*After a break-out year in the NPB, Chunichi Dragons LHP Wei-Yin Chen is receiving a huge increase (nearly 6X) in his salary. He made 6 million yen last year and will now receive 35 million yen (~ $366 K USD) in 2009.
*Reviving a rivalry from nearly a decade ago, the Taiwan-South Korea University Baseball Invitational kicked off. The Taiwan Sports University (also known as NCPES/NTUPES) sent two teams representing its Taichung and Taoyuan campuses. Former Blue Jay farmhand, Chi-Hung Cheng pitched for the TSU-Taichung team and threw 5 innings, allowing only 3 hits, K'ing 4, and gave up 1 run. He topped out at 86 mph. After he left the game, the South Korean school would rally for 4 runs to end the game in a 4-4 tie. Also playing in the game for TSU were C Chun-Hsiu Chen (Indians) - he had 2 hits and 2 RBI, OF Chao-Ting Tang (Tigers) - he had a hit, and RHP Hsin-Hong Tsai (almost a Cubbie) - allowed a hit.
TSU-Taoyuan won its game 13-3 in 7 innings.*Updated
*Ming-Chie Lin, a top 10 HS class of '09 player, continues to attract a lot of attention . UDN has reported that the Yankees, Red Sox, and Twins have been scouting Lin.
*MC Lin's teammate, P Yu-Te He has also attracted the attention of ML scouts (news reports cite the presence of the Twins scout at the game). He threw 8 innings against Ku-Pao on the 23rd. In that game, Ku-Pao's Wei-Chen Wang continued his hot hitting streak - he had 3 more hits, including 2 triples as Ku-Pao won 7-3.
*Former T-Rex/Cobras slugger Chia-Hsien Hsieh has volunteered on his own to participate in the WBC training session taking place 12/1 to 12/7. Also contrary to what was reported earlier, Red Sox farmhands Che-Hsuan Lin, Chih-Hsien Chiang, and Wang-Yi Lin will not be participating in the training session. Taking their places are Chia-Chu Chen (Red Sox), Chia-Jen Lo (Astros), and 22 year old (DOB: 3/19/86) C Cheng-Da Wu, who played HS and collegiate baseball (Suzuka International Unversity) in Japan. Next year, he will be playing for the Kishu Rangers of the Kansai Independent League - the same league that made news when it selected a 16 year old girl.
***NEW UPDATES
*Per their agent, former Blue Jays farmhands CH Cheng and PH Keng want to play overseas and are unlikely to consider playing in the CPBL next year.
*Gui-Shan elementary school won the little league division of the aboriginal tourney.
*Ku-Pao HS defeated Chung-Dao HS in the championship game of the senior level of the aboriginal tourney behind C Kuan-Ru Chen's 2 hits and home run and LHP Kuan-Yu Chen's 11 K's in 7 innings of work.
*Hsin-Shen junior HS won the youth division of the aboriginal tourney behind RHP Chia-Wei Yang, a kid with some upside (6'0" tall).*Updated
*Regarding the WBC and the NPB, the Hanshin Tigers are willing to allow OF Wei-Chu Lin to participate in the WBC. The Rakuten Eagles will also allow RHP En-Yu Lin to play in March.
*Some potential good news for the CPBL - the Taichung city government is considering getting its own pro baseball team.
*Two KBO and two CPBL teams will be training in Taiwan in February of next year.
*Much like Tiger Woods and GM, E Sun Bank is unlikely to continue its sponsorship/ad deal with Chien-Ming Wang because of the sad state of the economy.
4 comments:
hmmm... I wonder why the Taichung city Gov would want to start a pro team with the sad state of the CPBl? Did you hear about the Taipei dome? I wonder why Taipei doesnt apply to start a team instead.
Either way, the CPBL is a mess. Maybe they should just start all over again from the foundation up with new decision makers and coordinators because as it is now, it is way to corrupted. hardly anyone in Taiwan watches CPBL anymore because of the game fixing. I wonder why NPB is so successful? The Taiwanese are just as rabid as the Japanese are when it comes to baseball..hmmm
Taichung city government is unlikely to start its own team--an idea that's weird to begin with considering that there is already a team in Taichung. There isn't a whole lot of support around the league, and it now seems like the city government may endorse the Bulls rather than starting a team from scratch.
Links to two Chinese language news articles on this issue are listed below:
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/081126/57/1a4nk.html
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/081126/17/1a4q7.html
Thanks for the updates/links Stevo.
BC, it's all about $$$. The NPB and KBO pay their players well, at least better than the CPBL. Those leagues can afford to keep some of their top amateur players in the domestic leagues. Better players = better product = more fan support = more revenue generated = better players (so it's cyclical in nature).
Also well paid players tend to be happy players. You don't see any of the current top paid CPBL players getting involved in these scandals. They've got too much to lose.
I dont understand how the KBO can have so much more money to pay their players an to support baseball than the CPBL. In Korea, baseball is not even that popular where as in Taiwan it is as popular as can be
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