Kosuke Fukudome continues to show no signs of slowing down. Fukudome gathered two hits in four at bats today, scoring one run.

Spring training was tough for Kosuke Fukudome, hitting below .225 for the spring, but Kosuke is showing spring means nothing. In four games thus far he has six hits in twelve at bats and continues to see the ball well. Fukudome is proving once again that Japanese players especially should not be judge by their first spring training, as Ichiro and Akinori Iwamura each struggled in their first spring trainings and went on to have great first seasons

As for the Chicago Cubs as a whole, game four was nothing special. The bats were quiet for the first six innings before making a come back that fell short in the bottom of the ninth. The Cubs dropped the first game of a three game series to the Astros 4-3. Alfonso Soriano made an error in left that cause the Cubs a couple runs and later played a little second base, Rich Hill started good before losing his control, and Jon Lieber made his first appearance as a Cubs since 2002.

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.

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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.