"By the middle of last season, Kosuke Fukudome was the only Cubs hitter in a steady, lengthy slump.

By the time the season ended, the Cubs were the top offensive team in the National League, and Fukudome was their biggest disappointment -- a $48 million Japanese All-Star relegated to September bench player.

He finished so poorly the Cubs felt they couldn't rely on him anymore and signed Milton Bradley to play Fukudome's position and take his lefty role in the lineup.

But look at those guys now.

Bradley, who was arguably the best hitter in the American League last year, was the Cubs' worst- hitting regular until the last week of May, and then he got hurt again the first game in June.

Fukudome? Until Sunday, he was the Cubs' only .300 hitter, and he's Lou Piniella's regular No. 3 hitter, with a team-leading .891 OPS among the active players as the Cubs open a three-game series tonight at Houston.

Good luck finding somebody who bet that exacta when the season started.

Whether Fukudome sustains his performance this time around is starting to look more critical to the team's ability to compete than it did last year, when almost everyone else produced their own breakout seasons.

And already, he has been a major factor in their ability to stay afloat through an extended team hitting and scoring slump -- including a .379 mark with runners in scoring position, compared to .221 for the rest of the team.

''He's been huge,'' said shortstop Ryan Theriot, the only other regular who has been consistently productive.

Why? How?

The obvious answer might be that he's more familiar with the pitchers and customs in Major League Baseball after a year in the United States, along with regular days off against left-handed pitching.

But deeper reasons for Fukudome's rise include more consistent hitting mechanics, a more regular pregame routine he had trouble achieving last season, lots of offseason hitting work with former coach Kyosuke Sasaki and a sharp decline in Japanese media attention this year, particularly the TV crew that followed him daily."