Before spring training started, Jim Hendry stated that Dempster would be given an opportunity to be the team's closer. Then, when spring games started, all of sudden the Cubs stated that they were going to start stretching him out with the thought of Dempster competing for the fifth stater's slot. Since then, the Dempster as closer talk completely disappeared, even after Joe Borowski's injury. And yet, Dempster has done nothing this spring to demonstrate he can be an effective starter.

After today's game, Dempster has thrown 13.2 innings and given up 19 runs (17 earned). He's allowed 24 hits (including 3 homers) and 9 walks. And his numbers are not the result of a couple of bad performances skewing his totals. He has been consistently bad.

In his career, Dempster has thrown 984 innings with an ERA 14% below league average. Prior to last season, in which Dempster returned from elbow surgery to throw 20.2 relief innings for the Cubs, Dempster had started at least 20 games in 5 different seasons. In 4 of those seasons, he was at least 9% below league average. His last full season as a starter -- 2002 with Florida and Cincinnati -- he threw 209 innings with an ERA 23% below the league average.

At this point, given his historical and spring training performance, it is difficult to see how Dempster is a better option than either Sergio Mitre or Glendon Rusch (Rusch may still get some starts, depending on how quickly Mark Prior returns).

Cubs' management is clearly seeing something in Dempster that his performance is not showing. Let's hope they're right. Of course, this is the same group that kept throwing Shawn Estes out on the mound in 2003.