Kosuke Fukudome

May 6th, 2008 kNuke Posted in Fantasy Baseball | 1 Comment »

Everyone is declaring Fukudome the greatest thing to come out of Japan since Pokemon, but let’s hold on a minute.  The guy has one, I’ll give you a minute to jump on Google to check it…  Yes, that’s one homerun and only 13 RBI.  He’s hitting .331 with an OBP of .424, but I’m guessing both will come down once other teams figure him out.  I like the fact that he sees a lot of pitches and has affected the whole team’s approach, but let’s not get carried away with the guy just yet. 

At the beginning of the season I thought Fukudome would be a poor man’s Matsui, but he’s looking more like a poor man’s blend between Matsui and Ichiro.  Either way, I wouldn’t be too estatic about his production for a $12 million guy.  If I had to grade Fukudome out right now, I’d say he’d get a B.

For fantasy players, Fukudome is a big time sell high candidate.  He’ll finish with decent numbers, but you should be able to get another outfielder who’ll be better the rest of the way along with a 2nd tier starter or closer.