Following a spring training full of questions, Kosuke Fukudome finished game one with no questions to be asked. Kosuke Fukudome went 3-3 with a game tying home run in the bottom of the 9th inning against Eric Gagne. Kosuke also had a single, double, and walked once.

On a day the rest of the Chicago Cubs struggled, zero hits through the first 8 innings, Kosuke Fukudome shined. During spring training he hit under .225, which received many questions from fans and reporters about his true abilities, but on opening day, Kosuke Fukudome has silenced also those questions.

Kosuke Fukudome’s performance stood out on a gloomy, depressing opening day for the Cubbies. The game was delayed twice: first to start of the game, and again during the game. Kosuke Fukudome was by far the Chicago Cubs opening day player of the game.

The guys over at CubbiesBaseball.com have provided us with pictures of Kosuke Fukudome and the rest of the Chicago Cubs from spring training. Here is a preview of some of their Fukudome pictures.

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Lou Piniella has thought out loud several times over the past week about placing Kosuke Fukudome in the Chicago Cubs line up as the lead off hitter, and he does it again.

This time its only against lefties though. Piniella likes the way Kosuke Fukudome takes a lot of pitches, which is typical of lead off hitters. Fukudome is also getting on base regularly, on base percentage over .400, although struggling getting hits.

“He makes the pitcher throw a lot of pitches. He’s got a good eye. It’s good spot for him. I’ve seen him enough here against lefties. It’ll give you all something to play around with, too.” -Lou Piniella, Daily Herald.

Piniella said this is not something that is going to happen for sure, but it is something that he likes in his mind:

“I wouldn’t even mind leading Fukudome off against lefties, to be honest with you. I’m not saying we’re going to do that, but that’s in my mind, also. I like him there.

Tomorrow the Cubs play against lefty pitcher Jarrod Washburn, and it will be interesting to see if Piniella tries out Kosuke in the lead off spot.

ESPN.com

The Chicago Cubs signed veteran outfielder Reed Johnson today. Contract negotiations lasted just ten minutes, when the Cubs and Johnson setteled on a 1 year, $1.3 million contract. Why did the deal take so fast? Reed Johnson really wanted to be a Cub:

“You guys don’t know how happy I am to be here,” he said, reported the Chicago Tribune.

What does the signing of Johnson mean to the rest of the Cubs outfield? Well Johnson’s career .308 batting average, and speed; make him a good option a top the Cubs batting order. Johnson is a right handed hitter and which could lead to a center field platoon situation. Felix Pie’s left handed bat against right handed hitters and Johnson against lefties.

And the effect this has on Kosuke Fukudome should be very little. Johnson should become a backup for Fukudome, only playing in the situation that Kosuke needs some rest. As for the Chicago Cubs team, Johnson provides a very reliable and veteran bench bat.

Yesterday on ESPN.com’s weekly chat, where fans ask ESPN analyst questions and they respond with their opinions, a couple fans asked questions regarding Kosuke Fukudome’s poor spring.

ESPN.com

One fan wondered if Fukudome would get off to as slow a career in Major League Baseball as Kaz Matsui, who struggled mightily as a New York Met, but has since shown signs of improvement with the Colorado Rockies, which led to a big deal with the Houston Astros. Kieth Law’s response was:

“I like him better than that. Kaz Matsui had poor walk rates in Japan. That seems to matter for guys who come over.”

Although Kosuke Fukudome has struggled at the plate thus far, he has remained patient at the plate. Compiling 14 base on balls with an on base percentage of .409 through Tuesday evening.

Another fan asked whether is was fair to proclaim Fukudome a bust already. Noting his lack of plate coverage, and coverage, and his bat shattering, weakly hit ground balls. ESPN analyst Tim Kurkjian responded to this noting his poor spring, but stating it is way to early to label Kosuke Fukudome a bust:

“He has not had a good spring, and it is way too early to suggest that he is going to be a bust. Keep in mind that Ichiro hit a bunch of soft singles and weak ground balls to the left side his first spring. Lou Piniella privately wondered if he was going to be able to hit in the bigs. Of course, he went on to be the rookie of the year and MVP. Fukudome is no Ichiro, but he is going to be an above-average major league outfielder who is going to hit between 15 and 20 homers, around .280, and will be well above average on the bases and defensively. It’s a huge adjustment coming from Japan, he hasn’t made it yet, but he will.”

It is crazy to think Cub fans are already upset with Fukudome’s play. Yes, it may be a bit disappointing not to see him producing All-Star numbers right off the bat, but remember, he only has 52 big league at bats thus far. He is still considered a rookie in the Majors. And remember this, his numbers now, if he does make the Hall of Fame someday, won’t matter.

Less than 24 hours after Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella shared his plans about trying Kosuke Fukudome out in lead off spot he has changed his mind, and is set on the opening day lineup.

Kosuke Fukudome will bat fifth, with Ryan Theriot leading off and Alfonso Soriano batting second, barring any trades. Lou believes that Fukudome provides Aramis Rameriz with the best protection.

Fukudome is batting 0-2 through 7 innings versus the White Sox today.

After Fridays game, Lou Piniella said he would make another switch to the batting order. Kosuke Fukudome will try batting in the number 1 slot Saturday. This switch will move everyone down one spot. Ryan Theriot will bat 2nd, Alfonso Soriano 3rd, Derek Lee 4th, and Aramis Rameriz will bat 5th, as reported by ChicagoSports.com.

The move from the 5th to 1st slot in the batting order is the fourth change for Kosuke Fukudome. Fukudome will now have batted 3rd, 2nd, 5th, and first. ‘Fooky,’ as Piniella calls Fukudome, did not like what he saw from Kosuke batting behind Rameriz. The fact that Fukudome has an on base percentage of .357, despite the .205 batting average, means he’s still seeing the ball well.

The one this Lou Piniella does not like about this though means that Felix Pie and Kosuke, the Cubs only two lefties, will be batting in the 8th spot and 1st. Piniella does want to find the most comfortable spot in the batting order though before the season starts.

“I’m not all that pleased with the fifth spot,” he said. “We want to make it as comfortable as we can for Fukudome also.”

In the attempt to getting the 48 million dollar man charged up, Piniella will once again switch Kosuke Fukudome’s spot in the batting order.

Kosuke Fukudome had the day off Friday. The Chicago Cubs fell to the Colorado Rockies 7-3. Bring the Cubs spring training record to 10-14.

Kosuke Fukudome is not producing this spring, which has cause his batting order to change several times. After starting the spring in the number 3 spot in the Chicago Cubs batting order, Fukudome moved up from the 3 to 2 spot. His most recent change has been from the 2 spot to the 5 sport, where many originally thought he would bat. The switch has proved to have much of an effect.

For the spring, Kosuke Fukudome has a batting average of .205. The move down in the order has really only made things worse, where Kosuke has just 3 hits in 21 at bats, not two mention 5 strike outs in the last two days. Before yesterday, Fukudome had only struck out 6 times in 14 games, which could be cause for alarm.

Lou Piniella does not believe there is anything to worry about though:

“I’m not worried about anything. He face a couple tough left-handers today. They threw the ball pretty hard and they were dropping down.” -Suntimes.com

What does Kosuke Fukudome think about his play? Fukudome doesn’t see any reason for worry or concern either:

“Being productive is not a productive approach.”

As the regular season continues to draw nearer, and the Fukudome continues to struggle this may be cause for concern. But lets remember, this is only spring training.

Kosuke Fukudome will be entering his first year in Major Leagues after several in Japan. He will join a list of several players to make the jump, but few have had as much success as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui. So I gathered some stats from these players final season in Japan, their average Japanese stats, and their first year in Japan. After looking at the chart, check out the comparisons and projections below.

• Hits and at bats went up due to the increase in the MLB compared to the Japan league, but batting average changed. Matsui saw his average drop .050 from his first MLB season to his last Japan year, and Ichiro’s drop about .030 in the same situation. Ichiro’s average in his first MLB season was equal to his Japanese career batting average, but Matsui’s average was about .020 lower than his career average.

o Fukudome projection: expect to see a decrease in his .353 batting average, probably more in line with his career .305 average.

• Runs batted in don’t really change, but home runs significantly decrease. Ichiro’s and Matsui’s RBI numbers did not change much compared to their last Japan year or average Japan career stats. But home runs dropped for each. Ichiro, who is not much of a home run hitter, hit 7 less homers his first MLB year compared to his Japanese average. Matsui, known as ‘Godzilla’ for his home run power, hit 34 less homers his first MLB season, and 19 less homers compared to his average.

o Fukudome projection: expect a decrease in home runs but by how much is the question. His last Japan year he hit 31, but his career average was 21. I would not expect to see a large number of home runs early in the season when the wind is blowing in, but he has a good chance to hit some when the wind shifts in the summer.

In conclusion, I would expect to see a slight decrease in Kosuke Fukudome’s offensive stats, but what he brings to the table as an overall player should help the Chicago Cubs chances of repeating as division champs… and maybe ending that 100 year drought.

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If Kosuke Fukudome’s early struggles in spring training are anything to worry about, his presence in the club house definitely isn’t. Club houses of the good baseball teams are always a place of laughter and pranks, especially early in spring training. And Fukudome has found himself right in the middle of all the joking, from day one as note in the Sun-Sentinel.

When Kosuke first arrived at spring training last month, in his locker was not the ‘#1’ jersey he had worn at his signing day press conference, but a ‘#11’ jersey. A few minutes later Carlos Zambrano arrived and started getting dressed, but instead of putting on his big, ‘#38’ jersey, he was dressing in a slimmer, ‘#1” jersey. As the club house erupted in laughed, Kosuke gave a wide smile and shook his head.

Fukudome wasn’t going to let Big Z get the last laugh.

In spring training, players are given boxes of balls to autograph, usually a couple a week. One day after practice, Big Z returned to his locker to find a stack of 14 boxes to autograph. Fukudome has pushed his stack over to his locker neighbor. Big Z just pushed both of their stacks right back over, and this continued for a few days before the two just began signing the balls.

Others interacting with Kosuke:

Alfonso Soriano played minor league ball in Japan before being signed by the Yankees. Soriano is able to talk rather fluently with Kosuke on a day to day basis… Derek Lee spent some time growing up in Japan when we was younger but doesn’t remember much Japanese except a few basic phrases… And Kerry Wood has taken the time to learn how to greet his teammate every morning, learning ‘Good Morning’ in Japanese.