YJ Hsiao Selected by Hanshin Tigers in the First Round....

Yi-Jie Hsiao (Ikketsu Sho) joins current Nippon Ham player - IF Chung-Shou Yang as a first round pick of the NPB draft. Hsiao, a RHP, was the Tigers' first pick in this year's draft.

The Tigers now have two Taiwanese players in their system - Hsiao joins OF Wei-Chu Lin, who was selected by the Tigers in the 7th round of the 2003 draft.

The former Taiwanese youth NT member (on the '01 youth NT that included YF Lin, CA Huang, WY Chen, CM Chiang, & SA Kuo) idolizes current Yokohama star Daisuke Miura.

You can read more about Hsiao here.

Getting to Know Yi-Jie Hsiao....

YJ Hsiao

As reported by UDN, Yi-Jie Hsiao - a RHP attending college in Japan (5'11'', 187 pounds) might be the next Taiwanese player selected in the upcoming NPB draft (Tu-Hsuan Lee - also known as Ping-Yen Lee on the blog was the last Taiwanese kid selected in the NPB draft). He has good movement of his fastball, has an average velocity of 86-90, while topping out at 92 mph. In the recent college tournament in Japan, he threw a 13 inning CG shutout (175 pitches) and in less than 24 hours, threw another 11 inning CG, although he earned a loss in that game. Unbelievably, he threw 331 pitches in less than 48 hrs! RHP Hsiao is a cousin of Taiwan Power SS Po-Ting Hsiao, who has drawn interest from the Detroit Tigers.

Hsiao Vid