Wild Thing...Wed News...

MLB:
*Wow, Hong-Chih Kuo probably blew his chance at starting the season in LA with an erratic performance against the NY Mets on Wed. In 3 innings, Kuo allowed 2 runs on only 1 hit. But, he also gave up 4 walks and threw 3 wild pitches in his appearance. Kuo did have 3 K's. Box/Recap
That's 2 back-to-back forgettable performances from Kuo.

*Yung-Chi Chen made his first appearance in a Cactus League game this spring on Tuesday. Chen was a defensive replacement at 2B and had no plate appearances in the game. Chen has been recovering from an injured left shoulder he sustained last year in a minor league game.

*Scout.com has an update on Chi-Hung Cheng throwing from a flat surface. The Jays are being very cautious with Cheng. Read more here (check out the 1 minute vid of Cheng)


CPBL:
The Bears beat the Whales 3-2 Wed: CFC was 1-4 with a RBI and 2 K's/Kevin Huang earned his 2nd win of the season in relief/Game MVP went to Bears RF Chun-Hsiung Lu who had the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the 9th inning/notable starting pitchers Ying-Feng Tsai of the Bears pitched 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 10 hits, with 0 K's and 3 walks - his starting mound opponent Che-Yi Su was stellar, pitching 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 5 hits. He had 4 K's and 3 walks allowed.

The Cobras beat the Elephants 6-5 Wed: Elephants starter and former Red Sox farmhand TJ Yeh earned the loss, lasting only 2.2 innings - allowing 5 runs (only 2 earned) on 2 hits while walking 4 with 0 K's/Cobras pitcher Chia-Hung Chen earned the win and Game MVP honors.

TJ - now an Elephant

CPBL Draft Results...

As expected, the LA New Bears selected Chin-Feng Chen first overall in the CPBL draft.

The Whales selected RHP Che-Yi Su (on far right in the linked pic) with the 2nd overall pick in the first round.

The rest of the first round selections were as follows:

#3 pick - Elephants: LHP Ding-Jen Yeh
#4 pick - Lions: LHP Pai-Ching Chiang
#5 pick - Cobras: RHP Chia-Hung Chen
#6 pick - Bulls: OF Chien-Jung Su

For the rest of the team's picks, you can go to the CPBL's official website (in Chinese) for further detail.

Amateur baseball updates.....

This past week, new national winners were crowned for infantile (11-12), high school, and adult - college aged divisions.

In the senior league (college) championships, the National College of Physical Education defeated Jiayi University by a score of 9 to 0.
From this division, names to remember for the future include: NCPE winning pitcher Chia-Chun Tang and Jiayi pitcher Che-Yi Su


In the junior (high school) tourney, PingZhen High School won the championship by defeating Hualien H.S. 5 to 4. Yilan beat Taitung 7 to 4 for third place.
Among the HS kids, names to remember include:
1)Hung-Cheng Lai (P) - throws lefty, HS senior, 5'9"tall, has been clocked at 90 mph, member of junior national team, a good athlete: reputed to have been timed at 11 seconds in the 100m dash, has been scouted by the Boston Red Sox
2)Wei-Da Su (P)
3)Jiang-Cho Chen (P) - 6'0 tall, junior in HS, clocked as fast as 90 mph
4)Chen-Hua Lin (P) - 6'0 tall, throws ~ 85 mph


In the infantile division (11-12 year olds), a team from Yilan defeated a team from Taitung 7-6 to win the championship.
Names to keep an eye out for include: Wen-Chia Song

More on Lin....

I did a little research and found out that Lin is represented by super agent Scott Boras. Lin, along with fellow country-man Che-Yi Su were in the US earlier last year - March of 2004, where they showcased their goods in front of a ton of scouts in Chandler, Arizona. Obviously, scouts liked what they saw as Lin is now on his way to the US.

The guy over at baseballtaiwan.net has a pic up of Lin, Su, and Tsao. Here is the link. Lin is the guy on the far left, with Tsao in the middle, and Su on the right. From the pic, assuming that Tsao is 6'2" and Su is 6'0 even, I believe Lin stands somewhere around 5'10" to 5"11.

From what I've googled, Lin hasn't been on the international scene much as compared to some of the other recently signed kids. He was on the Under-17 Chinese-Taipei National team in 2001 that included teammates: Chia-An Huang(Mariners), Wei-Yin Chen(Chunichi), and Chien-Ming Chiang(Yomiuri). Lin was also included on the Taiwanese team that participated in the 2004 edition of the Grand Forks International Tournament.