Monday Briefs...

*Bulls top pick RHP Keng-Hao Chang came to terms with the team. Chang received a 3 million NT signing bonus (~$93.5 K USD). He'll also have the opportunity to make 500 K NT (~$15.5 K USD) in performance bonuses while earning an annual salary of 75 K NT/month (~$2,300 USD). Chang is the youngest player in CPBL history.


*The Elephants are interested in RHP Chung-Nan Tsai. The one-time CPBL and NT star has been plagued by injuries these past few years.


*The Uni-Lions' American coaches have reported to camp. Bill Champion is a pitching coach while Torchia Anthony is a hitting coach.


*Over in the NPB, WY Chen may have only had 2 innings of work in a game on Sunday, but he threw a 148 pitch bullpen following the game!


*CJ Lo in ST camp:



*News brief on HC Kuo

Prospect Update: MT Chen..

Taiwan PE University recently converted RHP - Min-Tzu Chen (was in LA back in '08 for a showcase) has had several workouts lately, flashing a 90-93 mph fastball and a good delivery. However the righty is raw; he's only been a pitcher for 3 months (Chen is a former OF) hence leading to him having trouble repeating his delivery and arm slot. His command and secondary offerings are raw. He's shown the ability to throw a curveball, changeup, and a slider. He is currently being represented by Rights Inc.'s Jack Fang after firing his previous agency - IBB/ISA. The Royals and Padres have made offers in the $150-200 K range.

*

*

*

*

*I've been alerted to some new English-language content covering Taiwanese baseball. The author, who goes by the Man in Tainan, has two blogs out there covering the CPBL and specifically the Uni-Lions.

Please check out and support his sites:

probaseballtaiwan.blogspot.com (CPBL news and opinions)

lionsjiayo.blogspot.com (Uni-Lions news and opinions)

*

*Thanks to MIT (Man in Tainan) for hooking me up with my new banner!

Wang Signs One Year Deal with Nationals...

*The Nationals have inked CMW to a one year deal worth $2 million with incentives pushing the package up to another $3 million.

Read more here and here.

Personally, I'm stoked for Wang - it'll be good to see him get a fresh start elsewhere. It's also great for this blog because it means it's time to update my banner and get rid of CMW in his GD Yankees uniform. If anyone has some time, I could definitely use a retooled banner for the blog picturing CMW in a non-Yankees uni (or even of the big 4: Wang, Kuo, Ni, and WY Chen). Please send any ideas/artwork you may have as my photoshop skills are nonexistent.




*Speaking of the Yankees, M. Newman commented on his latest Taiwanese acquisition: Fu-Lin Kuo.



*Ray Chang, the Red Sox farmhand, is still scheduled to visit Taiwan around the 22nd of this month.

Year of the Tiger.....

A Happy Belated Chinese New Year to those who celebrate the holiday.

Playing a lil' catch up here, here's some of the most recent news:


*Ta-Tung Cup:
Kao-Yuan won the Ta-Tung Cup defeating Nan-Ying 6-3 in the championship game. Sheng-Nan Chen picked up the W for KY, throwing a CG (9 IP, 3 R, 7 H, 11 K's, 3 BB's). He was the MVP of the tourney.

Shi-Yuan earned 3rd in the tourney by beating San-Hsin 10-5. Amazingly, Kuo-Hua Lo threw another inning for San-Hsin (see previous posts) in the loss.

Tourney Leaders/Awards:
BA: Wei-Che Hsieh .437 (San-Hsin)
MVP: Sheng-Nan Chen (Kao-Yuan)
Top Pitcher: Kuo-Hua Lo 3 W's, 25 IP, 0.00 ERA (San-Hsin)
Most RBI: Chi-Hung Hsu 5 (Kao-Yuan)
HR: None



*What's Left of the CPBL:
-24 indicted
-The game fixing ring bought out the Kao-Yuan HS coach and possibly several Kao-Yuan HS baseball players so that they can fix games when they get to the CPBL.
-Chin-Hui Tsao agreed to fix two games, however one game was cancelled due to a typhoon while the other was aborted due to not enough players cooperating.
-Tsao's Octagon Rep, Michie Iwamoto had previously stated that "It's not illegal to go to hostess bars." & "Tsao didn't take girls from hostess bars out to love motels."
-The La New Bears are holding the salaries of 6 players, including star IF Chih-Sheng Lin for their possible involvement in this mess. The 6 (Lin, Feng-Min Chen, Si-Yo Wu, Chung-Wei Pan, Chin-Chih Huang, Long-Yi Huang) were implicated by their former teammate - Kevin Huang.
-Tsao and Chia-Hsien Hsieh (formerly of the Bulls) won't be able to play in the amateur league or serve as coaches in the amateur field per the CTBA.
-In other CPBL news, the President Lions' new hitting & pitching coaches will report after the new year; La New will play exhibition games vs Korean college teams; the Sinon Bulls will play an exhibition game vs an amateur club - TaiPower; Australian Ryan Murphy (the versatile MVP in last year's tourney in Holland) will sign with the Elephants.




*NPB:
-Chunichi Dragons LHP WY Chen got married to his longtime girlfriend (6 years) in December.

-Nippon Ham OF Yang jammed his thumb.

-Update on SBH P YH Yang




*MLB:
-It looks like CMW is moving closer to becoming a National (Dodgers, Cards out of the running).

Ta-Tung Final 4 Set....

Larkin and Logan in Taiwan (Pictured with the Ku-Pao HS baseball team)

*Ta-Tung Cup:
Kao-Yuan and San-Hsin advanced to the semifinals with victories today. San-Hsin defeated Mei-Ho 4-0 while Kao-Yuan shut out Qiang-Shu 9-0.
Lefty ace Sheng-Nan Chen earned the W for Kao-Yuan.
In an unbelievable showing of arm strength/endurance and abuse, San-Hsin went to ace Kuo-Hua Lo yet again in a key quarterfinal matchup. Lo, pitching on one day's rest (credited with a CG - 140 pitches on 1/31), threw another shutout (130 pitches over 9 innings) and in the process - picked up his 3rd win of the tourney (3 G, 0 R, 24 IP, 346 pitches! over an 8 day period).

The semifinals take place tomorrow pitting Kao-Yuan against San-Hsin and Shi-Yuan against Nan-Ying.

*

Shingo Takatsu in his Bulls digs

Read more here.

*Former Bulls C Chun-Chang Yeh will sign with the Brother Elephants.

Ta-Tung Cup: Battle of Two Goliaths.....

*A 25 man CPBL All-Star preliminary roster (subject to change) has been announced for the upcoming games against the Dodgers.
Roster:
Pitchers
1)Wei-Lun Pan (L)
2)Yueh-Ping Lin (L)
3)Ching-Ming Wang (L)
4)Si-Yo Wu (Be)
5)Po-Hsuan Keng (Be)
6)En-Yu Lin (E)
7)Yung-Chieh Yeh (E)
8)Chien-Fu Yang (Bu)
9)Yu-Chieh Shen (Bu)
10)Ying-Chieh Lin (Bu)

Catchers
1)Chih-Kang Kao (L)
2)Feng-Min Chen (Be)

Infielders
1)Kuo-Ching Kao (L)
2)Chih-Wei Shih (Be)
3)Chih-Sheng Lin (Be) - recovering from injury
4)Chao-Hsing Cheng (Bu)
5)Yi-Chuan Lin (Bu)
6)Cheng-Min Peng (E)
7)Sheng-Wei Wang (E)

Outfielders
1)Fu-Hao Liu (L)
2)Wu-Hsiung Pan (L)
3)Chin-Feng Chen (Be) - recovering from injury
4)Chien-Ming Chang (Bu)
5)Ssu-Chi Chou (E)
6)Kuan-Jen Chen (E)

*Some of the latest updates from the best English site covering Japanese baseball news around - Yakyu Baka:
-"Chih-Lung Huang tossed a 60-pitch bullpen session on Thursday with the catcher standing. He told reporters that he threw at about 70-80% capacity. The Giants seemed fairly impressed with what they saw."
-"Wei-Chu Lin swung the bat 72 times during practice on Friday and hit 8 out for home runs. Lin switched over to a regular bat after using a training bat the previous times."
-"Yi-Hao Lin held a bullpen session on Friday and tossed 70 pitches."



*The government's efforts to promote the game at the grassroots level will need to hasten as the latest numbers indicate a decrease in the number of little league teams playing baseball (down from 441 to 421) on the island. There was a slight jump in HS programs participating in the sport - 111 (up from 102).

*The Taichung City - Vee TV baseball team has released two players - Cheng-Chi Huang (once courted by the Blue Jays) and Hsiu-Fan Wu.

*Former Reds star Barry Larkin is in Taiwan now.

*CMW Updates:

Suitors Emerging for Wang

Dodgers monitoring Wang

"Will wind up on one of the coasts"

*Latest Ta-Tung Cup results

2/1:

Nan-Ying 6 - Ku-Pao 3: Reliever Chia-Hao Sung (pictured above) picked up a W for Nan-Ying, shutting down the Ku-Pao bats over the last 4.2 innings (0 runs, 2 H). Nan-Ying moves on to the final 4.

Shi-Yuan 14 - Hsin-She 3: Shi-Yuan advanced to the final 4 behind a 14-hit barrage.

-Playing in the other quarterfinals are Kao-Yuan vs. Qiang-Shu and San-Hsin vs. Mei-Ho tomorrow.

(Pitcher Kuo-Hua Lo led San-Hsin into the quarterfinals with a dominant performance yesterday. He threw a CG, 3 hit shutout against Tung-Shih - racking up 14 K's. He was clocked at a high of 92 and hit 91 on his last pitch of the game!)