NT in PR....Games 8 & 9

*The NT defeated the PR NT 6-2 on Tuesday. US minor leaguers Yen-Wen Kuo, Che-Hsuan Lin, and Chih-Hsien Chiang all collected 2 hits each.

The NT defeated Carolina, PR today 7-2 behind Chih-Hsien Chiang's big night - he was 2-5 with a double, a triple, and 3 RBI's. The NT is now 6-3 in PR.




*Wang's got a new do':He's in Arizona preparing for the upcoming season.



*The IBAF has released the schedule for the upcoming March Olympic Qualifying Tourney. Taiwan's schedule:
3/7 vs. Spain
3/8 vs. Mexico
3/9 vs. Germany
3/10 vs. Canada
3/12 vs. Australia
3/13 vs. South Africa
3/14 vs. South Korea
- It looks like Yung-Chi Chen and Chin-Lung Hu will not be available to play in March - the IBAF is ruling that any player on a ML 40-man roster can not participate in the tourney.

NT in PR...Game 7....

Game action from 1/27 - Taiwan won 5-1 over Carolina, PR. Kun-Sheng Lin led the way with a 3-4 night while Tsung-Han Yu cracked the team's first HR in PR.

Scouting Taiwan....

Since 1999, 4 of the first 6 players signed out of Taiwan have made it to the Show. While the Yankees, Dodgers, and Rockies have all had at least one Taiwanese player make it to the Majors, other ML clubs are searching for the next future ML'er in Taiwan.

In the organizational ladder, the local/area scout is instrumental in identifying players that he feels would be a future asset to his team. Since most of these guys get so little publicity, I thought I'd put together a compilation of current MLB scouts in Taiwan and the highest profile signing that they've been given credit for so far:

Seattle Mariners: Jamey Storvick - signed RHP Chia-An Huang ($700K)
Boston Red Sox: Niko Lin - signed OF Che-Hsuan Lin ($400K)
Atlanta Braves: Jeremy Chu - signed RHP Chen-En Hung ($120K)
Chicago Cubs: Steve Wilson - signed RHP Hong-Wen Chen ($150K)
Minnesota Twins: Cary Broder/Kenny Su - NA (recent hirees)
Detroit Tigers: Allen Lin - NA (recent hire)
Cincinnati Reds: Fu Chiang - signed LHP Tzu-Kai Chiu ($250K)
Chicago White Sox: Samuel Fu - signed RHP Po-Yu Lin ($300K)
Cleveland Indians: Jason Lee/Ming-Hsiao Hung - signed RHP Sung-Wei Tseng ($300 K)/C Chun-Hsiu Chen ($300 K)
*Updated*

NT in PR.....Game 6......

The NT lost 2-1 to Carolina, PR in another pitcher's duel on Thursday.


Heading for Arbitration?
The NY Times is reporting that both sides (Wang/Yankees) are standing pretty firm on their current $ figures.

Positive ID....

Here's a follow up on an earlier story broken by Baseballfly. I-Che Kan, identified as the best prospect out of the group of kids who came out to LA last year, has his own blog/picture album.

Here's a pic from Kan's album:

The players pictured from left to right are: I-Che Kan, Shieh-Chieh Hsu (Chung-Dau HS), Wei-Yu Chuang (Gao-Nong HS), LHP Chiao-Hao Lo (Da-Tung HS), RHP Li-Wei Shih (Da-Tung HS). Pictured on the far right is Chin-Lung Yang (Charlie Yang), a CTBA board member and broadcaster for HS games in Taiwan. Yang was instrumental in signing all of these kids for the CTBA & WMG.


NT:
The NT won 2-0 on Wed. in PR. Wei-Hua Lee and Chih-Chia Chang combined on a 3 hit shutout.

NT in PR.....Game 4.....

The NT defeated Carolina, PR 5-3 on Tuesday. The man wielding the big stick for the NT was Chih-Hsien Chiang (3-3 with a triple and 3 RBI's).

NT Loses to Puerto Rican NT....

After winning 5-0 against Carolina, PR on Saturday behind a dominant performance by SP Chih-Chia Chang (5 scoreless innings, 7 K's), the NT lost to the Puerto Rican NT 4-3 on Sunday.

NT News....

The NT is currently in Puerto Rico in preparation for the upcoming Olympic Qualifiers in March. Taiwan will play 13 games through Feb. 6th against competition from P.R..

Taiwan lost its first game yesterday 4-1. Chen-Chang Lee started, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits over 3 IP. He was clocked at a high of 88 mph. Lefty Wei-Hua Lee (the President Lions' top pick), clocked at a high of 87 mph, threw the next 4 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits to go along with 5 K's. The NT's offense was only able to collect 5 hits in the game with Yen-Wen Kuo, Che-Hsuan Lin, and Chih-Hsien Chiang collecting one each.

The NT is playing Carolina (Giants), PR today. It looks like Chih-Chia Chang is starting for the NT. Check here to see the starting lineup and follow the game action.

Friday News....

*Salary figures have been exchanged between CMW and the Yankees. CMW's (with CSMG) initial figure is $4.6 million dollars while the Yankees offered $4 million. That's approximately an 8-9 fold increase from last year's salary ($489,500).




*Baseball America has an indepth look at Ching-Lung Lo:

"When Lo signed for $1.4 million as a 16-year-old, he showed a mid-90s fastball. Though he never has had arm problems, he now operates with a fringe-average 88-90 mph heater. In 2006, the Rockies decided to let him go back to the Asian style of pitching, even though that means he leans on his back leg and doesn't throw on the downhill plan they prefer. That delivery doesn't allow him to use his legs and puts some strain on his arm, but more conventional U.S. mechanics weren't working. Lo seemed to make some modest progress after revering to his old style, but he regressed in 2007. Colorado also has allowed him to scrap his changeup and resume using a splitter. He throws a slider but it's still a below-average pitch. He doesn't have a plus pitch and doesn't throw enough strikes, so Lo has an uphill climb to the major leagues. He may repeat Double-A this year."

Other prospects of note who were briefly discussed in BA's chats included: Po-Yu Lin (not very positive) and Sung-Wei Tseng.



*As mentioned by Maos, the Rakuten Eagles and the Lin boys will be coming to Tainan, Taiwan in Feb. (on the 23rd) to play the President Lions.

The Fab 5.....

Kid CFC

L-R: Sung, Tseng, Cheng

Flashback to 1990. The San-Hua LL team from Tainan County won the 1990 LLWS in Williamsport, PA. That team would produce 5 future pro ballplayers - Chin-Feng Chen, IF Chang-Ming Cheng, OF Sun-Hsien Yang, DH Han-Chou Tseng, and P Chao-Chi Sung. CFC's career exploits have been well documented. Tseng, Cheng, Yang, and Sung would all begin their pro careers with the CT Whales in the CPBL.



Although CFC has turned out to be the best of the bunch by far, P Chao-Chi Sung was the star player back in 1990. Sung threw a CG 2-hit shutout, K'ing 16 along the way. As a pro, Sung was one of the best pitchers playing domestically in Taiwan. He had a career year in 2002 with the Chinatrust Whales when he won the Triple Crown in pitching - the first ever such accomplishment in the history of the CPBL. Sung led the league in wins (16W - 8 L), a 2.13 ERA, and 183 K's over 206 IP. (2002 was the last year before the CPBL and TML merged in 2003) Despite his meteoric rise to prominence in 2002, Sung fell off the map when he was released by the Whales a few years back.

As for the other three players:

CM Cheng

Chang-Ming Cheng, a perennial fan favorite and NT member, was involved in the latest CPBL game-fixing scandal and his future is up in the air.

Han-Chou Tseng, the CT Whales team captain and DH was also involved in the scandal and had his contract terminated.

SH Yang

Sung-Hsien Yang was a member of the 2007 CPBL championship squad with the President Lions. Yang has a career .304 BA.
*Edited/Updated

What They're Getting Paid...

Here's a look at what a few star CPBL players will make domestically in 2008 - the numbers are monthly figures. Keep in mind that the CPBL season typically runs from March through October annually.

1)Chin-Feng Chen (La New Bears) - 830,000 NT/month ~ $25,600/mo
(CFC's annual salary is roughly around $300,000 a year)*Edited

2)Wei-Lun Pan (President Lions) - 460,000 NT/month ~ $14,200/mo

3)Kuo-Ching Kao (President Lions) - 350,000 NT/month ~ $10,800/mo

4)Cheng-Min Peng (Brother Elephants) - 320,000 NT/month ~ $9,900/mo

According to this poster on the Baseball Fever message board, the avg. monthly salary (in 2007) in the CPBL is ~ $3,400/month. International players make more, averaging $5K to $12K a month. *Edited


Here's a few updates on the 2008 salaries for NPB players:
1)Wei-Chu Lin of the Hanshin Tigers received a significant raise for 2008 - he'll make ~$414,000 this year as compared to ~$163,000 last year.

2)Chung-Shou Yang (Fighters) also received a raise for 2008 - he'll receive ~ $115,000 this year (he made $90,500 in 2007).

3)Wei-Yin Chen (Dragons) will receive ~$55,100 in 2008.

4)Chien-Ming Chiang's (Giants) 2008 salary will remain the same as last year ~$77,000.


For comparative purposes, you can refer back at an earlier post that addresses what some of the overseas players were making in 2007.

Prospect Rankings Continued...

Here's a follow up on an earlier post. The "Bible" on minor league baseball prospects is coming out soon. Baseball America's 2008 Prospect Handbook, profiling the top 30 prospects of every ML organization, will have the scouting reports for three Taiwanese prospects: Chin-Lung Hu (D0dgers), Yung-Chi Chen (Mariners), and Che-Hsuan Lin (Red Sox).

In their respective organizations,

Hu was ranked #3

Chen was ranked #20

Lin was ranked #24

Friday News...

Some more tidbits to pass on.....

*Rumor has it that Adam Chang/IBB (represented PY Lin and CA Huang) is quitting his side job as an agent.

*Here's a follow up on Chen-Hua Lin - the RHP (side armer) who was linked to the Minnesota Twins earlier. Lin, currently at CCU in Taiwan, almost signed with the Twins while he was at Chung-Dau HS in Yilan, Taiwan. The Twins lost out on CH Lin (who was pushed by his HS coach to sign) when Lin's dad decided at the last minute that the ~$100K signing bonus was too low. Lin's throwing motion (arm angle) has been changed and he is throwing out of the 3/4 arm slot now.

CH Lin

"I Beg To Differ......"

Baseball America has its top 10 prospects up for the Boston Red Sox. Although they didn't make the top 15 list, Che-Hsuan Lin and Chih-Hsien Chiang were mentioned by Jim Callis (the Executive Editor for BA) as two of the international FA signings (alongside O. Tejeda, A. Diaz, M. Almanzar, & Y. Navarro) in the organization with the brightest futures. Lin was also selected as having the best OF arm in the system.

There are a ton of other "gurus" out there with their own organizational prospect rankings for 2008:
1)TPA has CL Hu ranked as the #3 prospect in the Dodgers system while YC Chen is #9 in the Mariners organization.

2)The Scouting Book has CL Hu ranked #94 overall.

3)CL Hu also appears in Project Prospect's Top 5 Organizational List as the #4 prospect in the Dodgers' system.

4)Che-Hsuan Lin was ranked #11 in the Red Sox organization by Baseball Prospectus.

5)John Sickels on MinorLeagueBall.com has Kuo-Hui Lo ranked #12 and Yung-Chi Chen ranked #17 in the Mariners organization. Hu is the #4 LAD prospect.

6)Hu was ranked #3 by BA.