2009 Recap: Ryan Dempster

Because of how prominently these recaps are titled, I probably shouldn't lead this one with, "Guess who led the Cubs in innings pitched and strikeouts?" But I'm clever, so I basically just did it anyway without you even noticing. P.S. The answer is Ryan Dempster!!! At the beginning of this season, a lot of Cubs fans were expecting to be really super pissed at Demp right about now. No one thought he'd be able to deliver on the four-year, $52 million deal he signed in the offseason. But deliver he did, maintaining a 3.65 ERA over 200 innings, with 172 strikeouts to just 65 walks. To put those numbers into context, Dempster allowed 65 walks in one game this past postseason. (Consider yourself lucky if you don't get that joke.) For the statheads out there, Dempster's '09 season was worth 3.7 wins over a replacement level pitcher, a value of just over $16 million, or twice his 2009 salary. How'd he do it? Demp ended up taking the meh-diocre rout...