CPBL ROY Candidates....

Based on the news in Taiwan, 4 rookies are in the running for the 2006 CPBL ROY award. Although En-Yu Lin is a pretty tough act to follow (ROY in 2005), one candidate was impressive enough to be considered the front-runner for the award - his name: Guan-Ren Chen. The 24 year old outfielder led the league in BA, barely edging out Tai-Shan Chang by a fraction of a percentage point. In what was regarded as a disappointing season for the ever popular Brother Elephants team, Chen was one of the few bright spots for the Elephants. The 5'9" - 198 pounder hit .349, cranked out 10 HR's and drove in 54 runs.

Chen's other competitors for ROY include:
1)Chih-Tsung Chiang (2B - LA New Bears) - age: 23 6'2"/195 pounds
BA .307 2 HR's 23 RBI's
***Older brother of Red Sox prospect Chih-Hsien Chiang

2)Hsien-Chih Chang (P - Macoto Cobras) - age: 22 5'8"/167 pounds
ERA 3.26 12 Wins - 10 Losses 165.2 IP/96K's
3)Ying-Feng Tsai (P - LA New Bears) - age: 23 6'0/172 pounds
ERA 3.37 11 Wins - 5 Losses 109.2 IP/47K's
***Had the opportunity to watch him pitch for the NT last summer - was the ace of the staff during the Southern California tour

As for the league MVP award, the 3 guys mentioned yesterday have to be the top 3 candidates. If it was based on stats, En-Yu Lin would be the clear favorite, with his impressive trifecta - ala Johan Santana. However, if they give the MVP to a guy on a winning team, then Chen and Chang have to be mentioned as well.