Yesterday I lightly touched the topic of Kosuke Fukudome. Lets take a look at the 30 year-old's stats over the last few years. Before we head to the numbers, mlbtraderumors.com points out that Fukudome is going to be a free agent this year, so there will be no posting for him.
In 993 games, he has hit .306. In 130 games in the Japanese 06 season, he hit .351.
In fact over the last 8 seasons he has hit over .300 in four of those seasons. All four of those seasons have been within the last five years hitting .312, .328, .343, and 351. In the year during those five that he did not hit over .300, he hit .277 (the BA's were not in chronlogical order).
He does not have to hit .351 to be a sucess here in America, in fact if he hit over .300, I would say he had a great season, over .315, he had an exeptional season, and over .330 he had an amazin' season.
Over the last 2 seasons, 272 games, he has hit 86 doubles, 59 homers, and 207 RBI's.
Those power numbers, even with a dip, would probably project him to be 5th or 6th batting order player. His averaged would go nice after Alou, but that would mean pushing Delgado back to 7 if they decide to keep Alou.
