Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
The Chicago Cubs’ (tentative) Spring Training schedule is out. Tickets go on sale January 8. Details and Carrie Muskat’s summary are on mlb.com.
The Chicago Cubs’ (tentative) Spring Training schedule is out. Tickets go on sale January 8.
Details and Carrie Muskat’s summary are on mlb.com.
A couple days ago, I was able to walk up to Illinois Field, home of the University of Illinois baseball team, and observe the progress they are making installing artificial turf. But Illinois Field isn’t the only park getting a makeover. Wrigley Field is being re-sodded and Al from Bleed Cubbie Blue got a chance to view … Continue reading “Wrigley’s re-sodding project nearing completion”
A couple days ago, I was able to walk up to Illinois Field, home of the University of Illinois baseball team, and observe the progress they are making installing artificial turf. But Illinois Field isn’t the only park getting a makeover. Wrigley Field is being re-sodded and Al from Bleed Cubbie Blue got a chance to view the changes.
According to Al, the re-sodding of the Friendly Confines is almost finished. He went by to sneak a peek and a kindly security guard practically invited him in so he could snap some photos. Kudos to the security guard by the way, for exercising good judgment.
The sodding project is being carried out by White Sox groundskeeper Roger Bossard, aka “the Sodfather”. He is the expert in the field (no pun intended).
There is some luck following Bossard. Five of the last seven World Champions have won it all in parks that been the work of the Sodfather (Boston twice, Arizona, St. Louis, and of course the Sox). The big question is does he want that luck to continue? According to an interview on ChicagoSports.com, well, not really.
“I can’t say I want the Cubs to do it next year, obviously being a Sox person,” Bossard said. “Let’s just say I hope the Cubs are in it next year, playing us.”
There’s an interesting video accompanying the article with footage of the re-sodding.
The project will come to an end on Saturday actually ahead of schedule.
Lou Piniella has an opinion on the instant replay to help the umpires out on the fair/foul balls and the fly balls on the fence. In an interview with WGN’s David Kaplan, he said he would support whatever decision was made but personally he thinks it “wouldn’t be good for the game”even saying that the possible implications of the rule would be “silly”.
The speculation can come to a stop now. Jacque Jones is no longer a Cub. Jones was traded to Detroit for Omar Infante and some cash. Infante is arb-eligible (he got 1.3 mil last year). I dunno. It was fashionable to be down on Jones last year and earlier this year but I’ve secretly liked … Continue reading “Cubs trade Jones and yet more rumors”
The speculation can come to a stop now. Jacque Jones is no longer a Cub.
Jones was traded to Detroit for Omar Infante and some cash. Infante is arb-eligible (he got 1.3 mil last year).
I dunno. It was fashionable to be down on Jones last year and earlier this year but I’ve secretly liked the guy. No one can deny he really came through in the second half of this season.
“It gives us another guy who’s tremendously versatile,” Cubs general manager Jim Hendry told reporters on Monday evening.
In other words, a utility man.
The trade of Jones will make room for Felix Pie and that’s why the trade was made, I’m sure.
Don’t know what to make of this rumor but The Herald News says that Hendry is trying to package Rich Hill and Carlos Marmol together for the Rays’ outfielder Carl Crawford. Again, I don’t know what to think. Hill and Marmol are two of my favorite Cub pitchers and for once, it’s nice not to have to worry about Northside pitching.