News: Fukudome, etc, are Free Agents

by Matthew Cerrone on October 23rd, 2007 at 8:02 am

According to JapanBall.com, 68 players from Japan have declared for free agency, including 30–year-old OF Kosuke Fukudome, RHP Masahide Kobayashi and RHP Hiroki Kuroda, who is rumored to be in Los Angeles this week to determine if he needs elbow surgery.

Last May, in a Rumblings & Grumblings report for ESPN.com, Jayson Stark quoted an MLB team official as saying of Fukudome…

“He’ll be a big name all winter.  There may be more teams on him than were in on Hideki Matsui, because it was nearly a foregone conclusion Matsui was going to the Yankees.  I don’t have any sense there’s a favorite team with this guy.”

…from what i can gather, he plays very hard; he’ll be strong defensively in left field and right field, where he has a great arm, very similar to Ichiro; he will not be a big home run threat, though he’ll hit a lot of balls in the gap; think a better version of Tadahito Iguchi during his rookie season for the White Sox, i.e., .290, 15 HR, at least 30 doubles, 10 SB, 100 K’s, etc…the early buzz from baseball expects him to ask for at least a three-year deal, while the Red Sox, Padres, Rangers, Mariners and Giants will likely show interest…

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