John Kruk Thinks Ryan Dempster Should Be The Closer

Last night on ESPN's Baseball Tonight, John Kruk informed everyone on how he would fix the back of the Cubs' bullpen. Kruk's solution? Return Ryan Dempster to the closer's role.

Since Kruk is a highly paid baseball analyst on the Worldwide Leader's airwaves, surely he had some statistical data that would back up this strange suggestion, right? Kruk's reasoning? Dempster has closed games before.

While that's not factually incorrect, Kruk probably should have bothered to look up some numbers before going on the air. The last two years that Ryan Dempster closed games for the Cubs, he had a 3-16 record with an ERA of 4.78 and 52 saves. Kevin Gregg thus far in 2009 has a record of 4-3 with an ERA of 4.17 and 21 saves. As much as Cub fans are tired of Gregg and his struggles, Kruk managed to find a guy who is statistically worse as a closer to replace him.

Also worth noting, Dempster's last two years as a starter he has a combined record of 22-11 with an ERA of 3.36, probably something you'd miss if it left your rotation. Not to mention that the Cubs just signed him for 4 years at 52 million. If the Cubs were going to spend that on a closer, they could've signed K-Rod at the start of the season who instead signed with the Mets for 3 years at 37 million. Other than that though, I think Kruk's onto something.