Not So Fast Kosuke

Ladies and gentlemen, Kosuke Fukudome.

The talented but much-maligned outfielder returned to the form that endeared him to Cubs fans early last season, rekindling memories of his 9th-inning heroics against the Brewers on last year's Opening Day.

Fukudome followed up this year's Opening Day's 0-for-4 debacle by going 4-for-5 with a double, a home run, a stolen base, a walk, and four runs scored. Yowzah.

Fukudome helped spark a spanking, as the Cubs somehow managed to outscore the Astros on a night when it seemed every other pitch might be destined for the Crawford Boxes, winning 11-6. Everyone seemed to get in on this one, but let's focus on Fukudome.

First and foremost, let's not get carried away. This is still the guy that displayed an unprecedented level of patience at the plate for the first two months of the season last year [well, unprecedented for recent Cubs history] and somehow managed to lower his batting average every consecutive month.

That HAS to be harder than you think.

Whether it was his regimen, a wrong turn in his acclimation process, or just a love for cork-screwing himself into the ground, Fukudome had many of us wondering if we could get a $48 million reimbursement. I'm not sure if you can fit that many zeroes on a standard check, but after his NLDS performance, I'd be willing to try.

So all things considered, let's look at this realistically: we have one season of MLB to judge this guy on, and two games this season. I'm not ready to anoint him the OBP savior that we did last year [guilty as charged], but by no means am I writing this guy off. We invested in him for a reason, and I'm willing to bet one thing is to blame for his slide last year: his head.

Pitchers don't figure out the kind of patience that Fukudome had at the beginning of the season; hitters ruin it for themselves. Maybe he fell in love with the long ball. Maybe he spent too much time with Joakim Noah. The point is, I'm betting what's under his helmet was responsible for his slide, not the guys on the mound. With Reed Johnson and Bradley on the roster, there's a lot less pressure on Fukudome, and hopefully that will have a positive effect.

As is the case with the bullpen, I'm filing this one under the wait-and-see approach. Stay tuned.