Posts tagged ‘Kosuke Fukudome’

Hope everyone is having a nice Thanksgiving weekend.  Beware of that weird pink jello stuff…it tends to survive well into December. Anyway, last night I stumbled across an awesome story written by Curt Schilling that details how he was traded from the D’Backs to the Red Sox back in ‘03. He literally does a play-by-play of the negotiation and what the Red Sox did to exceed his expectations and ultimately get the deal done. Oh yeah, and he said that Chicago was on his short list of places he would have liked to play in ‘04 and beyond.

No doubt this story has made the rounds in baseball, but for anybody interested in the inner workings of signings and trades, this is a 101 course on how not only to handle both a big signing and a big trade, but also how to build trust between team officials and players. Apparently it works.

According to one of my favorite sites, Cot’s Baseball Contracts, only a couple of Cubs players have the same kind of suite, ticket, and charity stipulations (Soriano and Fukudome) that Schilling said he wanted to hammer out first. For as much as Kosuke was originally called a Matsui-Ichiro hybrid, his contract is actually similar to Daisuke Matsuzaka’s deal with Boston. I’ll save the jokes about his hitting for another day…after all, it’s the holidays.

Kosuke’s contract shows that the Cubs are in the 21st century with their negotiation and signing tactics, which is great news. However, Hendry hasn’t swung the Schilling-esque World Series victory clause…yet. Though it takes a special kind of player to negotiate that.

A Kerry Wood, for instance. Hmm.

In any case, it’s good to know that a great player like Curt Schilling viewed beating the curse in Boston as an advantage to playing there. Five years after the events in Schilling’s story, the Cubs have a full market share in the overcoming history category.

By the way, Curt is a free agent this offseason. Go figure.

It was announced this weekend that the Chicago Cubs are going to have 7 players represent the National League in this year’s All-Star Game on July 15th. Seven Cubs! By mid-July it’s normally tough to throw a dart and hit 7 of them healthy enough to take the field, let alone represent something that isn’t a pain relief spray or tablet. And while the health thing is debatable on at least one Cubs All-Star, here they are, in all their glory:

Ryan Dempster – SP
Kosuke Fukudome – OF (starter)
Aramis Ramirez – 3B
Alfonso Soriano – OF (starter)
Geovany Soto – C (starter)
Kerry Wood – RP
Carlos Zambrano – SP

Congrats to each of them, and to Cubs GM Jim Hendry, who was directly involved with bringing at least 5 of these players to the Cubs. We don’t often sing his praises, but Hendry has bolstered the club especially in the last 2 years, and has made the Cubs more competitive with his deals each year since he started. Plus, it’s no secret that the day before the 2002 trade of Todd Hundley was one of the darkest days in Cubs history, or what The Rock would call rock bottom. Whenever the Cubs GM retires or moves on, he should be given a room full of plaques for that move. Not to mention any of the other moves that happened in order to bring many of the above players to the North Side.

However, there’s a few duds in every box, so since I had some time I went back and selected a few players that Hendry helped acquire that will represent no one in any All-Star game this year or likely any year. They play the same positions as the talented Cubs players selected by fans, other players, and Rockies coach Clint Hurdle.

Cliff Bartosh – RP
Freddy Bynum – OF (starter)
Todd Dunwoody – OF
Wade Miller – SP (starter)
Josh Paul – C
Neifi Perez – 3B
Les Walrond – SP

Okay, as sad as that list is, I have to admit that I only gained more confidence in Hendry in spending a few minutes looking at the lists of transactions from 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Jim and the Cubs front office drafted both Tim Lincecum and Micah Owings in the late rounds, but they both refused to sign. If they had (especially Lincecum), maybe the Cubs could have sent 8.

Anyway, best of luck to these players at Yankees Stadium (and at the skating rink, respectively) and thanks to Jim Hendry and his staff for working to better this franchise. They unquestionably have done that.