Piniella calms down big 'stir'

ATLANTA - Cubs manager Lou Piniella apparently is still learning that whatever he says about a star player reverberates throughout Cubdom.

So it was in the couple of days since Piniella said that the Cubs need for right fielder Kosuke Fukudome to start hitting or that Piniella would have to look at "other options."

Piniella seemed surprised by the "stir" his comments created, but he didn't' seem to mind it altogether.

"I never said I was disappointed," Piniella said Tuesday, before the Cubs-Braves game was rained out. "All I said basically was that we'd like to see him start hitting. And it created a stir. I've said that about every player.

"Well, you know, sometimes stirs are good."

For his part Fukudome didn't seem to mind or think it was a stir.

"No, I didn't think it was going to be that big of news," Fukudome said through his translator. "I think the Olympics going on right now are bigger news."

Fukudome said he was going to catch some of the Olympics on TV Tuesday night after leaving the park.

Piniella stressed that he's not disappointed in Fukudome, a first-year major-leaguer out of Japan. But since ending April with a .416 on-base percentage, Fukudome has seen his numbers drop, with his OBP at .369 and his batting average at .269.

"He's a good player; he's a real good player," Piniella said. "To his credit, he's continued to hustle, and he's played really well in right field.

"He's just in a little bit of a slump. He's probably trying to do too much, and he needs just to do the things that he's capable of, like he was earlier in the year. He's taking less pitches. He's not working the count the way he was earlier. He just needs to swing at more strikes."

Shaking his head and chuckling, Piniella said he likes and respects Fukudome.

"The things that I say, I get asked every day," he said. "I said, 'Look, if a guy's struggling, whether it's Fukudome or somebody else and you continue to struggle, you try to find somebody else that's swinging the bat.

"That's all I said. It created a stir, and if that's the case, I'm sorry."

Fukudome was 3-for-28 on the recent homestand, but Piniella had him batting second Tuesday. Since his hot start, Fukudome's numbers declined in the key categories over the next three months.

"I haven't made any drastic change or anything," he said. "I feel just as comfortable as before."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=227308">Piniella says Cubs' biggest strengths are pitching and defense <span class="date"> [8/13/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>