The long awaited Mitchell report has been released. George Mitchell has released a huge list of MLB and former MLB players that have taken steroids. Of course - a few Cubbies are mentioned so we thought it was appropriate to take note of it here.

• Todd Hundley
• Matt Franco
• Rondell White
• Glenallen Hill
• Todd Pratt
• Kent Mercker
• Jerry Hairston, Jr.
• Ismael Valdez

No big names. It was speculated that Prior and Sosa were on here.  But they were not.  Here is the full document.

Oh no Cub Haters… I hate to see what you all are going to do with this name.  Find us a nickname please for the Cubs latest signing, Kosuke Fukudome.  This was a terrible deal for the Cubs in my opinion.  The guy is 30 years old, has no experience playing in the Majors, and they give him $12 mil per year for 4 years.  Ouch.  Typical Cub move though I guess.  Their strategy is clearly to outbid the rest of the league for mediocre talent.  According to ESPN 1000:

Fukudome was just intrigued by the Cubs, and liked the idea of being their first Japanese player.

I’d be intrigued too by the circus act the Cubs put out there each year.  How long before Cub faithful are calling for Fuku’s head?  Let’s take a look at some projections courtesy of RotoAuthority.

• They compiled averages from three different, reliable, projection sites.
• The average projection is around .288-21-81-95-7

That’s solid.  But $13mil per solid?  That is more than Derek Lee and I swear he can perform better than that.  In fact, those almost look like Jacque Jones numbers don’t they?

Fact is… BAD SIGNING! 

p.s. - It’s “koh-skay foo-koo-DOUGH-may” as Bleed Cubbie Blue points out.