Fukudome

[laurens]

It seems like he's in one of his cold spells again, OPS'ing .462 in spetember. I hope he snaps out of it and finishes strong the last two weeks so at least his can keep his OPS+ this year above 100.

[haubrich91]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

[inari]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

Until recently it was a pretty excellent year for him.

[Little Slide Rooter]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

Until recently it was a pretty excellent year for him.

 

It was a good year, certainly a nice rebound from his 2008, but I wouldnt call it excellent, especially considering his expectations when first coming over.

[dew1679666265]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

Until recently it was a pretty excellent year for him.

 

It was a good year, certainly a nice rebound from his 2008, but I wouldnt call it excellent, especially considering his expectations when first coming over.

 

I'd say a top 4-5 center fielder in all of baseball is pretty excellent.

[Sammy Sofa]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

Until recently it was a pretty excellent year for him.

 

It was a good year, certainly a nice rebound from his 2008, but I wouldnt call it excellent, especially considering his expectations when first coming over.

 

I'd say a top 4-5 center fielder in all of baseball is pretty excellent.

 

Not by the ridiculous expectations LLF posted here.

[dew1679666265]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

Until recently it was a pretty excellent year for him.

 

It was a good year, certainly a nice rebound from his 2008, but I wouldnt call it excellent, especially considering his expectations when first coming over.

 

I'd say a top 4-5 center fielder in all of baseball is pretty excellent.

 

Not by the ridiculous expectations LLF posted here.

 

I remember Meph predicting around a .900 OPS, but that and others were very high end projections. He's done very well this year - .800+ OPS and decent defense in center is excellent.

 

I'm curious to see if he still has room to improve, though. He made a huge jump from year one to year two and, while I'd be fine with him doing this next year as well, I wonder if he can make another improvement next year as he settles in more.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

Until recently it was a pretty excellent year for him.

 

It was a good year, certainly a nice rebound from his 2008, but I wouldnt call it excellent, especially considering his expectations when first coming over.

 

I'd say a top 4-5 center fielder in all of baseball is pretty excellent.

 

Kosuke has been fine this year, but he's closer to 10th than 5th, maybe even on the other side of 10 depending on how much weight you give to defensive metrics.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm curious to see if he still has room to improve, though. He made a huge jump from year one to year two and, while I'd be fine with him doing this next year as well, I wonder if he can make another improvement next year as he settles in more.

 

I wouldn't count on him improving at this point. He has had 4 separate "excellent" months of the 11.5 he's played in the majors, so if he got to the point where he could maintain that for a year we'd see it. But he's also shown an inability to avoid prolonged bad slumps. And the big thing in my mind is he'll be 33 at the beginning of next year. I know the comparison is far from perfect, but Hideki Matsui had his biggest jump in his 2nd year in the majors (he was also 30). I would think that 2nd year would be the most logical time for such an improvement, and 33 isn't a great time to expect a career year. Derrek Lee surprised me with a resurgence at 33, but he's still off the pace of his career year at 29. I don't know, maybe Fukudome is still not 100% recovered from the elbow and he can flirt with a 900 OPS next year. But I'd guess he's going to continue being a slightly above average producer, maybe in the low 800s with solid OBP and more than acceptable from his position (unless they move him back to right).

[dew1679666265]

I'm curious to see if he still has room to improve, though. He made a huge jump from year one to year two and, while I'd be fine with him doing this next year as well, I wonder if he can make another improvement next year as he settles in more.

 

I wouldn't count on him improving at this point. He has had 4 separate "excellent" months of the 11.5 he's played in the majors, so if he got to the point where he could maintain that for a year we'd see it. But he's also shown an inability to avoid prolonged bad slumps. And the big thing in my mind is he'll be 33 at the beginning of next year. I know the comparison is far from perfect, but Hideki Matsui had his biggest jump in his 2nd year in the majors (he was also 30). I would think that 2nd year would be the most logical time for such an improvement, and 33 isn't a great time to expect a career year. Derrek Lee surprised me with a resurgence at 33, but he's still off the pace of his career year at 29. I don't know, maybe Fukudome is still not 100% recovered from the elbow and he can flirt with a 900 OPS next year. But I'd guess he's going to continue being a slightly above average producer, maybe in the low 800s with solid OBP and more than acceptable from his position (unless they move him back to right).

 

That's probably true, and that's what I'd consider the most likely occurence. My thinking was more on the idea that he might not be fully settled in and adjusted to the majors right now and with another full offseason, might be in position for a little better year next season (along the lines of hovering around .900 tops).

 

Not likely, but just a thought I had.

[dew1679666265]

It's a long year for him. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

Until recently it was a pretty excellent year for him.

 

It was a good year, certainly a nice rebound from his 2008, but I wouldnt call it excellent, especially considering his expectations when first coming over.

 

I'd say a top 4-5 center fielder in all of baseball is pretty excellent.

 

Kosuke has been fine this year, but he's closer to 10th than 5th, maybe even on the other side of 10 depending on how much weight you give to defensive metrics.

 

I was referencing his offensive numbers only when I said top 4-5 centerfielder. I know the metrics aren't crazy about him, but I don't know exactly how much his defense has hurt his value - though I wouldn't imagine that much.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Kosuke has been fine this year, but he's closer to 10th than 5th, maybe even on the other side of 10 depending on how much weight you give to defensive metrics.

 

I was referencing his offensive numbers only when I said top 4-5 centerfielder. I know the metrics aren't crazy about him, but I don't know exactly how much his defense has hurt his value - though I wouldn't imagine that much.

 

Kosuke is 13th among qualified CFs in wOBA. Link

[jersey cubs fan]

That's probably true, and that's what I'd consider the most likely occurence. My thinking was more on the idea that he might not be fully settled in and adjusted to the majors right now and with another full offseason, might be in position for a little better year next season (along the lines of hovering around .900 tops).

 

Not likely, but just a thought I had.

 

Yeah, and my guess would be there's not much else to adjust to, unless there's a health issue.

[dew1679666265]

That's probably true, and that's what I'd consider the most likely occurence. My thinking was more on the idea that he might not be fully settled in and adjusted to the majors right now and with another full offseason, might be in position for a little better year next season (along the lines of hovering around .900 tops).

 

Not likely, but just a thought I had.

 

Yeah, and my guess would be there's not much else to adjust to, unless there's a health issue.

 

Probably not.

[dew1679666265]

Kosuke has been fine this year, but he's closer to 10th than 5th, maybe even on the other side of 10 depending on how much weight you give to defensive metrics.

 

I was referencing his offensive numbers only when I said top 4-5 centerfielder. I know the metrics aren't crazy about him, but I don't know exactly how much his defense has hurt his value - though I wouldn't imagine that much.

 

Kosuke is 13th among qualified CFs in wOBA. Link

 

He's also 13th in EqA. I guess those two are more accurate than OPS - which I was lazily using. Still a very good year for Kosuke.

[UMFan83]

Well also his OPS isn't .800+ like you suggested. It's .791

[dew1679666265]

Well also his OPS isn't .800+ like you suggested. It's .791

 

Hmmm, it's dropped since I last checked then. I checked a few days ago and he was at .802 or so.

[Grit amp Heart]

i thought good discipline kept a guy from going into long cold streaks. he's the anti corey patterson

[Cubswin11]

Even though he is like 1-24 in his last 25 ab's, the last two days he has had better ab's and hit the ball pretty hard. Any correlation to them bringing his Japanese hitting coach back over? Maybe we should just hire him full time next year for Kosuke.