Cubs | The Baseball Zealot

Mariotti on Fukodome

The Chicago Sun-Times’ Jay Mariotti pulls no punches against the White Sox front office in his analysis of the Cubs’ acquisition of Kosuke Fukudome.

"On the South Side, Fukudome is Japanese for brush-off. And when you add him to an earlier rejection by Torii Hunter, a failure to acquire Miguel Cabrera and a final knife in the back Wednesday from one of their old reliables — Aaron Rowand, who signed with San Francisco after telling Williams to shove his fewer-years offer — maybe the Sox should realize players in the industry aren’t real fond of their franchise, their plan or their way of doing business. In the spirit of the season, the Sox are Fred Claus, bitter and second-rate as the Cubs prepare to dominate another local summer and contend for a playoff berth again."

Bet that plays well on the South Side.

Prior, Cubs part ways

The Chicago Cubs released Mark Prior today. Prior, who was eligible for arbitration, now becomes a free agent. Talks with the Cubs have been stalled lately mostly over the option for a second year.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge Mark Prior fan. Throughout his five and half years (and 42 wins) here, the Cubs have marketed him to us as someone for us to rely on. When I look at him, I see a pitcher who came into this league with tremendous potential but only had one solid (maybe two, if you want to call 27 starts and 11 wins solid) season.

So I’m not crying too many tears for Prior though I wish him the best of luck. In hindsight, I wish the Cubs would have taken advantage of his market value… when he had market value.

Help him out, Pat

Quote of the Day:

One of Fukudome’s biggest boosters is Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo, who now has the envious task of trying to pronounce his name without incurring any fines from the FCC.

Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune staff reporter

Cubs sign Fukudome!

Breaking News!!

The Chicago Cubs have signed Kosuke Fukudome for four years. The reported amount is around $45-50 mil.

Details are sketchy but the Sun-Times has them. Ironically at this point, the Chicago Tribune sports page does not.

Update: Here’s the Tribune article posted a few minutes later.

Rule V picks

The Boston Globe has the list of Rule V picks.

Of interest to Cub fans, Randy Wells from the AAA Iowa Cubs was chosen by Toronto. Wells is a righthanded fireballer. He was tearing up single-A Daytona (10-2, 2.74 106 K in 98.2 IP) in ’05 being promoted. Same story in ’06 when he was putting up great numbers in AA Tennessee (4-2, 1.56, 56 K in 63.1) before moving on to AAA.

Wells’ ERA rose a bit in 2007 (4.52) but he continued his strikeout rate (101 in 95.2) at AAA Iowa. No doubt he’s got some stuff.

At least we won’t see him in our division ala Josh Hamilton

2007 Baseball Search Trends

I don’t know why but I enjoy looking at Google’s search trends. I guess it’s the geek in me. But it does give us a sense of what we find interesting or important as a online society. Sometimes, the Hot Trends page kinda scares me.

Anyways, I did a simple search on the term "baseball" for the year 2007. This was what I got:

The result was pretty predictable. There was a slight bump in April at the beginning of the year when fans are gearing up for the season. The spike in early July can certainly be attributed to the All-Star game. Folks, are trying to find the All-Star ballot is my guess.

There is a small hill around post-season time but not as much as I would have thought.

Then I did a comparison between "White Sox" (in blue) and "Cubs" (in red) again for the year 2007.

With the year the Cubs had (and quite frankly, the year the Sox had, too), it’s no surprise that online folks were searching for the Cubs. It doesn’t hurt that the Cubs can be seen nationwide on WGN either, I suppose.

You can see the big spike at the close of the season when the Cubs clinched the playoff spot (and right before they blew it against the Dbacks). Yet, except for that, the Sox pretty much go toe to toe with them in the Google News searches for the year.

I don’t consider this a scientific study by any means but it is a scratch on surface. If you’re interested in playing around with Google Trends, have at it. It gives you a lot more information like regional data as well as attempting to match spikes with news events.

Do the Cubs have any shot at Fukudome?

Kosuke Fukudome may be the best move the Cubs make this off-season… if they can pull it off.

First things first. The pronunciation of his name. American males are having a field day with this one. I remember the year when Chien-Ming Wang came up. At fantasy draft time, most of the guys were having a good ol’ time mispronouncing Wang’s name in all kinds of sophomoric ways. Now, I work with Chinese people (a few of them actually named Wang) so the humor was lost on me. I know, I need to lighten up.

Anyway, near as I can tell Fukudome’s name is pronounced Koh-soo-kay Foo-koh-doh-may. It’s possible that the "u" in Kosuke is silent like in Daisuke. If anyone knows please chime in.

As for Fuk’s chances for playing for the Cubs, it’s still actually up in the air as to whether he’ll even play in the U.S. As of 12/7, he is still entertaining an offer to play for the Yomiuri Giants. He is expected to make a decision next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Of course even then, the battle isn’t over. The Cubs will have to take on the other MLB teams vying for the rights to Fukudome. Most prevalent is the San Diego Padres who have expressed a big interest in him.

The cost for Fukudome? All told it looks like it would come to around $75 million for 5 years. The question is "Would he be worth it?" I heard someone say that Fuk hits "as good as Ichiro with power". Now, that’s more than likely overly simplistic as well as overly optimistic but it does give you the value of this potential Japanese import.

With Jacque Jones’ departure from right field, Fukudome left handed bat fits the Cubs like a glove. Right now, it’s just a waiting game.

Correction: As I wondered, the correct pronunciation of his first name is Koh-skay. Thanks Bleed Cubbie Blue!

Cubs Blogger appeals to Fukodome

Al from Bleed Cubbie Blue, posted an open letter to Kosuke Fukdome. He did it in Fuk’s native language, (Japanese) with the help of Google Translate and it didn’t turn out half bad:

Many of my readers, myself included, want to sign the contract for you PUREKABUSUMASU. You just need Cubs – a left-handed hitting right fielder who plays good defense, who is often on base by drawing walks and hitting both well…

You can see the the letter in whole (both the Japanese and English versions) at Bleed Cubbie Blue.

With the loss of Jacque Jones, I hope this helps.

DVD Review: “Hello Again Everybody” The Harry Caray Story

This afternoon I got a chance to watch the biographical DVD of legendary broadcaster Harry Caray called “Hello Again Everybody” The Harry Caray Story

Now I’ve been a Harry Caray fan since watching him call Cubs games in the 80s. I even saw him receive the Ford Frick award in Cooperstown in 1989. But I learned a lot from the video.

Hello Again takes you through Harry’s life beginning with his orphaned childhood, his early days with the Cardinals then his later days with the Sox and his hey day in Wrigleyville. Throughout the documentary we see interviews with baseball people, his wife, Dutchie, co-workers and the important people… the fans who recollect the impact Harry Caray had on the game.

No doubt, the film was looking at Harry Caray in a good light. It wasn’t a investigative journalist piece and nor it should have been. That said, they DID bring up the rumor of why Harry was fired from his Cardinals’ broadcasting position (if you don’t know why, look it up or better yet, watch the DVD). Of course they couldn’t shy away from the drinking thing. They addressed it, albeit lightly.

One of the more poignant moments was Pete Vonachen’s eulogy at Harry’s funeral service. I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in that church.

Anyway, a good portion of our readers are either Cub fans or Sox fans so some of you might have an interest in the DVD. I highly recommend it. You can find out more about it (and probably info how to buy it) at their website.