Piniella: Fukudome Needs to Start Hitting

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I think it takes quite a bit of extrapolation to say that Lou is pinning the loss or the lack of offense last night on Kosuke.

 

No one is saying Lou is blaming Fukudome for the entire lack of offense. But we lost by 1 and he clearly called out Fukudome's AB for not picking up the RBI with a guy on 3rd and less than 2 outs. It's not a stretch to say he's putting a hefty amount of blame for the loss on Fukudome.

 

I think that it is quite a stretch unless there's more context than the snippet provided in the first post. You don't know what question he's responding to, or if he talked about other failures before or after that quote.

[CubinNY]

Are they going to go with Fontenot (2nd) & DeRosa (RF)? Is that better than Fukudome when you factor in defense?

[jersey cubs fan]

I think it takes quite a bit of extrapolation to say that Lou is pinning the loss or the lack of offense last night on Kosuke.

 

No one is saying Lou is blaming Fukudome for the entire lack of offense. But we lost by 1 and he clearly called out Fukudome's AB for not picking up the RBI with a guy on 3rd and less than 2 outs. It's not a stretch to say he's putting a hefty amount of blame for the loss on Fukudome.

 

I think that it is quite a stretch unless there's more context than the snippet provided in the first post. You don't know what question he's responding to, or if he talked about other failures before or after that quote.

 

I'm not sure how you can call it a stretch.

[17 Seconds]

I wonder how Kosuke feels about Lou repeatedly calling him out in front of the media. It doesn't matter, but I think it would be interesting to find out what Kosuke is thinking.

[C.C.]

I wonder how Kosuke feels about Lou repeatedly calling him out in front of the media. It doesn't matter, but I think it would be interesting to find out what Kosuke is thinking.

 

 

Hopefully he's thinking I need to start hitting.

[Tracer Bullet]

I think it takes quite a bit of extrapolation to say that Lou is pinning the loss or the lack of offense last night on Kosuke.

 

No one is saying Lou is blaming Fukudome for the entire lack of offense. But we lost by 1 and he clearly called out Fukudome's AB for not picking up the RBI with a guy on 3rd and less than 2 outs. It's not a stretch to say he's putting a hefty amount of blame for the loss on Fukudome.

 

I think that it is quite a stretch unless there's more context than the snippet provided in the first post. You don't know what question he's responding to, or if he talked about other failures before or after that quote.

 

I don't know what your angle is on this, but I can't believe you don't see a connection between the two. Lou's reasons are based on months of struggles from Fukudome and not just one AB, but that doesn't change the connection he made in that comment.

[Keener98]

Fontenot is not the answer. If and when he starts playing everyday, I expect his numbers to come down. He had a fantastic month of July, but I really dont expect him to put up much better numbers than what Fukudome has this year.

[Tracer Bullet]

I wonder how Kosuke feels about Lou repeatedly calling him out in front of the media. It doesn't matter, but I think it would be interesting to find out what Kosuke is thinking.

 

I can't imagine he's terribly happy about it. Of course, he's probably disappointed in his performance so far, if he has any sense of pride.

 

It does strike me as odd that Lou would call guys out in the media when we're up 5 on the Brewers in late August. Not that I want him to take it easy, but I would prefer he speak directly to Kosuke and work with him (or have Perry do it) to figure out what's going on and make the adjustment. Calling the new guy out in the media when the team has the best record in the NL seems to create more problems than it fixes.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I'm not sure how you can call it a stretch.

 

It's a postgame quote where he's upset that Fukudome didn't drive in a run where he should have been able to. The quote only talked about the specific situation, didn't talk about the offense as a whole, and there was nothing from before or after the quote to give context to it. It's definitely indicative of Lou's continued frustration with Kosuke(however justified it may be), but to blame the whole lack of offense on Kosuke? He didn't even say anything about that one run making a difference, he only talked about the lack of execution.

[Choonch]

I wonder how Kosuke feels about Lou repeatedly calling him out in front of the media. It doesn't matter, but I think it would be interesting to find out what Kosuke is thinking.

 

I do too, I'm sure he's not happy about it. But, this is the major leagues and he's been a disappointment. You just have to take the criticism sometimes.

[Tyrant]

Fontenot is not the answer. If and when he starts playing everyday, I expect his numbers to come down. He had a fantastic month of July, but I really dont expect him to put up much better numbers than what Fukudome has this year.

 

I think Fontenot might actually be a better option at this point. He won't sustain his .900+ OPS, but I think he has just enough pop to hit at a ~.780 level. That's better than Fukudome at this point.

 

The defensive downgrade might make it a wash, but it's sure frustrating to see Fukudome continue to slide.

[erik316wttn]

I wonder how Kosuke feels about Lou repeatedly calling him out in front of the media. It doesn't matter, but I think it would be interesting to find out what Kosuke is thinking.

 

I do too, I'm sure he's not happy about it. But, this is the major leagues and he's been a disappointment. You just have to take the criticism sometimes.

 

If he doesn't like it, then he should start hitting. It'll go away.

 

If you don't want people to point out that you suck at your job, then don't suck at your job.

[soapy]

I think it takes quite a bit of extrapolation to say that Lou is pinning the loss or the lack of offense last night on Kosuke.

 

No one is saying Lou is blaming Fukudome for the entire lack of offense. But we lost by 1 and he clearly called out Fukudome's AB for not picking up the RBI with a guy on 3rd and less than 2 outs. It's not a stretch to say he's putting a hefty amount of blame for the loss on Fukudome.

 

I think that it is quite a stretch unless there's more context than the snippet provided in the first post. You don't know what question he's responding to, or if he talked about other failures before or after that quote.

fair enough, but it's not the first time Lou has singled out Kosuke so i don't think it's a huge stretch or anything.

[E.J.]

There's a dude down in AAA that's crushing the ball still. Pretty sure he can play some RF.

[Derwood]

There's a dude down in AAA that's crushing the ball still. Pretty sure he can play some RF.

 

where have we heard that before?

[abuck1220]

There's a dude down in AAA that's crushing the ball still. Pretty sure he can play some RF.

 

roosevelt brown? seriously, hoffpauir's not the answer to anything.

 

but there may be some complacency from fukudome. am i sensing complacency? yes, i think i am.

[soapy]

There's a dude down in AAA that's crushing the ball still. Pretty sure he can play some RF.

 

roosevelt brown? seriously, hoffpauir's not the answer to anything.

 

but there may be some complacency from fukudome. am i sensing complacency? yes, i think i am.

 

hoffpauir isn't any kind of long-term answer, imo, but he should probably be with the club spelling Lee and Fukudome from time to time. might as well take advantage of him being on fire while it lasts.

[E.J.]

There's a dude down in AAA that's crushing the ball still. Pretty sure he can play some RF.

 

roosevelt brown? seriously, hoffpauir's not the answer to anything.

 

but there may be some complacency from fukudome. am i sensing complacency? yes, i think i am.

 

Hoffpauir has been hitting the cover off the baseball all season long. He also did well in his short time in the Majors. Something needs to change. Fukudome has an OPS of .631 the 2nd half of the season and has been awful since May.

[inari]

Fontenot might not play significantly better than Fukudome, but it's probable he'd be better. It's been reasonable to project him as a .780 OPS major leaguer for a few years now. Put DeRo in right and Fontenot at second for a while.

[abuck1220]

There's a dude down in AAA that's crushing the ball still. Pretty sure he can play some RF.

 

roosevelt brown? seriously, hoffpauir's not the answer to anything.

 

but there may be some complacency from fukudome. am i sensing complacency? yes, i think i am.

 

Hoffpauir has been hitting the cover off the baseball all season long. He also did well in his short time in the Majors. Something needs to change. Fukudome has an OPS of .631 the 2nd half of the season and has been awful since May.

 

yeah, because this season is quickly spiraling out of control.

[David]

There's a dude down in AAA that's crushing the ball still. Pretty sure he can play some RF.

 

roosevelt brown? seriously, hoffpauir's not the answer to anything.

 

but there may be some complacency from fukudome. am i sensing complacency? yes, i think i am.

 

Hoffpauir has been hitting the cover off the baseball all season long. He also did well in his short time in the Majors. Something needs to change. Fukudome has an OPS of .631 the 2nd half of the season and has been awful since May.

 

yeah, because this season is quickly spiraling out of control.

 

 

Well, granted, everything is obviously going well, overall. We'd still be better off without a black hole in the lineup, especially in a corner OF position that should be so easy to fill with ~.800 OPS production.

 

I don't think Hoffpauir is the answer to anything, either, though. Not sure what we can do at this point outside of giving Kosuke a few days off. You would think that with his ability to work counts, he'd be less prone to long slumps, but he is adjusting to a new and more difficult league.

[Derwood]

I think that the fact that we're getting bonus production from our CF platoon compensates for the lack of production in RF. If the Cubs are worried about next year, they should slide Fukudome to CF and sign/trade for a new RF.

[sneakypower]

hard to believe this is the same guy who had .300/.400/.500 JD Drew/Bobby Abreu projections

[David]

I think that the fact that we're getting bonus production from our CF platoon compensates for the lack of production in RF. If the Cubs are worried about next year, they should slide Fukudome to CF and sign/trade for a new RF.

 

 

Yea, but think of how good we'd be if we actually were getting production in RF.

 

Did Ibanez clear waivers?

Edited August 21, 2008 by David

[ConstableRabbit]

hard to believe this is the same guy who had .300/.400/.500 JD Drew/Bobby Abreu projections

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/matsuhi01.shtml

Maybe? I hope?