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The Indians are close to landing Kosuke Fukudome from the Cubs
Craig Calcaterra Jul 28, 2011, 10:01 AM EDT

Ken Rosenthal tweets that the Indians are in “serious talks” for Cubs’ outfielder Kosuke Fukudome. Danny Knobler says “it’s very close to happening.”

Lots of barriers to something happening here. For one thing, money, in that Fukudome is owed over $4 million for the rest of the year and the Indians aren’t the habit of adding salary. For another thing, Fukudome has a no-trade clause. It’s limited, but I’m guessing one could make a lot of money betting on things like “a given player’s no-trade clause includes Cleveland.” Finally, his contract contains a clause that prohibits teams from offering him arbitration, so the Tribe won’t be able to get picks for him. Of course, as was the case with Carlos Beltran, it’s an open question as whether offering him arbitration would have made sense anyway.

If they can get past all of that — and from the sound of it, they’re close to doing that — adding Fukudome to the Indians wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. He has gotten on base at a decent clip this year, and given how thin the Indians’ outfield is right now, he could be useful.

UPDATE: Multiple sources are now reporting that the Tribe would send two minor leaguers, as yet unidentified, to Chicago, and that the Cubs would pick up most of Fukudome’s salary. A deal is expected to be done before game time tonight.

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Fukudome has a .243 average/.698 OPS since May 8, 2 RBIs in 64 July Abs, and 13 on the year in 293 Abs? Oh, and he's a LH bat.

Should fit right in in Cleveland.

i'd rather have Francouer (and I don't like Frenchy)

We asked for it.....all us " Do somethings"


Not my choice of outfielder, but maybe he can hit a ball from time to time...

sigh, Fukudome. really? we better not be sending anyone good back to them.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/07/28/cubs.fukudome/



what is with the AL Central this year? we can't even trade good! (Tigers, White Sox and now Indians have all made trades that haven't necessarily made them better)

I wanted to try this year, not mortgage the future on Pence, Beltran, etc. We are nowhere close to be a contender this year, I don't care if we're in the central race, but is this even trying. Those numbers look just a bit better then Buck's. I'm really hope those two guys we're giving up are fodder.

one positive: he will have the highest OBP on our team and his OPS is only behind Hafner, Asdrubel and Carlos Santana.

but, still, not a fan. hopefully, he can change that.

Outside of a hot start the first 20-30 games in Chicago back in 2008, he's been an absolute BUST. He's a below average hitter, a decent arm but sold a TON of T-shirts in Chicago. So, he's got that going for him.

I see this as a..."maybe something will click in his head and he'll hit .280 the rest of the year + we need a healthy body in the outfield" move. Plus, with the Cubs footing the bill, it's not like it will hurt us much (depends on who we're giving up of course).

With Beltran saying no to us, the FO needed to make a move anyway.

I'm fine with this move, would have rather had Beltran for the rental, but at least we don't have to watch Kearns, Buck, or Duncan. Fukudome is hitting .273 with an OBP of .374. But by the end of the season I might be tired of Fukudome as well. As long as they are for none of our top 4 guys White, Pomeranz, Kipnis, Chisenhall. Maybe the change of scenery will help him.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/28948/kosuke-fukudome

Fukudome is 34 years old. He is who he is. An upgrade over what we have been running out there and he could be decent, but he's not great by any means.

Quote:

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http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/i...e-fukudome-deal

The Cubs will receive a minor league pitcher and an outfielder from the Indians.

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perhaps Carlton Smith (RHP) and Abner Abreu(OF)

http://www.indiansprospectinsider.com/2007/10/rankings.html

Abreu is our #22 prospect and Carlton Smith is a non-top-30 guy. I actually have seen Abreu play and like him, so that's sad, but it doesn't seem like we overpaid (even with the Cubs picking up his salary)

Alright, [deep breath] that's not too bad. If Fukudome doesn't work out, no harm, no foul i guess.

Woo-hoo ... with the Browns' FA moves and the Indians' moves approaching the trade deadline, I am standing beside myself with all the anticipation and excitement. Kosuke Fukudome is Japanese for "meh".

and no draft picks as he has a "do not resuscitate, err offer arbitration" clause in his contract.

but, the Cubs are footing the bill according to Heyman, so, like you said, no harm / no foul unless Abner pans out.

I don't think they're done by any stretch. They have to get carrera the hell out of the field. Nothing against him, but you can't have 3 rookies in your lineup, and expect to win. I could see them adding another pitcher or outfielder. maybe Upton is still in play.

Abreu has the talent but still has a long way to go before he proves he will do anything in the bigs.

Like others said, no harm no foul, very low risk and he is better than what is going out there everyday right now. When Grady and Choo come back he is our 4th OF.

Solid move.

Never a bad thing to have a guy who gets on base 37% of the time.

At least we can cuss without actually cussing if he does something bad .........

given what we've seen in the outfield the last 2 weeks, 'meh' is an upgrade.

The one thing that really surprises me is that Austin Kearns still has a job.

I could see Buck staying, because he has, at the very least, youth on his side.

I'm trying to figure out what Kearns has on his side. Pictures of someone maybe?

I don't understand the White Sox. How are they so financially ignorant every year that they need to unload all the time? Granted, giving the moon to Dunn doesn't help, but it's not like they play in Gary Indiana.

They're literally right there in the playoff race, if they continue giving players away the ballpark should be burned and the franchise sold and moved.

The White Sox play in a big market, but make no mistake, they are second fiddle in that town. I would say the split is probably 60/40 between Cubs and Sox fans. The geographical thing does somewhat hold true but the fact remains that people don't fill that building. The only time they were really able to fill it in recent memory was the year after they won the world series.

Reinsdorf is actually a pretty decent owner though. That world series team they put together in '05 still amazes me, they were not thought of to really be anything that year, they had a ton of new guys, and they had all the right pieces combined with the Yankees being in an off year (for them) and the Red Sox being hung over from their '04 run. It was really the perfect storm of events. They went like 11-1 in the playoffs that year.

the problem I have seen with the White Sox (and Tigers) is that they both want to play ball like the Yankees/Red Sox/Phillies, but they don't quite have the resources to be on that level.

so, they end up with the 2nd or 3rd tier of guys entering their 30s.


If I was them, then I would build up the farm system as much as possible and focus on resigning all of their own talent. It takes longer to setup, but they could really develop something good there if they did it (I hope they don't)

i always wondered why they didn't do that. Kenny Williams loves wheeling and dealing too much though.

They've also both been in the World Series in the past half-decade though.

Down 7-0 to the royals, ouchie. With Boston, Texas and Detroit coming up, me thinks we will unofficially be out of the division race by August 12th.

Well .... looks like some of the youngsters are having some growing pains.

j/c

Looks like the Fukudome trade is paying off already - we got a hit tonight!

Yup. If we can't even compete with the Royals, we're D-O-N-E.

Oh well... at least football season is here!

Young team = ups and downs.

We're in some downs right now.

Further, if we can't get players to waive their no trade clauses to come here then we're going to have to continue with the build with youth model.

THEY NEED KENNY POWERS!

Kansas City is loaded with young talent. Their offense is legit. But losing 12-0 is embarassing to say the least.

Fireworks night, Dollar Dog night, a good crowd shows up (+35K), and the Featherheads take the night off - managing only 5 hits - against a 3-11 pitcher with an ERA approaching 5. Thats disappointing. Even more disappointing is that Carrasco seems to have hit the wall after only 117 innings. I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel on the season, but the fat lady might be warming up.

Wow, the Phillies give up 2 A-level players and 2 to be named later for Hunter Pence, meanwhile we're talking about the debate between getting a guy like that and not wanting to give up our top prospect for someone like that.

I have zero faith in Shapiro or his puppet. I love this team and Manny and those players but beyond that dugout they don't know what they're doing.

Good day for Philly sports fans yesterday ... Nnamdi Asomugha and Vince Young to the Eagles, and Hunter Pence to the Phillies.

A little difference between us and the Phillies. The Phillies are making a push to win the World Series. We on the other hand are looking to take advantage of a fast start to squeak into the playoffs. One worth giving up a bunch of top prospects the other not. If I am right White and Pomeranz are going to be stud pitchers that will have us as World Series contenders for the next decade. And I think they are both in the bigs next year, quality starters in 2013 and absolute studs 2013 - 2020. No way I give up either of these guys. As for Kipnis I think he is an amazing hitter. Still can't figure out why we don't plan on him in LF and Phelps at 2nd. Not as sold on Chisenhall but much of that is because I have not seen enough of him to form a valid opinion and so I am forced to go by his numbers and the opinions of the talking heads - and we all know how accurate they tend to be.

i agree with that, but you're missing the point. The Phillies gave up nothing. Meanwhile we're still sitting here with a AAA ballclub playing MLB teams.

Like I said, I have no problem with them not wanting to part with Pomeranz. Big lefty? Not giving that up for a 1 or a 2 year rental.

I just think it's funny that they make us seem like they don't want to make a move because they don't want to part with guys like that, and over in Philadelphia, they just got Hunter Pence for the price of a vcr. Not to mention they also took Cliff Lee off our hands for not much better than that. And Cliff Lee had a year and a half remaining on the deal. They took Mark Shapiro to the cleaners on that one, and you'll never convince me otherwise.

The only way this organization will ever get a big name is by either bringing one up and hoping to keep him for 5 years, or trading for one which as we've just seen, isn't going to happen.

I hope I am dead wrong, but we all know how this trend works.

World Series contenders for a decade? You're nuts.

Since we can't post it, I'm not going to, but I have the feeling the Tribe is about to do something incredibly questionable.