The Silly Season

The Chicago Cubs don't open their exhibition season until tomorrow afternoon, but the stalwarts at the Tower are already in mid-season form!

I think this might rank as the daftest headline ever. In the history of sports journamalism, that is:

Fukudome's bat yet to show some power

Jeebus help me -- it's the last week of February and already there's wailing and gnashing of teeth over Fukudome's alleged lack of power.

Here's an idea -- let's wait until there's actually some games played before we throw our new friend Kosuke under the bus. Give him a week of Cactus League games, at the very least!

I don't know too much about Fukudome yet. But most of what gets typed in the Chicago rags frets that he won't be hitting thirty home runs in the Show like he did back in Japan. I'm OK with that, as long as he keeps up his on-base skills. The black hole in right field we had last year wasn't because Jones and Floyd had too little power; it's because they made too damned many outs.

More than a few scouting reports have likened Fukudome as a Mark Grace-type hitter -- line drives, doubles power. And since more than one person has said to me with a straight face that Grace should be in the Hall of Fame, that's gotta be good, right?