For the purposes of full disclosure, last year at this time I was super excited that the Cubs signed Fukudome.  I was impressed with his OBP and defensive skills.  This looked like the signing of a fine all around player.  As we all know, April and May did nothing but confirm those initial thoughts.  Then came the rest of the season – Ugh.  Pitchers made adjustments to him (a steady stream of outside breaking balls) and he had no adjustments for that.    

With my typical Cub fan optimism, I thought that with an off-season trying to figure out and correct what went wrong coupled with the tendency for Japanese players to improve in year 2, Fukudome could rebound into a decent everyday outfielder.  Then came the WBC and two things stood out to me:  1) The benching of Fukudome in 2 of he last 3 games (though one of those games was meaningless), and 2) The reasons for Fukudome’s benching:  20 AB’s, 4 hits (all singles), 7 walks and 7 strikeouts.  And for those that have seen his AB’s, it doesn’t look like he’s made any adjustments from last season.  

With that behind us, my optimism for Fukudome’s future with the Cubs has diminished.  He won’t become the cross between Ichiro and H. Matsui.  Heck, at this point, I doubt that he’ll even have the career of So Taguchi.  Though I hate to write this, I don’t think that Fukudome will be with the big club for much of the 2009 season.  I fully expect him to be reassigned to AAA before the All-Star break.  $12M per year still has a lot of pull and I do think that he will get yet another shot, but that may not be until the 2010 season.    

For what it’s worth, I think that Piniella is playing this thing out correctly.  He is giving Fukudome one last good effort to prove that he belongs on a major league roster.  I like that he is giving him the #2 hole, where he is expected to get a lot of fastballs hitting in front of the heart of the Cub lineup.  I think good pitchers won’t give into that temptation though.  They will still make him beat them with breaking balls on the outside corners. 

As of now, this looks like a $48M mistake.  I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see any evidence that he’s improved or adjusted from the player he was at the end of the 2008 season.     

I found this out on MLBtraderumors.com:

"Orlando Hudson would like to play for the Royals, but currently they cannot afford him even at a likely salary under $5MM.  They could free up most of the cash by releasing Mark Teahen, but Rosenthal's source says the Royals are "unwilling to make such a move." ..."

Here is the MLBTraderumors link  http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/02/rosenthal-on-hu.html

And the original Rosenthal link:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9230332/Hudson-interested-in-K.C.,-but-is-the-feeling-mutual?%3FCMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

It seems that Teahen isn't being offered a starting job anywhere, though he may have a shot at winning the KC 2B job.  I'm not sure what type of fielder he'd make there but I can speculate that he probably won't be very good if he's just picking it up this year. 

Anyway, I think we all feel that the Cubs still need a backup at 3B and 1B.  I can't imagine that Teahen would cost all that much in terms of talent, but whether the Cubs would want to pay the $3M for a backup like this is another matter.   I'd still like to see the Cubs add Garciaparra as 1) he wouldn't cost as much from a salary perspecitve, 2) he certainly wouldn't cost any talent, and 3) he can play SS, but I'd be really happy with Teahen instead.

As expected, Tom Rickets is the rumored choice as the new owner of the Cubs.  I think that he's a fine choice and was my favorite of the alternatives left.  I think he has the deep pockets to improve the team as is nescessary.  I also think he is going to bring an atmosphere of quick decisison making and to provide the ballclub with what it needs to be competitive. 

I thik the Cubs got a large boost just by removing McPhail and inserting Kenney, but I hope this will be even better.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/sports/baseball/cubs/Cubs-Pick-Favorite-Bidder-But-No-Clues-Who.html

Obviously, big changes need to be made to this team.   Please don't tell me about the 2008 in-season stats.  They were great, but so what?  These guys are choke artists.

The 2009 Cubs will need at least a new leadoff hitter and a number 3 hitter, perhaps even cleanup.  I'm not sure if that means that Lee needs to be traded or not.  Soriano can move down to #5 or 6 where he is more suited to be.   Hopefully Fukudome can improve on his first season in the majors as many Japanese players have.  Oh yeah, a CF might be nice too.  My guess is that Pie will get first shot, but the Cubs have to know what they are getting into there. 

I'm still pretty happy with the pitching staff and would re-sign Dempster (4 years $48M).  Zambrano is and will be the #1 of the staff.  Picking up Harden's option is a no-brainer.  Get a lefty reliever.  Shark, Wood, and Marmol can and should stay in thier slots at least to start the season.

This is a sick (and I don't mean that in a good way) team.  The head of the sickness has to be cut off and that's with Soriano and Lee, and possibly Ramirez and Theriot too.  He can't play major league quality SS defense and let's not kid ourselves.  Luckily, they have trade value (with the possible exception of Soriano with his contract).  It's time for Hendry to exercise that trade value.