"This isn't the time for Kosuke Fukudome to make any decisions. Here's hoping the Cubs don't rush to one either.

Fukudome boarded the Cubs' charter flight and flew four hours to Los Angeles on Friday, then was bussed to the team hotel and then to Dodger Stadium with his teammates. He trotted out to the first-base line to be introduced before Saturday night's first-round playoff game. He left the dugout immediately after special coach Ivan DeJesus and before Ronny Cedeno, two minutes before the guys in the Game 3 lineup.

But if it were up to Fukudome, would he have preferred to change planes in Los Angeles and continue westward for Tokyo?

Does the Cubs' first high-profile Japanese import have the toughness to dig himself out of the hole he has fallen into? Will the Cubs give him the chance?

After Lou Piniella declared the horrifically slumping Fukudome benched Thursday night, after an 0-for-8, four-strikeout performance in the losses that pushed the Cubs to the edge of yet another crushing October setback, it was clear he would be the scapegoat. Scouts with other teams speculate he has played his last game for Piniella.

Fukudome did get into Saturday's 3-1 elimination loss, getting a pinch-hit single in the seventh and finishing the night 1-for-2.

Given the three years and $38 million left on his contract, none of those scouts is sure how this will end. That will be the biggest question hanging over the Cubs when equipment manager Tom Hellmann starts packing away the uniforms.

As general manager Jim Hendry tries to understand how a 97-win team unraveled so badly when its mandate was to deliver over six days, not six months, there will be other business that needs addressing.

Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood, players who love Hendry and the opportunity to play at Wrigley Field, will be free agents with increased bargaining power.

Is it time to consider breaking up the right-handed-hitting axis of power: Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano? And if it is, how do you do it? The three have a combined 11 years and $182 million left on their contracts and Hendry gave all three no-trade clauses.

Fukudome, 31, also has a no-trade clause. He did not, it turns out, have a no-flop guarantee.

Fukudome, it seems, signed on for the full ride when he turned down $50 million from the White Sox to become the Cubs' right fielder and presumptive left-handed-hitting run-producer, taking a little less because Hendry's guys had been selling him on the idea of playing at Wrigley Field for more than two years.

On the first day Fukudome put on a uniform at the team's complex in Arizona, Piniella emerged from an indoor hitting cage to declare that the Japanese import had "textbook balance." Fukudome would hit a home run on Opening Day. and throughout the spring and early summer fans would serenade him and chant his name.

One prolonged, reputation-challenging slump later, the Cubs suffered a second consecutive playoff embarrassment and were in clear need of a scapegoat—not a good time to have gone 7-for-48.

Those are Fukudome's numbers since Sept. 5. But is this really a slump or just a sign of a guy whose bad habits at the plate have caused him to forget how to hit? He has batted .200 with four home runs in 225 at-bats since July 1.

What can the Cubs do?

According to scouts, Fukudome would have no value if Hendry tried to shop him. He isn't going to go back quietly and resume his career with the Chunichi Dragons, walking away from his deal with the Cubs. That would send a terrible signal as teams around the majors become more aggressive in pursuing players from Asia.

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."