Preview of the 2007 Taiwan Series.....

Let's take a closer look at the two teams playing for the 2007 CPBL Championship.

The Bears finished the year with a 58-42 record, winning the second half championship.

Here's a look at the Bears batting lineup (not necessarily in this order - stats in red denote league leader):

1)Long-Yi Huang (CF) .281 BA/ 384 AB's/ 12 HR's/ 41 RBI's/ 27 SB's
2)Chin-De Yu (2B) .255 BA/ 184 AB's/ 0 HR's/ 10 RBI's/ 5 SB's
3)Raul Gonzalez (RF) .336 BA/ 113 AB's/ 2 HR's/ 18 RBI's/ 0 SB's
4)Chin-Feng Chen (DH) .382 BA/ 301 AB's/ 26 HR's/ 66 RBI's/ 11 SB's
5)Chih-Sheng Lin (SS) .311 BA/ 289 AB's/ 16 HR's/ 59 RBI's/ 5 SB's
6)Chih-Tsung Chiang (1B) .293 BA/ 249 AB's/ 5 HR's/ 39 RBI's/ 1 SB
7)Chih-Wei Shih (3B) .263 BA/ 399 AB's/ 2 HR's/ 36 RBI's/ 7 SB's
8)Feng-Min Chen (C) .213 BA/ 305 AB's/ 6 HR's/ 35 RBI's/ 2 SB's
9)Hao-Chu Cheng (LF) .246 BA/ 285 AB's/ 4 HR's/ 32 RBI's/ 6 SB's


*Key Bench Players:

1)Chien-Wei Tsai (LF) .254 BA/ 201 AB's/ 1 HR/ 18 RBI's/ 4 SB's
2)Kit Pellow (1B) .286 BA/ 21 AB's/ 1 HR/ 5 RBI's/ 0 SB's


Top Pitchers:

1)Gary Rath 12 W - 5 L/ 3.52 ERA/ 143.1 IP/ 117 K's/ 35 BB's
2)Kevin Huang 9 W - 5 L/ 2.26 ERA/ 83.2 IP/ 73 K's/ 25 BB's/ 12 Saves
3)Yu-Wei Hsu 9 W - 3 L/ 2.70 ERA/ 113.1 IP/ 81 K's/ 30 BB's
4)Mac Suzuki 2 W - 2 L/ 3.86 ERA/ 21.0 IP/ 18 K's/ 7 BB's/ 4 Saves
5)Wen-Hsiung Hsu 5 W - 4 L/ 4.11 ERA/ 107.1 IP/ 71 K's/ 30 BB's

*Starter Ying-Feng Tsai not listed due to being injured for much of the year.


Although the Lions did not win either the first or second half championship, they finished with the best overall record in the league - 58-41.

Here's a look at the Lions lineup (again, not necessarily in this order):

1)Kan-Lin Huang (LF) .337 BA/ 98 AB's/ 1 HR/ 10 RBI's/ 0 SB's
2)Wu-Hsiung Pan (CF) .319 BA/ 360 AB's/ 6 HR's/ 44 RBI's/ 3 SB's
3)Tilson Brito (3B) .313 BA/ 399 AB's/ 33 HR's/ 107 RBI's/ 1 SB
4)Kuo-Ching Kao (1B) .358 BA/ 425 AB's/ 20 HR's/ 89 RBI's/ 0 SB's
5)Lien-Hung Chen (DH) .286 BA/ 266 AB's/ 11 HR's/ 48 RBI's/ 3 SB's
6)Fu-Hao Liu (RF) .338 BA/ 328 AB's/ 9 HR's/ 58 RBI's/ 7 SB's
7)Chih-Kang Kao (C) .294 BA/ 303 AB's/ 5 HR's/ 47 RBI's/ 1 SB
8)Sen Yang (2B) .296 BA/ 341 AB's/ 8 HR's/ 65 RBI's/ 8 SB's
9)Shen-Chieh Hsu (SS) .274 BA/ 62 AB's/ 0 HR's/ 4 RBI's/ 0 SB's


*Key Bench Players:

1)Tai-Chi Kuo (LF) .258 BA/ 186 AB's/ 6 HR's/ 29 RBI's/ 0 SB's
2)Tung-Yi Yang (SS) .218 BA/ 179 AB's/ 1 HR/ 14 RBI's/ 7 SB's
3)Sung-Hsien Yang (LF) .325 BA/ 228 AB's/ 1 HR/ 28 RBI's/ 9 SB's

Top Pitchers:

1)Wei-Lun Pan 16 W - 2 L/ 2.26 ERA/ 123.1 IP/ 79 K's/ 17 BB's
2)Pete Munro 14 W - 7 L/ 2.03 ERA/ 190.1 IP/ 107 K's/ 22 BB's
3)Brian Reith 7 W - 3 L/ 4.17 ERA/ 82.0 IP/ 60 K's/ 17 BB's
4)Nelson Figueroa 4 W - 0 L/ 3.00 ERA/ 30.0 IP/ 21 K's/ 5 BB's
5)Chun-Yang Tsao 4 W - 7 L/ 3.67 ERA/ 68.2 IP/ 31 K's/ 13 BB's/ 8 Saves

*Reliever Yueh-Ping Lin was not listed since he was out for most of the year after having cardiac surgery.

The same two teams met last year in the 2006 Taiwan Series, with the Bears sweeping the Lions in 4. This year during regular season play, the Bears held a slight edge head to head with a 10-8 record against the Lions. In taking a look at how the pitching staffs matched up: Lions ace, Wei-Lun Pan was 3-1 against the Bears. Lions #2 SP Pete Munro was 2-3 with a ND against the Bears. Brian Reith, the Lions #3 SP, was 1-1 against the Bears.

For the Bears, ace Gary Rath was 1-2 against the Lions. The Bears #2 starter, Yu-Wei Hsu was 1-1 against the Lions. Bears reliever and spot-starter Kevin Huang was 1-1 against the Lions.

On paper, the Lions (strong 1/2 punch in Pan and Munro - and a well rounded offensive lineup with the 1-8 hitters) look like they have a pretty good chance at unseating the Bears as the defending CPBL champs. It should be a great series to watch!