Yung-Chi Chen to the Lions....

*The President Lions will select IF Yung-Chi Chen with the 1st overall pick in the CPBL draft tomorrow (December 21st).  Chen will receive a multi-year deal (3 years) worth 300 K NT/month (~10 K USD/month)+ additional bonus incentives.  This is the second highest rookie salary in Lions team history (Genji Kaku, better known as Yuen-Chih Kuo earned 500 K NT/month in '97 with the Lions).

The Bears have the # 2 pick and will most likely select IF Yen-Wen Kuo.   The Bulls have the third overall pick and are expected to go with a positional player - perhaps C Kun-Sheng Lin.   The Elephants will choose last in the first round and are expected to select RHP Sung-Wei Tseng. 
RHP Wen-Yang Liao is a wild card to be selected in the first round and is the top amateur pitcher available in the draft.

*Taiwan Coop Bank 19 year old RHP Wei-Hua Wu was clocked at a high of 92 mph in the recently completed winter amateur tourney.  He threw a CG shutout on the 19th, giving up only 3 hits in his team's 5-0 win over Tai-Power.  Wu also started on 12/11 against Tai-Power, picking up the W after throwing 7 shutout innings, K'ing 5, walking none, while allowing only 3 hits.
Taiwan Coop bank won the tourney.
Po-Yu Lin (formerly with the White Sox organization) ended up winning the top pitcher award in the tourney (2 W's, 0.15 ERA)
 
 
 
*Negotiations haven't gone too well with Octagon and Chunichi regarding Wei-Yin Chen's desire to play in the US.  Chen was seeking to have his status changed to that of a foreign player.   The club currently views him as a domestic/Japanese player.   In order for Chen to play overseas, he'll either have to be 1) posted by his NPB club  or 2) wait till he's 31 years old, when he becomes an international free agent (with 9 years of service - this is defined as being active for 145 days on the team's top roster for nine seasons. Time missed for injuries during these years does not count).