His ERA is over 4 in one of those seasons. I don't think he's worth 5.3. But he's here already and is the best candidate to close. Just watched the highlights of the 9th this morning. It's hard to get pissed at Dempster. The first guy hit an outside pitch the other way. The 2nd at bat should have been a double play, and at the very least, a fielders choice. The homerun was a pop-up that floated into the basket. There's really no reason for people to get all pissy about Dempster. He's far from great, but he's been fine this year, and he's been fine throughout the majority of his time on the Cubs. His cumulative ERA over the last four years is over 4 which is not good. No, it's not good, but it's also not nearly as meaningful as the individual seasons, in which 3 of 4 were good. Just like Jacque Jones and his last 4 seasons of 90, 99, 107 and 78 OPS+ aren't any good, even if the 2006 season was pretty good and props up the rest. If one season is the outlier, and great affects the average, it's less meaningful. DLee is probably a better example, at 114, 177, 111 and 126. His tenure as a Cub may be more like a 140 OPS+, but he's been nowhere near that most of the time.