CPBL Draft and Other News...

CPBL:

FIRST ROUND PICKS
#1 - SINON BULLS
(22 y.o. DOB:11/11/85 - 6'0", 180 pounds - B:L - T:R)


#2 - MACOTO COBRAS
(24 y.o. DOB: 1/2/83 - 5'10", 165 pounds - B:L - T:L)


#3 - CHINATRUST WHALES
(23 y.o. DOB: 12/21/84 - 5'10", 157 pounds - LHP)

#4 - BROTHER ELEPHANTS
(20 y.o. DOB: 2/25/87 - 6'0", 168 pounds - RHP)


#5 - LA NEW BEARS
(22 y.o. DOB: 4/10/85 - 6'0", 175 pounds - RHP)


#6 - PRESIDENT LIONS
(22 y.o. DOB: 11/26/85 - 6'0", 182 pounds - LHP)

The CPBL held its annual draft and as expected, IF Yi-Chuan Lin was selected by the Sinon Bulls with the #1 overall pick. The Macoto Cobras, who had the #2 pick selected OF Chih-Yao Chan. The Chinatrust Whales chose P Chia-Chun Tang with the #3 pick. The Elephants with the 4th pick selected P Chia-Rui Mai. The #5 pick by the La New Bears was P Ming-Chieh Hsu. The President Lions picked last in the first round and selected P Wei-Hua Lee.

Other notables:
OF Ying-Chieh Liao was selected by the Sinon Bulls with their 2nd round pick.

The Lions selected OF Chien-Yu Kuo with their 2nd round pick.

P Yi-Che Huang was selected by the Bears with their 3rd pick.

Read more about the draft and the pending acquistion of the Cobras by DMedia here.

Other:

In the spirit of Christmas giving, Mariners farmhand Yao-Wen Chang bought jerseys for the entire Li-Hsin Little League baseball team (the same school that represented Taiwan in Williamsport in 2007). Chang is an alumni of the Li-Hsin LL team.

Red Sox minor leaguer Che-Hsuan Lin purchased $200,000 NT worth of wood bats for his alma mater: Nan-Ying HS.

Loose Ends....

Kuo and Wang

With just about all of the overseas players back home in Taiwan, it's time for some R & R for these guys before gearing up for the upcoming 2007 season. In the pic above, it's good to see Kuo and Wang reunited - too bad Tsao couldn't be there. As noted by a few of you, Tsao is currently a free agent after being non-tendered by the Rockies.

In other small news, it's good to know that the Boston Red Sox continue to work hard at scouting Taiwan's amateur scene. The Red Sox have definitely shown their commitment to scouting and signing some of the best players from the Pacific Rim - especially these past 2 years.

After a weak 2007 CPBL draft and in an effort to hold onto top domestic amateur talent, the CPBL has decided to include high school players in the draft next year.

Interesting note on foreign players being recognized as international athletes. In essence, there won't be any more incidences where players have problems returning (i.e. Chin-Feng Chen with the Dodgers - while trying to win a roster spot in ST) to the US because of a shortage of player visas.

There were a couple of noteworthy MLB acquisitions that could effect the PT of a few Taiwanese prospects/players:
1)The Mariners acquired 2B/DH Jose Vidro from the Nationals. So in addition to Jose Lopez, Yung-Chi Chen moves further down on the organizational 2B depth chart. However, his offensive skills and defensive versatility - 2B/3B work in his favor.
2)With the signing of Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf by the Dodgers over the past month, Kuo's status as a 5th starter is up in the air. He could return back to the bullpen and/or make sporadic starts.

Slim Pickings - 2007 CPBL Draft....

The CPBL draft took place today and a total of 11 amateur players were drafted by the teams involved. In comparison to last year's draft (with CFC and TJ Yeh), the 2007 draft lacked the big names. Oddly enough, the Macoto Cobras and President Lions did not participate in the draft.

Chen (R) - #1 Pick

#1 pick in action - playing the hot corner

With the first pick in the draft, the Brother Elephants selected 24 year old IF Chiang-Ho Chen - a former NT member that participated in the 2005 Baseball World Cup.
Pitcher Chien-Hung Kuo (known for his 88 mph fastball) was picked #2 by the C.T. Whales. The Sinon Bulls took pitcher Yan-Ming Chen with the #3 pick. Pitcher Che-Hsiung Lin rounded out the first round as the #4 pick by the LA New Bears.

Other picks:
2nd Round:
C Chia-Wei Lin - Elephants
C Jen-Chieh Wu - Whales
Chia-Yu Lin - Bulls
P Yu-Liang Cheng - Bears

3rd Round:
Chun-Lin Yeh - Bears

4th Round:
P Chia-Hua Liu - Bears

5th Round:
OF Jen-Chieh Hsu - Whales

Yeh joins the Red Sox.....more on the way??

It has been confirmed that the Boston Red Sox have signed D.J. Yeh, a LHP for around an $80,000 US dollar signing bonus (bonus amount unconfirmed). Yeh became a controversial figure in Taiwan, when it became apparent that this year's CPBL #3 draft pick decided that he wanted to give the US minors a shot despite making himself available for the CPBL draft. Yeh became a hot commodity upon his return to baseball after a 4 year lay off from the game. Yeh, who had been scouted by several ML organizations in his HS days, was throwing around 92 MPH in his prime. Although recently his fastball has been clocked in the mid to high 80's range, the time off can only benefit Yeh and hopefully help avoid the arm problems that many Taiwanese pitchers have faced.

Several young HS baseball players in Taiwan are currently being scouted by several ML organizations during Taiwan's current HS national tourney. Led by the Red Sox, Braves, and Dodgers and their strong international scouting program, three kids have caught the eyes of these scouts. They are:
1)Tzu-Kai Chiu - LHP: DOB: 9/14/87 Stands 6'0 tall, weighs close to 200 pounds. Throws around 89 to 90 mph max. This kid has been on the youth national team scene for a while now. In 2003, he led Taiwan to the gold by beating both South Korea and Japan in the Asian Youth Championships. At the time, the Colorado Rockies were pursuing Chiu pretty heavily after establishing the Tsao and Lo pitching pipeline. Chiu was also on the 2003 World Youth Baseball Championship silver medal winning team. Chiu started the title game against the US, but took the loss in that game. Chiu then represented Chinese Taipei at the abbreviated 2004 World Junior Baseball Championships where he went 1-1 (W/L), had a 0.00 ERA and K'd 4 in 2.1 IP.
2) Hung-Chen Lai - another LHP: Mentioned in an earlier post - see the Nov. 25, 2005 post, the kid is an undersized (5'9") athlete, who projects to be a pitcher at the next level. Lai also throws close to 90 mph max. The Red Sox are interested in the kid, but will probably wait until he physically matures - which might mean he will have to play some collegiate baseball before he gets his shot over in the US.
3)Chih-Hsien Chiang - IF : Profiled in an earlier blog posting.

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.