Pencil him in: 福留 孝介

Kosuke Fukudome (福留 孝介) will be in the Cubs outfield for the next 4 years. Whether or not Fukudome winds up being a succesful player with the Cubs, this is a historic date in the history of the Cubs franchise. Fukudome is the Cubs first big Free Agent signing from Japan. The first time the Cubs have made a splash with a star Japanese player.

According to Paul Sullivan: terms of this contact are believed to be between $48 and $50 million over the 4 years.

The Daily Herald's Bruce Miles takes us deep into the Cubs war room at Clark and Addison and abroad:

Last year, the Cubs hired former pitcher Steve Wilson to be their Pacific Rim scout. Wilson and several members of the Cubs' front office watched Fukudome play many times this season, and they came away impressed enough to make him the Cubs' No. 1 off-season target.

Hendry credited Wilson, along with assistant GM Randy Bush and scouting advisers Gary Hughes and Paul Weaver.

"Gary Hughes has loved him since 2004," Hendry said. "This was a collaborative effort involving outstanding talent evaluators."

Also this morning in the Herald, Barry Rozner had an interesting quote from a bitter sourrce in San Diego:

Said a San Diego source Tuesday night, "Let's put it this way: If the Cubs want him, they'll get him. There's no amount of money they can't spend, and teams like the Padres and White Sox can't say that. So if the Cubs want him, the Padres can't stop them."

Rozner also add's that Hendry and the Tribune enjoy spending the next owners money:

It's not my money. It's not your money. It's not Jim Hendry's money. It's not even the Cubs' money.

It's the next owner that will foot these bills for a long time.

Sure, in time you're going to pay at the box office, but right now it's all about the glory of ending a gory, 99-year drought.

But these contracts are going to be around long after anyone negotiating them has departed the organization, when people begin to realize that some of these deals were irresponsible.

Like most of you I don't really care for the contract terms. As Rozner points out: It's not my money! All of that being said, what I know about Fukudome comes from YouTube and reading online scouting reports. I don't expect Fukudome to be a star for the Cubs, just a solid left handed stick that will ease some of the pressure on the right handed heavy Cubs lineup.

One thing I will hand to Jim Hendry is after getting beat out for Furcal two wintes back over the last two offseasons the Cubs have achieved their 'Plan A'. Now we awit their next move (maybe a former team president will be involved in this deal).

...and there were three

Well the always funny Fukudome Sitcom continues to play out. As expected, on Tuesday in Japan, Fukudome announced that he will be coming to the states for the next stage of his baseball career. Here's the quote:

"I won't be playing for a Japanese club next season, I'll play in the majors," Fukudome said. "I appreciate the fans who supported me for nine years. I hope that the fans continue to root for me when they see me playing in the United States."

According to most MSM reports there are three teams involved in the bidding. The San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox and your Chicago Cubs. Interestingly enough the San Diego Union-Tribune reports this morning that the Cubs have already raised their offer to over $50 million. It sounds like Kevin Towers is not going to get into a bidding war. He's gonna let the heavenly climate of San Diego make up the difference in the offers. An interesting tactic. Here's the Padres perspective:

The Padres are facing determined competition from the Cubs for Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome. Growing indications yesterday had the Cubs willing to guarantee Fukudome close to $50 million. The Padres have offered more than $10 million per year, perhaps well above that amount, over at least three years.
General Manager Kevin Towers declined to rate the Padres' chances of importing the right fielder/center fielder.

“I'd be shooting in the dark,” said Towers, who described the Padres' bid as final. “I have no idea. I really don't. The agent's kept this pretty close to the vest.” Last night, both clubs were waiting to learn whether Fukudome, 30, is leaving Japan, as expected. The White Sox also have an interest in Fukudome.

By selling ballpark advertising space to Japanese companies, Fukudome's new club could promptly add to its revenues. Fukudome's .397 career on-base percentage in Japan excited the Padres, who project him for the top third of their lineup.

“It sounds like it's Chicago or San Diego,” Towers said.

There's the first mention of the ballpark advertising to Japanese companies. I apologize for not thinking of the importance of this earlier. Next we see in this mornings Tribune(a cold and wet edition at my home):

If the Cubs sign Fukudome, they can immediately add to their revenues by selling advertising space at Wrigley Field to Japanese companies, as Boston, Seattle and other clubs with Japanese stars have done in their parks.

The Cubs recently announced they will increase the ad signage at Wrigley, and since more Cubs games will be televised in Japan if Fukudome signs, it makes sense that some of the ads will be in Japanese.

Well, well, well, looks like the cat is out of the bag on this one. Mr. Fukudome might be a left handed Matt Murton, except Matt Murton doesn't sell advertising in Japan. Signing Fukudome is as much about the opportunity the Cubs will have to build their brand globally as it is about what he brings to the field of play. And who said McDonough was mailing it in at the organizational meetings. Looks to me like he had his hands all over this one. Sell more advertising internationally...BRILLIANT!

Anyways, back to this drawn out decision making process. Don't expect this to be a long dog and pony show with him visiting the finalists (who the hell would want to come to Chicago in this weather anyways?). Fukudome's U.S. based agent said this:

"Once he makes the decision, he has -- but for maybe some final points -- offers from clubs that we can then talk about," Urbon said. "And then he'll take a reasonable amount of time and maybe ask some reasonable questions. Assuming he's coming, that might take another day."

In this process, I'll take that to mean we should know something by Christmas or Spring Training.

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Waiting on Fukudome: Around the Cub Blogosphere

Cubbie cyberspace(this page included) is obsessed with the Fukudome-derby. Amazing isn't it for a ballplayer that most of us have only seen highlights of on YouTube. Let's take a look around:

Chuck at IvyChat takes us back to the last time Jim Hendry put all his eggs in one basket:

What's so sad about this whole situation is that the Cubs entire offensive plans for 2008 depend on this one guy. We saw that in 2006 when Rafael Furcal decided to go to the Dodgers and break Derrek Lee's wrist.

Let's recall, Hendry's backup plan that year was Jacque Jones.

Here's hoping that those of us who will be watching the Len & Bob Show don't have to see Hendry's 2008 Plan B show up. It's scary to think just what that plan might be.

I'm afraid plan b is Geoff Jenkins. (but as noted by comments earlier that might actually be better than Fuku. Who knows.)

At ACB, Maddog seems as frustrated as most Cub fans. The headlines speak for themselves: 'Mr. Fukudome might be coming to the U.S.!', 'Holy fuck, it’s for real this time, folks, Fukudome’s coming to the MLB. About damn time!', 'Fukudome needs a few more hours before he decides', and my favorite headline of this whole ordeal 'In a few more days Fukudome will need a few more days to decide'.

Over at BCB, Al is leading the candle light vigil for Fukudome.

At LOHO there's a great picture of Fuku that describes what this thing feels like.

Kurt at GROTA is as impatient as the rest of us!

The longer this situation with Fukudome goes on, the more convinced I am that he's just not mentally tough enough to come to America. I mean, here's a guy who was going to announce last week, no wait, before this weekend, no, on Monday night, no, maybe today.

Andy Dolan at Desipio writes with the perspective that only he can:

As the greatest name in sports history sits in a pagoda pondering whether to be sort of rich in San Diego or officially rich in Chicago, it seems like a good time to take a look at what’s been going on lately.

To be honest, the only reason I’m even remotely excited about the Cubs signing a Japanese All-Star to play right field is the chance to wear a t-shirt that says Fukudome and not be forced to turn it inside out by a 97 year old Andy Frain usher.

I don’t know if the guy is any good. The next Japanese baseball game I see would be my first. Though, to be fair, I have seen Mr. Baseball twice. Well, one and a half times.

LMAO. Always good stuff from Andy.

TCR is happy LaTroy Hawkins will be in the Bronx this spring.

Wrigleyville23 takes the advertising angle.

Mike (aka Technostats or the Hawk) at badnewscubs is excited about the Cubs adding Fukudome:

I’m hoping the Cubs do end up with Fukudome after all is said and done. I’m sick of the Cubs not fielding fundamentally sound players. Fukudome appears to be that. If we get this guy AND do the smart thing by putting Pie in center, we’re going to be really good defensively.

Joe at View From the Bleachers is frustrated with the 4-letter:

I went to bed last night with visions of an Asian man playing the outfield for the Cubs this season. Everything I read said the decision would be coming late last night. I awoke with yet another story from ESPN saying the decision was coming soon. If ESPN can't seem to get it right, why are they spouting information in the first place.

Cubby-blue has enlisted the help of our 16th president to brink Fukudome to Illinois.

Out of Rightfield has Jeff Fassero attempting a comeback with the Mets!

Finally, hirejimessian.com makes the most sense with this comment under the former Cubs skipper: 'Yo, Fukudome. DECIDE, ALREADY!'

Waiting on Fukudome

As the Cubs wait on a decision by Kosuke Fukudome, I wonder more and more what all of the hype is about with this guy. I stumbled upon a scouting report on Fukudome that's over a month old at Dugout Central, here's what was said:

Fukudome is one of the better athletes playing in Japan. He is capable of playing center field and right field. He is a five-tool player capable of hitting in the middle of the batting order or in the number two spot. During the middle of the 2007 season he was hit by a pitch and missed the remainder of the season. A new rule in Japan gives players on the disabled list time served towards their free agency rights, and this makes Fukudome a free agent.

The 30-year old Fukudome is a championship player capable of performing under pressure situations, so this means he should be able to play in bigger markets in MLB. Just like with American-born players, some Japanese players can handle the bigger markets (Hideki Matsui, Daisuke Matsuzaka) while others can’t (Kaz Matsui, Hideki Irabu).

Scouts Rating (The scouts rating evaluates a player’s raw tools on a 20-80 scale. Albert Pujols, for reference, rates a 75.)

Overall: 62
Power: 65
Hit: 55
Field: 70
Speed: 60
Arm: 60
Player Category “GOOD”

Good stuff. Now some fun projections that I found interesting:

Projected MLB Stats

When evaluating the 2007 MLB line-ups, Fukudome could bat fifth in the line-up for 11 of the 30 teams. He projects to the following:

.265-.285 BA
.380 OBP
20-30 HR
80-100 RBIs
10 SB
Projections courtesy of iScouts, Inc 2007

Will Ohman: don't let the door hit ya'

Jim Hendry has made a deal with the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs acquired Atlanta righthander Jose Ascanio for clubhouse cancer Will Ohman and Omar Infante. The 22 year old Ascanio has mainly been used out of the bullpen throughout the Braves system. Ascanio would fit into the mode of the power arm that Lou Piniella likes to stockpile at the back of his bullpen. The 22 year old throws in the upper 90's and gets groundballs with frequency.

Here is what they are saying at TCR about the deal:

He’s #19 in John Sickels latest rankings, a C+ prospect. Out of Venezeula, Ascanio was signed in 2001 by the Braves and has compiled a 3.58 ERA in the minors so far, mostly as a reliever with a K/9 rate of 7.31. The numbers though have slowly improved as he put up a 2.54 ERA in AA last year with a 8.19 K/9 rate at age 22. He even had a cup of coffee with the Braves last year and compiled a 1-1 record with a 5.06 ERA.

Scout.com says “he throws gas” (mid to upper 90’s consistently) but probably needs another season in the minors and although he’s not very big, the ball “just flies out of his hand”. Although the numbers weren’t fantastic in the bigs, he apparently impressed the coaching staff with his stuff.

He was suspended late in the season in 2006 when former Cub killer Jeff Blauser took him out of a game earlier than he liked and Ascanio stormed off the mound. It seems all has been forgiven though. I couldn’t find a thing about his secondary pitches.

This is just my opinion, but this looks like one of those deals that we won't be able to pass judgement on for a few years. We will have to see if the Cubs can develop this kid and get his numbers to live up to his stuff.

Now onto the RF situation. In this mornings Bright One, Gordon Whittenmyer portrays the Cubs as the leader in pursuit of Japanese Outfielder Kosuke Fukudome:

The market for Fukudome could approach the strength of the center-field market that already yielded a five-year, $90 million deal for Torii Hunter. Enough teams -- including the Cubs -- have made preliminary offers to Fukudome that a deal isn't expected until well after the winter meetings conclude Thursday.

WHAT??? Fukudome is about to command Torii Hunter-like money? LMAO. Seems like quite a bit of cash for a player that hasn't played one inning in MLB. Projecting position players from Japan to MLB is not easy. The success rate has been low. I find it interesting that the Cubs are putting so many eggs in Fukudome's basket. But what do I know.