John Kalk, who’s one of the kings of pitch f/x analysis on his own site has done a guest post at rotoauthority analysing Fukudome’s nice start. The man is sporting a .396 BABIP these days, which is pretty amazing and unsustainable, but as Kalk diagnoses, Kosuke doesn’t swing at many bad balls. There are a couple graphs showing both his swings and takes on fastballs and changeups.
Also, from the Chicago Reader, there’s a neat article titled Fukudome’s Classing Up the Joint — But the bleachers will always be the bleachers. Don’t miss it — short, but off the beaten path.
Once out in right field, he faced the bleachers, drew his feet together, removed his hat, and lowered his head. What was there for him to see? The whimsical: a Latino father and son making their way to open seats, both wearing hachimaki. The cretinous: the usual shirtless young men braving the cold in the front row, only with Japanese characters scrawled across their chests. And the crass: the fans who would soon be booing Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker on his return to Chicago and chanting “Corey sucks!” at the prodigal center fielder Corey Patterson as well as the ever reliable “Left field sucks!” A beefy guy to my left, his brushy crew cut spiked with product, was soon heard explaining that his Fukudome jersey could as easily be read, “Fuck you, do me.”
3 responses so far ↓
1 Gary Garland // Apr 25, 2008 at 12:06 am
The interesting thing for me about Fukudome was how bad he looked during the WBC up until he slugged that long dinger against Korea through the wind at the Padres ballpark. I was kind of pessimistic as to how he would do in the big leagues as a result, but I have seen him on tv a couple of times this season and he has had some long at bats and has definitely improved the outfield’s OBP production compared to last year. I hope he can keep it up and really drive opposing pitchers nuts with the patience he has demonstrated thus far.
2 simon // Apr 25, 2008 at 1:52 am
He was always a great patient hitter in Japan, and WBC is a short tournament.
But then again the statistical translations from NPB to MLB still has some iffy points, like Kaz Matsui (although statistical translations from AAA ain’t perfect either.)
3 Jim Nguyen // Apr 25, 2008 at 7:30 am
Good young player, glad to see he’s off to a good start.
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