As disappointing as the 2011 Cubs were, few players had more of a disappointing season than Ryan Dempster. The team’s Opening Day starter, Dempster had a miserable season, statistically, on his way to a 10-14 record.
But as poor as his stats might look, they could have been a lot worse. Dempster got off to a very rocky start in April, sporting a 9.58 ERA in six April starts, surrendering 33 earned runs in 31 innings in the season’s first month. That includes the start against Arizona where he got blasted for seven runs and only recorded one out before getting yanked.
Dempster would spend the rest of the season battling to try and get that ERA back to respectability, though it wouldn’t be easy. It stayed above five until the middle of July until a decent finish brought it to the mid-four range. Of course, his disastrous start against the Padres, giving up nine earned, to close out the season left him with the 4.80 ERA.
As far as the amount of runs Dempster gave up, ...
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