It's Pronounced "koh-skay foo-koo-DOUGH-may"

Go Cubs!

When a U is in the middle of a word in Japanese, it is generally dropped in spoken Japanese.  

It should be "Koh-skay."  Just like Daisuke is pronounced "Dice-K"  (Although actually that should be Di-skay)

Baseball Prospectus subscribers can check Mike Plugh of "Matsuzaka Watch" fame writing about him last July.  He gives the correct pronunciation as what I wrote.  You have Fukudome correct.

I don't speak Japanese, except that I have to admit a few years ago I watched a ton of anime and picked some stuff up.  

In any event, excitin news re Kosuke.  This is already a good team, so every little piece extra we get helps.

For one day, an off season victory that we can celebrate!  Let's hope the Cubs keep on improving the team as we move towards Arizona baseball.

Is today the day they make a decision about Mark Prior's contract?

Very excited about the signing.  It shows that despite the impending sale and the uncertainty that comes with that, the front office is at least still trying to put the pieces in place.

I think I'll have sushi today to celebrate.

and think of the possibilities if we get Roberts. This now makes a hand full of outfielders tradeable (aka Murton)

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-071211cubs,1,1236143.story?coll=cs-c ubs-headlines

As well as projecting Fukudome to hit .289/.401/.504 which is better than most of the projections in the BCB thread on the topic, he also suggests a lineup I am not hearing anywhere else a lineup he says "could easily be the best in the National League":

Fukudome, RF
DeRosa, 2B
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Soriano, LF
Soto, C
Pie, CF
Cedeno, SS

Rosenthal also posts a lineup at Foxsports which we are not seeing anywhere else for good reason:

Roberts/Figgins, 2B
Fukudome, RF
Derrek Lee, 1B
Aramis Ramirez, 3B
Soriano, LF
Ryan Theriot, SS
Geovany Soto, C
Felix Pie/Sam Fuld, CF

I just don't get why everyone wants to bat Soriano 5th behind Aramis Ramirez.  We've done the whole Soriano bats .100 OPS points better from the leadoff hole thing here before, but besides that, if you are going to move him down, why put him after Ramirez where his ability to use his speed is hampered?

If I had to move Soriano out of the leadoff hole, let's say someone held a Sun-Times to my head and threatened to read aloud 5 hours of He Who Must Not Be Read, then I might look at

Roberts
Lee
Soriano
Fukudome
Ramirez
Soto
Theriot/Cedeno
Pie

(I'm adding Roberts name here because the only way Sori moves from the leadoff spot is if there is another leadoff hitter in-house who has less SLG than Sori.)  How many runs does that actually gain you over hitting Lee 3rd, Sori 1st, and Roberts 2nd?

....DOEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....MAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our long national nightmare is finally over. Welcome, Kosuke!!!

Why are we still trying to replace Derosa? I know it would be nice to have the "super-sub" thing going, but doesn't he deserve the job? Please someone explain to me why he is not automatically penciled in at 2nd. Its not like he can't play a bit at 3rd, 1st and RF if necessary.

You're doing a heckava job Jimmy!!

Oh, and the Padres fans still hate us, even more after this signing.

Some padre fans probably dislike cub fans in general, but i'm pretty sure the padre fan sentiment is disappointment in the "fairness" of major league baseball. The rational reaction anyway. Sure, you may get a couple of irrational reactions to blame the fans of another franchise but using that would be a dishonest way to characterize a general sentiment.

Simple geographics have the dodgers, angels, cubs, red sox and yankees as more capable of competing than other clubs. It's only greed and incompetence that doesn't have all of these teams constantly dominating.

Don't you think it's completely reasonable to express frustration at the two levels of baseball economics at play here?

The brewers need an outfielder, too, but they were never in the fukudome sweepstakes because it was clear that overpaying for him was required. I think this is a great signing for the cubs, and also a great signing for the rest of the small markets in the NL central.

Jealous, envious? yes. hateful? doubtful.

Dusty is calling Prior and he'll be the Reds opening day starter, because he loves Dusty so much.

Whether Fukudome is the splash he's being made out to be still remains to be seen.

But listening to feral Padres fans foaming over how many ways they want to see him literally DIE is absolutely uplifting in an oddly perverse kind of way, especiallly since hours ago he was hailed as the Sensei of the franchise ..

ROTFLMMDO

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qkw8b3RhKrY

"Kosuke Fukudome of
4 years/about $48M (2008-11)

signed 12/12/07 as a free agent from Japan (Chunichi)

agent: Joe Urbon

ML service:"

:-D

The Cubs payroll was at $99M (I assume this was prior to us cutting ties with Barrett, so I included him).

We've seen varying reports of payroll fluctuating.  We've seen $115M, $125, and most recently $135M!  Assuming payroll is $125M, the delta is $26M to play with.

So far, we've shed some payroll:

• Jones/Infante:  Add $3M
  
• Floyd: Add $3M
  
• Barrett: $4.6M
  
• Ohman: $1.6M
  
• Rusch: $3.25M

We've added some payroll:
Increase on existing players' contracts:

• Zambrano increases from 12.4 to 15: add $2.6M
  
• Soriano increases from 9 to 13: add $4M
  
• Ramirez increases from 8 to 14: add $6M
  
• Lilly increases from 5 to 7: add $2M
  
• DeRosa increases from 2.75 to 4.75M: add $2M
  
• Eyre increases from 3.5 to 3.8: add $0.3M
  
• Wood increases from 1.75 to 4.2: add $2.45M
  
• Lee is flat
  
• Howry is flat

Increase on new acquisitions:

• Fukudome: $12M
  
• Lahey: $0.4M
  
• Ascanio: $0.4M

Now, let's get our final figure of money to increase:

( $26M + $15.45 - $32.15M ) = $9.3M

Assuming we shed Marquis' salary (6.375 in '08), that's almost $15.7M for us to work with!

Source for Cubs payroll

Go shopping - there's a speedster and starting pitcher to be had!!

The Rangers offered the most money.
The White Sox were not outbid - they offered about the same as the Cubs.  However, Fukudome did not want to displace Jermaine Dye from right field.
Fukudome was just intrigued by the Cubs, and liked the idea of being their first Japanese player."

from MLBTR

His numbers will probably fall in line with most players making 3 to 4 million a year.  It always bothers me when someone has his best year, usually they are followed by an lesser year (it stands to reason) plus even Hendry has said it may take him a year to adjust, 12-14 million for on the job training sound like a waste, we should have spent that money on pitching

but then again i hope i am wrong.  

Roberts
Theriot
Soriano
Ramirez
Lee
Fukudome
Soto
Pie

The 3-5 is debatable to me because I see many advantages to each one of the 3 in all 3 spots. I think Soriano there because I could see him look at it as an insult if he was batting 5, I don't see that problem with DLee. Also, having Ramirez behind him would give him more opportunities to see fastballs I would hope.
Plus, doing the lineup up this way would spread out our lefties and speed.  That would be a pretty quick team.

A side note, another thing that excites me is our outfield defense. I realize Soriano misplays some balls, but Pie can make up for a lot of that and there will be 3 guys out there with strong, accurate arms. Something I haven't seen on the Cubs in my short life.

According to the Sun-Times, the Sox actually outbid us.  (Probably not by a lot)

But Kosuke wanted to play for the Cubs because 1) he wanted to be the first Japanese player to play for a particular team 2) he wanted to play right field whereas the Sox wanted him to play left field and 3)Shigetoshi Hasagawa is a friend of his, and Shiggy said that Piniella was great to play for.  Lord knows what Shiggy said about Ozzie Guillen.

Left unsaid is that the Cubs are likely to be a better team than the Sox for the next two or three years.

Hasegawa may have been our secret weapon in all of this.  He's well-respected in Japan because he learned to speak English fluently and has written a couple of books in Japan on how to learn to speak English.  He's also a color commentator for NHK broadcasts of MLB games.  And apparently he liked playing for Lou Piniella in Seattle.

The Rangers apparently outbid us too, but the geography rules probably applied here.  San Diego  beats Chicago but Chicago beats Dallas.

We've seen these separately.  Better together, with music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHH8gSQmnGo

Tuesday I had a bad feeling Fukudome was going to sign with the Padres.  Tuesday night he signs.

Now I've decided to be convinced we're not going to get Roberts.

Watch Hendry get him by this time tomorrow.

PAdres wanted Fukudome.

Angels really wanted Ramirez last year.

But seriously.  Their front page story is the Cubs got Fukudome, the Astros got Tejada and the Brewers got Eric Gagne.  Their conclusion?  "It's a big week in the NL Central without any clear winner."

OK, I'll buy that it's not clear who will be more valuable, Fukudome or Tejada.  I'd rather have Fukudome, but I can see the argument for Tejada.  (But us not having to surrender prospects is a big factor in our favor.)

But to equate Eric Gagne with those players is just nuts.  This is the same Eric Gagne who had an ERA of 6.75 with Boston last year.  The same Eric Gagne who missed two years with injuries.  And a closer is never as valuable as a everyday player.

I think they're drinking something a little stronger than beer up there.

PEople whining about the Cubs spending.  Heck is freezing over.