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

One and Done....

TJ - Damn, we hardly knew you!

TJ Yeh was released by the Red Sox per Frank via BaseballAmerica's recent minor league transaction detail list. TJ played one year in the organization with the Lowell Spinners and posted subpar numbers in limited appearances. TJ will head back home and play in the CPBL - he'll probably join the team that originally drafted him - the Elephants. TJ is the second Taiwanese flameout for the Red Sox, following in the footsteps of Kevin Huang.



Spring training news on Chung-Shou Yang: Yang tweaked a hammy doing windsprints on Friday. The injury isn't too bad as Yang cranked out 7 HR's in 33 swings yesterday.

In other NPB ST news, sad to say, but it looks like Wei-Chu Lin's chances of getting more PT might hinge on the health of CF N. Akahoshi. Lin cranked out 9 HR's in 63 swings in a recent session.

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

Red Sox sign 3 kids from Taiwan???

Well, per the official press release from the Red Sox website, the Red Sox have signed 3 players from Taiwan in 2005.

Although there has been no official release from the Red Sox about the players names, we do know that one of the guys is DJ Yeh. Speculation is that the 2 other kids are still in HS and have verbalized an agreement to sign with the Sox after they graduate from HS. The 2 kids are Chih-Hsien Chiang and Wang-Yi Lin, a RHP.

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.