ESPN is reporting that the Chicago Cubs and OF Kosuke Fukudome have reached an agreement.
…Update…1:00am…
The deal is worth $48 million over four years.
…fukudome was all the rage in japan and it was rumored that the Padres were going after him hard, but he made up his mind rather quickly after deciding to leave japan…it makes you wonder if anyone else really had a chance…
…i’m certainly interested to see if he can be as successful in the majors as he was in japan - but let’s be honest, i’m more excited to name my fantasy team after him and hear sportscasters mispronounce his name…
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i was at the World Baseball Classic finales in San Diego, had 4th row from the field seats in foul territory, RF…when he hit the pinch hit HR, me and my peeps started a
fuk-you-do-me fuk-you-do-me chant…
it caught on right away…and i have a feeling it wiil everywhere…
he’s gonna be DAMN GOOD i think…damnnnn good
Imagine Chris Russo pronouncing it?
Ever hear him try to pronounce pianist?
Just one of Russo’s endearing qualities.
Ive never heard someone so prominant in the media with SUCH bad speech…my personal fav is “pwayofs” (playoffs)
i enjoy listening to him announce the days of the week : “Mondee, Tuesdee, Wednesdee, and so on.”
Gahr-bich for garbage is my personal fave.
I love him and Mike.
I personally like achvoshus
translation: Atrocious
on Russo’s wikipedia page, there is a listing of everything he mispronounces
Even better are the screwed up metaphors like the one the other day describing how owners and gm’s knew about steriods but could not do anything about them. “they had their foot in the sand”
Ree-NEHM-ber for remember. Nitwit!
Those two should be known as “A-Hole and the Hemorrhoid” !
Almost as good as the SNL Jeopardy skit with Sean Connery:
The Penus Mightier for $100 Alex
$60 mill for a guy thats never played in the US?? Even Dice-K wasn’t THAT good.
Kaz Matsui:
Career high homers in Japan: 36
Career high homers in US: 7
Kosuke Fukudome:
Career high homers in Japan: 34
Career high homers in US: ???
Hideki had 50 HRs in Japan. A high of 31 for the Yankees. Power doesn’t translate well to American baseball. Having said that, I was not adverse to signing him. I preferred him over Alou since at least he’d probably stay healthy the whole year. With the anticipated thinning of the OF depth if we get Santana, that’s not a small consideration. He also had good OBP numbers in Japan.
BTW, it’s $50M, not $60M.
Freddie Coupons not interested….wants to keep the payroll at a ridiculous 100 million.
Too late. It’s already over last year’s amount.
Yeah, I’m sure you’ll still be wishing the Mets had plunked down the $50 million six months from now when he’s hitting .270/.330/.430 in the majors. Throwing money around always makes teams better.
Probably better than Ryan Church. But not worth it. At least Church is cheap.
People find ways to complain about anything
12 million is nothing to a team that rakes in hundreds of millions in revenues anymore. I guess they are satisfied having a Kansas City Royal-like RFer in Ryan Church ($380,000).
Freddie Coupons…open up the wallet already.
Every Japanese hitter has seen his skills translate very poorly to MLB. Fukudome will be just like Church, but more expensive.
Take your sanity and logic elsewhere….
Don’t you have a new act, the Freddie Coupon thing is old…Get some new material please, your posts are a waste of time……..
Yeah because that other ex-Royals outfielder we have sucks, huh?
Opening up the wallet isn’t the answer, dummy.
Any shmuck can throw money at random players. You have to get quality for your money. If you seriously think that dumping unlimited money in the team guarantees ANYTHING, then I need some of whatever you’re smoking.
The offense needed to be upgraded, but it’s inexplicably been downgraded this offseason. This on a team that got shutout by the likes of Tyler Clippard and Mike Bacsik last year. Yes obviously the Mets need pitching (which Mr. Autonomy Minaya is not going to get anyway)….but they also need to upgrade their so-so offense which got shutout by many stiffs and rookies last year.
Fukudome is not going to be a big power guy. He’s going to be an OBP machine. I think he’s going to produce similar to the way Brian Giles produced during his 30’s.
Usually the problem is never the player its the unfair expectations that fans/media/the team put on them.
And need guys in the bullpen too, which Minaya has not addressed.
Fire him and fire the village idi*t Randolph- both are unqualified for their respective positions. But they are black/hispan*c and thus the Mets are afraid the NAACP would be up in arms if you fire minority people. Such a disgrace.
You are a jackass.
How was nobody held accountable for the collapse? What kind of organization is this? A pathetic one.
Then leave. Please.
Maybe he will help the Cubs win ONE playoff game next year.
Willie has proved his incompetence and brainlessness for 3 years now- it wasn’t just the collapse and his overseeing of it that make him deserving of being fired…he has been bumbling and incompetent since Day 1. But the collapse affirmed his incompetence and it’s a disgrace that he still has a job. Minaya too. Mr. Autonomy.
But you have to “go easy” on minorities. If the Mets GM and manager were white, they would have been fired by sunrise the day after the collapse. But that’s the world we live in and all Mets fans have to suffer for it. Dumb Willie get out of here.
That’s ok Benny, we have Ryan Church- the key for Wilpon is that he’s extremely CHEAP…that suits Freddie Coupons’ tastes perfectly. Raise the payroll already you cheap b*stards.
Get Santana or I’m gone.
if we have to sacrifice not getting santana so we dont have to read your endless, droning rants every thread then that is something I’m willing to do
AMEN 5and7!
I’m totally starting a letter-writing campaign to try to convince Omar NOT to get Santana now.
You been saying you are gone for months. Go already.
I wonder if Mr. Autunomy will sell us on Livan being an ace…probably. I see a 3 year/ 40 million dollar deal coming.
With a few cases of cerveza thrown in so his fat rump can get even fatter.
And why are people surprised that Perez got booed at the Knicks game? Get used to it. That’s what happens when you partake in the biggest choke/travesty in the history of organized sports. That is why you need to turnover the roster (and fire the manager, GM) as much as possible. But that is not happening. Mr. Incompetence (I mean Mr. Autonomy) is foolishly bringing back the same bunch of pathetic chokers…minus a few fiery guys…plus Livan Herandez and minus 1 paying fan (me).
After such a disgraceful collapse I guarantee you people that each and every one of the Mets will be booed viciously during the HOME OPENER…They will boo Mr. Met too. Get used to it- these chokers will be booed everywhere they go the rest of their lives…and Willie will always have the choker tag- not that he wasn’t incompetent and unqualified to begin with.
Gonna start my own blog minus the apologists and schills and patsies for cheapo Fred Wilpon.
Ante up Freddie Coupons. Do something to assuage your disgusted, ticked off, embarrassed fan base.
FUKU Freddie Coupons (should have signed him)
what if he didn’t want to play in new york because of losers like you?
Beltran will be on the list. So will Oliver Perez. Write it down. Not that I care- let them all do steroids and die by age 45…nobody cares. Just win a few NYM championships along the way.
We’ll never see a championship with the current regime of dumb Omar and dumber Willie in place though….
Goodnight you schills.
Fifty years from now, I’ll be able to tell my grandkids that in 2007, on a baseball blog, I met the whiniest man who ever lived.
Hey, Sylvan. I just checked out your cartoons. Very funny! Very droll! The zombies one made me laugh.
that’s not a man…it’s a child who’s X-Box broke down…..
blah blah blah
Frankly, this blog gets more boring every day. Been here from the start and based on stories that are reported and the clearly less than desirable news, and I use term loosely, that is reported, I am quite baffled by the forward momentum of this site. I am almost ready to hope the worst for Matt.
Welcome to Major League Baseball… K-Fuk!
Hey Matt, can we not clean this up a little? Every post seems to say the same garbage by the same people, monopolizing the board with trash. Isn’t it a terms violation to continue to post comments that have nothing to do with the topic?
I think we should rename Citifield: “The FUK-U-DOME”. This way, when we are paying $48 to sit in the Upper Deck to watch a 3rd place team play lackluster baseball, we can be greeted by a big poster of Wilpon saying WELCOME TO THE FUK-U-DOME SUCKERS. I can taste the $12 beers already!
Is Wilpon buying the Braves or the Cubs? I can’t figure out the 3rd place team you are refering to. Ours will be in the hunt all year and even with no more additions very well could win the NL. East.
maybe not 3rd place but right now i sincerely think the phillies are the better team…that could obviously change, lets hope it does.
That’s a good debate, I think that they really stepped up last year. That being said it took us not being able to get out of our own way for them to take the division. They have added a potentialy good reliever. If Lidge is able to give them the confidence to put Myers in the rotation that will help them tremendously. However, they will not have the same level of offense without Rowand and and have holes in the OF and 3B. Their rotation is also nothing special and their bullpen lacks depth.
Looking at their rotation
Hammels and Myers can be great but injury prone
Kendrick has a lot of potenial but many 2nd year pitchers hit a wall.
Back of the rotation will be their problem. Moyer is 50 and had a 5.01 ERA and Eaton finished the year with a 6.28 ERA. It is hard to win consitantly when you have to score 6+ everytime your 4 and 5 pitch. Plus the weight on the pen and having no idea how Lidge will handle the pressure of closing again and in the city of brotherly love.
All in all I would still give the Phillies a slight edge because they did obtain a useable part for their pen but we have to factor in the potential of a full year of Pedro and Sanchez as well.
I would expect both teams to make a few more moves, however.
but at the same time it took the Mets worst baseball of the season combined with the phils best to get them in…
youre right, about us not being able to get out of our own way. its just that the way i see it is the phillies are more built for the regular season than we are RIGHT NOW. they have a juggernaut offense in a band box stadium. and they have an ace along with a very good #2. as for us we dont have an ace and our offense is very soft and plays in a canyon by todays standards. pitching ultimately does win and we are DEEPER but they still have the best pitcher in the division and they at least do have the ability to score 6 runs everytime their back end pitch. we really dont have that kind of fire power no matter who we face. (im aware of the irony that when we did have that fire power we were still losing and they were actually pitching well in close games down the stretch).
In the hunt? I guess we may be competitive, but if you are telling me that you are confident with:
1/3 of your line-up is: Church/Schnieder/Pitcher
Then, you have the oft injured Beltran (who, let’s remember is a .280 hitter with some pop, but not an allstar for anything other than his glove), and the even more injured Alou.
Then there is Carlos “The Question Mark” Delgado who may well bat .220 if we are lucky.
Cap it off with the “sparkplug” that was more miss than hit in the 2nd half of last year and Luis “I got no knees bro” Castillo.
Then Wright bats to make us all feel better.
You surround that soft in the belly lineup with pitching from Pedro, who may be dominant again, or may be sidelined for 1/2 the season.. NO ONE knows how he comes back, El Duque, who may be older than Jaime Moyer and features the Epheus pitch, then you have a good combo of Maine/Perez, but they are better suited as a 3/4 than your 2/3.. then the biggest question of all Pelfrey/Livan/Mulvey/Insert question mark here/5th starter.. and our bullpen which is a coinflip at best. Glad you are confident going into battle with this roster. We don’t have an Utley/Rollins/Howard lineup or a Smoltz/Hudson/Glavine counter to Philly or Atlanta and I don’t see us improving. After the collapse, this team needed to do something.. its still early, but I grow more pessimistic by the day/report.
What a pessimistic outlook!
Beltran: oft-injured? Not an all star for anything but his glove? Do you even know what you’re talking about? Beltran has played (on average) more games than the other “premiere” CFs in the league (Andruw Jones, Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand). Get real bro-ham
Not to mention, i feel 100% comfortable with Church.
Everyone is crying about Lo Duca, but look at EVERY other stat aside from Avg and HR….Schneider is right there with him.
We’ve hardly downgraded….
Here’s Beltran:
In 2005, he batted .266
In 2006, he batted .275
In 2007, he batted .276
These are not impressive numbers.
In 2005, he hit 16HRs.
In 2006, he had good power numbers 41HR, but let’s not forget how NLCS game 7 ended.
In 2007, he hit 33 HRs
These are above average numbers, but hardly fearsome.
So his 3 year average is .272/30/102
Is that really an all-star bat?
And do you really think Beltran is not made of Elmer’s glue and popsicle sticks? He seems to get hamstring injuries from plastic bags blowing into him in the outfield.
272 30 102 avg for a corner OFer isnt really that great but for a CFer it is. and when that centerfield is playing gold glove defense it definitely is. aaron rowand had a career year and he basically matched beltran who does that on average, andrew jones got 18 mill after hitting less than 30 hrs and batting 220 something. if beltran was a LFer id say you may be right but the thing is when you put those numbers in CF aside from sizemore, who really compares to beltran?
If he was a supplemental bat like Rowand was to Utley/Rollins/Howard, and not our 2nd biggest offensive threat.. i think it makes a world of difference. If he a very good CF? Yes.. is he a HOF’er or one of the 10 best players in the NL.. no.
“you have the oft injured Beltran (who, let’s remember is a .280 hitter with some pop, but not an allstar for anything other than his glove)”
what are you talking about? beltran led all major league cf in hr and rbi in 2007. he was also #1 in hr and #2 in rbi in 2006 for a cf. some pop? he plays more than 90% of center-fielders. its a tough position to cover.
batting avg is over-rated. that’s a 1984 stat.
I vehemently disagree with your sentiment……but that was pretty funny
This makes me long for a post about Santana. . . .
With these Japanese imports, you really have to trust your scouts, but unless there’s a gaggle of Shinjos I’m missing, the position players’ skills have translated pretty well. Even if they aren’t megastars, they play fundamentally sound baseball. The one major disappointment was our own Kaz, and even he seems to have managed to carve out a niche. . . . Then again, they do play in a league in which Tuffy Rhodes became an elite power hitter — Doc Gooden every day for Tuffy. . . .
I think we have got to get over the idea that the Mets will again be runaway favorites.
OK, now that we all accept it is not 2006 can we stop bitching?
The Mets, I believe, are fairly evenly matched with the Braves and Phils. It will come down to which team can stay healthier and who has the better pitching.
Even without a trade, our rotation *could* be the best in the division. Maine has potential to put together a great year. Ollie, well, he beats the braves all the time! Pedro is still one of the best ever. Duque, when healthy, was excellent last year. The 5th starter will either be Pelf if he gets it together or Mulvey by mid-year.
We’re not the Red Sox or Yankees. But, we don’t play in the AL East.
I still say if we could shore up that 5 spot for now it would be a huge addition. As I posted earlier, the Philies #5 is Eaton and a 6.28 ERA. If we can get league average from that spot then we will gain wins.
I can almost bet that Millwood would be available from Texas for very little. Maybe if you included a decent prospect you could even get back Otsuka.
Millwood and Otsuka for Humber and Smith?
Rotation
Pedro, Maine, Perez, Millwood, Elduque/Pelfrey
Pen
Wagner, Sanchez, Otsuka, Heilman, Feliciano, Show, Sosa. :)
Those additions would be much more than the Phillies or Braves have done and should net a division title.
Decent thought (re: Millwood), but I don’t see Texas making that trade…especially with Otsuka included
the 5 spot for us was as big a blackhole as 3b is for the phils….only 3 wins from that spot….If we have a guy there who is even close to average than the Mets make the playoffs…If Omar can’t get an ace its ok-its not for lack of trying. But there is no reason he can’t bring aboard a guy who would be serviceable as a #5…Pelfrey can pick up the slack for duque, who will likely make only 20-25 starts.
re: eaton sucking, he owns us. 6.28 era and all the guy owns us.
Matt! You just gave me some great ideas for my fantasy team’s name next year, hat tip to you my friend. Nice Ball!
Firemetsmanagement- you need to relax, pal. It’s within your right to be frustrated at the team because of what went down last year, but your posts are repetetive and non-sensical. Chill.
Fukudome was not the answer, the Mets need pitching.
People who watched the Mets offense crumble last year (and get shutout by Mike Bacsik, Tyler Clippard) know that it’s not just the pitching that needs to be upgraded. The offense was just not good enough last year when it needed to be- and all Omar has done so far this season is downgrade the offense. This teams needs offense, a big starter, a few guys in the bullpen…and also needs a competent manager and GM. But I guess Freddie Coupons is happy having a cheap 380,000K RFer.
Any more on that Chavez rumor? I would take Marquis and Murton for Chavez and Gotay?????
Pass on Marquis. We have enough #4 type starters with bad K/9.
Nothing nonsensical about my posts. I speak the truth- the angry truth.
Ben Johnson? Do we still have him? Also I don’t believe Newhan is still with the team either. If both can be brought back (or similar type players) to wait down in AAA, then that would be good.
But that isn’t ideal. It’s not good putting 2 key players (El Duque and Alou) on your team who you know before the season starts won’t be able to play a full season. Both make a Santana trade dicey as it would deplete depth behind those two old players.
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