Fukudome to Triple-A?

The Chicago Tribune offers some similar questions to Spitting Seeds on the future of the Chicago Cubs. The Trib also wonders if Kosuke Fukudome might start next season at Triple-A.

One scout interviewed Saturday suggested a course of action that could be tough to swallow.

"He has to go to the minors," the scout said. "He has to get rid of all those habits, pulling out on pitches, collapsing. He'll never hit the way he's hitting now, and this is a tough place to work out your problems. Always has been."

While it's hard to imagine the Cubs paying Fukudome $11.5 million to play for Triple-A Iowa next year, there is precedent.

I think it's a quick judgment to make at this point. Fukudome will first go through spring training with the Cubs even after an entire offseason that should be spent changing his hitting approach. What worked in Japan hasn't worked here. Fukudome needs to stop bailing toward first base. It's what every little leaguer is taught, and you'd think that might help at the MLB level.