Fukudome group apology post

10-GAMES: 35-AB’s, 7-Runs, 13-Hits, 9-RBI’s, (tied for team lead w/ Soriano) 3-HR’s, 5-2B’s (8/13 hits extra bases), batting .371 and OBP over .490!

Exactly, it’s been ten games. It’s not that big of a sample size.

Now I’m not saying that Dome isn’t hitting great which he is. I’m also not saying he’s going to falter down the season as it continues. But shall we remember last year about the same time he was lighting it up too. We all know how that turned out.

Let’s stop lining up on the ledge and dismissing this team in fanposts. Let’s stop dismissing certain players. It’s only been ten games folks. When it’s the all star break and Dome is still hitting in the area of this clip, I’ll apologize, and gladly. What if in the next ten games he cools. His average comes down around .250??? Now we would be twenty games is and he’d be right back to where he was at the end of last year.

I stress It’s only been TEN GAMES!

don’t know what your talking about, Dome clearly belongs in Iowa.

I doubted him coming into the season due to last years production. I never said I didn’t want to give him a chance, but I did doubt him sure. Who didn’t? I agree that people shouldn’t have wanted to get rid of him or trade him right away, but we’ll see what happens. Give it a few more weeks. Let’s get into may and see how he is producing then.

I am sorry I didn’t make more fun of the Fukudome haters in the off-season.

He has made some adjustments obviously now the pitchers will adjust to him and he will have to readjust.

I think his wife and baby are with him. I still think that helps. Everyone here knows I believe in intangibles and the other aspects of life affecting a game.

me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

“I never forget how I felt last October.”
                                              - Kosuke Fukudome, from his diary of Apr. 9th.

First of all let me say I never hated on Dome.

But if you can post something ridiculous like this, then you are in the same group as the people who say demote DLee.

It’s ten games people, chill out!

I’ve said all along that the naked, untrained eye may not be able to see exactly what adjustments Dome has made at the plate. I’ve also said all along that we should give him a month before we begin to make even preliminary judgements on whether or not he’s capable of hitting consistently at the major league level. And I’m sticking to that. It’s too early to declare him either an unmitigated success or an unmitigated failue.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m very happy for him. And I hope and pray that he keeps this up. He is a smart, balanced, fundamentally sound ballplayer. But it’s very early in the season and he has a long, long way to go.

understand the point of this post.

some of us (ahem) were not negative about him during the off season, and did aexpect him to produce better this season (not going to name any names, like me)

I LOVE to be wrong any time it means good things for the Cubs.

As I’ve said before, if he keeps up like this then the crow I’ll be eating will taste like a steak dinner!

                                         AVG OBP SLG OPS
  Kosuke Fukudome .375 .487 .781 1.268
  Albert Pujols STL .341 .460 .707 1.167

current stats.10 games or not, gotta like it.

were several posters who were calling the acquisition of Dome as “Hendry’s worst ever” and were suggesting that the Cubs eat his salary and release him. Two weeks of good play doesn’t justify the signing of Fukudome, but this exercise illustrates the very nature of how basball should be perceived. Making decisions based on spring training performances or a few games usually leads to eating your words

I will be the first to concede that Dome had a terrible second half to the season and doubts about his long-term sucess were justified, but some of the posts calling for his release or trading him and paying a large portion of his salary were a bit silly. Obviously, the talent is there and he needed to make some adjustments. Sometimes patience is a hard thing to display in a case like this, but baseball is a game that must be allowed to unfold naturally. The subtle nature of this sport calls for a certain amount perserverence that lets these types of situation resolves themselves.

to give. I was willing to let Dome (as well as all the players) show what he/they can do this season. It seems that some forget about the human element involved. Humans are not perfect but some expect them to be.

I dont have to be embarrassed to wear his shirt anymore!

But I’ll hold my breath, we saw this movie last year

both positively (this post) and negatively (the other one or two).

The Cubs aren’t even 2 full weeks into the season. I’m happy Domer is doing better and will only say I hope he continues to improve.

this well in order for me to even to begin to think about apologizing. Nuff said

Soriano has 5 HR’s through 10 games… which doesn’t tie with Fukudome.

and this lnk will tell you why

http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2009/2/6/751539/fukudome

and maybe he’ll come back down to earth. But what I’m encouraged by right now is that he seems to have adjusted to the pitcher’s adjustments. He’s being more selective, etc.

And so right now I prefer to think that the fans who thought he needed more time to get used to playing in the major leagues and to become more familair with the pitchers might have been right after all.

I was a naysayer but I have no problem admitting I might have been wrong. In fact, at times like this, I’m absolutely gleeful about it.

…once he has that, the questions about his ability to hit will go away, until he has that, they won’t. Here’s to hoping this is the year he does that.

This year is no comparison to last year with regard to his APPEARANCE at the plate. He looks confident, mean, and aggressive.

Last year (2nd half) he looked like I would look standing at the plate. He looked confused and fearful.

He just had to finish out the season last year, go home and re-group. He will be just fine.

I’ll blame myself. Last night I picked him up for my fantasy team. If that doesn’t jinx him then I don’t know what will.

Before the season. I wrote a fanpost critical that Fukudome was going to have any success at all. When I wrote that, i hoped that i would be wrong, but he looked so bad. There was a lot of reasons to believe that he wouldn’t be successful:

1) The Cubs went out and signed Bradley to play his position. Obviuosly, the Cubs didn’t have too much faith.

2) His performance for almost 10 months at every level (regular season, playoffs, WBC, and spring training) of play was atrocious.

I see nothing wrong with questioning his ability to be a functioning player based on all that evidence. I’m glad he’s succeeding, but I’m still skeptical. Let’s see him do it for longer than he did last year and maybe I could be more comfortable taking a different position. It should be noted that it’s only been 10 games and started like this last year too.