Taiwan Baseball Vid - Past and Present: Part 4

Current Taiwanese ballers in Japan: Wei-Chu Lin, phenom Chung-Shou Yang, bro - Yao-Hsun Yang, Ying-Chieh Lin, Chih-Chia Chang

Taiwan Baseball Vid - Past and Present: Part 3

Transition to the US with emphasis on pioneer Chin-Feng Chen and Ching-Lung Hu. Short clips on Tsao and Y.C. Chen.

Taiwan Baseball Vid - Past and Present: Part 2

Taiwanese Legends in Japan: Tai-Yuan Kuo, Yuan-Chi Kuo, Ming-Tsu Lu, Chih-Chia Chang

Taiwan Baseball Vid - Past and Present: Part 1

Intro on Taiwan baseball - with emphasis on Chien-Ming Wang

Hu's Back....

Well, it looks like the hand injury was nothing serious. Hu was back in action in the AFL yesterday and today. Unfortunately, he couldn't get untracked. He was 0-4 yesterday and 1-5 tonight.

A good friend passed on a series of awesome video footage of past and current Taiwanese baseball stars. The 5 part series can be found on youtube.com - I'll try to link the videos to the blog - the only thing is that the vids are in Chinese.

News Updates....(Twins Sign Lin)

Ok, lots to report here....Wang-Wei Lin

(pic from Apple Daily News - Taiwan)

*First and foremost, per my buddy and the news out of Taiwan, the Minnesota Twins have entered into the Taiwanese market by signing 18 year old outfielder Wang-Wei Lin. Lin, whose twin brother is none other than Red Sox pitching prospect Wang-Yi Lin, was considered one of the top hitting prospects on the 2006 junior NT that competed recently in Cuba. Lin, who struggled a bit in Cuba, flashed some of his potential by cracking one of only 2 HR's for the Taiwanese team - not bad considering the kids used wooden bats. Lin is rumored to have received a signing bonus in the ballpark of around $90-100K.

Ping-Yen Lee

*Next, the SoftBank Hawks and 18 year old Ping-Yen Lee have come to an agreement (sign-on bonus of around $335,000) and his signing was officially announced today. Lee will join fellow Taiwanese prospect, pitcher Yao-Hsun Yang on the nigun team. Despite standing only 5'9", Lee cranked out 53 HR's and hit above .500 over his 3 year HS career. Lee also has decent speed as he was clocked at 6.3 seconds over 50 meters.

Keng and Chen gearing up for the IC Cup!

*The final 24 man roster for the Intercontinental Cup coming up in November has been released:
Pitchers(10)
1)Chien-Fu Yang - CPBL
2)Wei-Lun Pan - CPBL
3)En-Yu Lin- CPBL
4)Yueh-Ping Lin - CPBL
5)Si-Yo Wu - CPBL
6)Po-Hsuan Keng - Blue Jays
7)Sung-Wei Tseng - Indians
8)Yao-Hsun Yang - Hawks
9)Chen-Chang Lee - Amateur
10)Ko-Chien Lin - Amateur
Catchers(3)
1)Chun-Chang Yeh - CPBL
2)Chih-Kang Kao - CPBL
3)Feng-Min Chen - CPBL
Infielders(6)
1)Chuan-Chia Wang - CPBL
2)Tai-Shan Chang - CPBL
3)Chih-Wei Shih - CPBL
4)Chih-Sheng Lin - CPBL
5)Yung-Chi Chen - Mariners
6)Chung-Shou Yang - Fighters
Outfielders(5)
1)Chin-Feng Chen - CPBL
2)Chia-Hsien Hsieh - CPBL
3)Chien-Ming Chang - CPBL
4)Yu-Hsien Ming - CPBL
5)Chih-Yao Chan - Amateur

Big Bro

Lil' Bro

*The finals for the CPBL is set: The LA New Bears will take on the President Lions in a 7 game series beginning October 21st. Should be interesting as some of the top domestic talent will be competing against one another - C.F. Chen, S.Y. Wu, W.L. Pan, and Y.P. Lin. Also the Chen brothers will be fighting for family bragging rights.

More bad news....

While we're still waiting on an update on Hu's hand injury, there's more bad news regarding player injuries. Chi-Hung Cheng - the lefty in the Blue Jays organization will undergo surgery shortly for a tear in his labrum; the injury is similar to that of Chin-Hui Tsao. Hopefully Cheng will be able to make a full recovery and regain some of that velocity that has eluded him since his teens.

As for Hu, the AFL site has a player journal entry of Hu. Email him and wish him well!

CPBL
In game 1, the Lions beat the Bulls 8-4. Game MVP honors went to NT member - and reliever Yueh-Ping Lin (pictured above). Read more on the series matchup.

News Briefs.....

*New article on Chien-Ming Wang.....

*According to this site, Ching-Lung Hu may have suffered a broken finger or hand after being HBP yesterday.

Fall League Action....

Ching-Lung Lo pitched yesterday for the BeachBoys in the HWBL. He was on the losing end of a 7-4 game. Lo lasted only 3 innings, giving up 6 runs on 5 hits. He had 2 walks and 2 K's. Lo falls to 0-2 in league action. Box/PlaybyPlay


Ching-Lung Hu made his debut last night with the Mesa Solar Sox in the AFL. Hu was 0-3 in last night's 3-0 loss to Phoenix. Box
Hu was 1-1 with a RBI in tonight's matchup, prior to leaving the game in the 5th inning when he was hit by a pitch on the wrist. Hopefully nothing too serious here. Box

CPBL ROY Candidates....

Based on the news in Taiwan, 4 rookies are in the running for the 2006 CPBL ROY award. Although En-Yu Lin is a pretty tough act to follow (ROY in 2005), one candidate was impressive enough to be considered the front-runner for the award - his name: Guan-Ren Chen. The 24 year old outfielder led the league in BA, barely edging out Tai-Shan Chang by a fraction of a percentage point. In what was regarded as a disappointing season for the ever popular Brother Elephants team, Chen was one of the few bright spots for the Elephants. The 5'9" - 198 pounder hit .349, cranked out 10 HR's and drove in 54 runs.

Chen's other competitors for ROY include:
1)Chih-Tsung Chiang (2B - LA New Bears) - age: 23 6'2"/195 pounds
BA .307 2 HR's 23 RBI's
***Older brother of Red Sox prospect Chih-Hsien Chiang

2)Hsien-Chih Chang (P - Macoto Cobras) - age: 22 5'8"/167 pounds
ERA 3.26 12 Wins - 10 Losses 165.2 IP/96K's
3)Ying-Feng Tsai (P - LA New Bears) - age: 23 6'0/172 pounds
ERA 3.37 11 Wins - 5 Losses 109.2 IP/47K's
***Had the opportunity to watch him pitch for the NT last summer - was the ace of the staff during the Southern California tour

As for the league MVP award, the 3 guys mentioned yesterday have to be the top 3 candidates. If it was based on stats, En-Yu Lin would be the clear favorite, with his impressive trifecta - ala Johan Santana. However, if they give the MVP to a guy on a winning team, then Chen and Chang have to be mentioned as well.

CPBL ROUNDUP...

With the regular season over...... the CPBL playoffs are upon us. The Sinon Bulls and the President Lions will play a 5 game series from the 13th to the 18th this month. The winner of the series will play the LA New Bears for the League title. The CPBL champs will then gear up for the Konami Cup in November.

Notable League Leaders:Tai-Shan Chang (Bulls) hit the most HR's: 24 - he also hit .349 with 72 RBI's


Chin-Feng Chen (Bears) had the most RBI's: 81 - he also hit .317 with 21 HR's


En-Yu Lin (Cobras) won the triple crown in pitching with the most wins: 17 - tied with Si-Yo Wu, lowest ERA: 1.74, and most K's: 209 - which set a single season record. What a season for the young man!

ND for Chiang....

NPB
Chien-Ming Chiang earned a ND today as his Giants lost 9-3 to the CL Champs - the Chunichi Dragons in extra innings. Chiang's only mistake of the game was a 3 run shot given up to Tyrone Woods in the 4th inning. Those were the only runs Chiang would give up as he threw 7.1 innings, giving up 6 hits to go along with 2 walks and 2 K's. Chiang left the game with the score all knotted up at 3 in the 8th inning. Box

On Sunday, Wei-Chu Lin was 0-1 in a pinch hit appearance for the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers lost to the Yomiuri Giants 5-1. Box

As for teenage prodigy Chung-Shou Yang, his first year with the Fighters organization is officially over. Yang hit .276 in 352 AB's - he had 9 HR's and 36 RBI's with the nigun team. Not too shabby a campaign for the 19 year old as he garnered All-Star recognition and picked up the August minor league player of the month award.

Loose Ends....

Majors:
Wow, what has happened to the vaunted Yankees offense?! The Bronx Bombers find themselves down 2 games to 1 and facing early elimination in the ALDS. Jaret Wright will pitch tomorrow in a crucial game 4 for the Yanks. If the Yankees win, Wang would be the probable starter for game 5 in NYC on Sunday.

More articles on Kuo....at least people now know his name.
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

Minors:
Ching-Lung Lo pitched on Wednesday in the HWB and took the loss for the Waikiki BeachBoys. Check box score here.

Dodgers Lose Game 2....

The Dodgers lost to the Mets 4-1 tonight. Kuo pitched 4.1 innings, giving up 2 earned runs on 4 hits. All in all despite the loss, I thought that Kuo was solid tonight. Mets skipper Willie Randolph had this to say about Kuo, "He was tough again. We just made him pitch a little bit. We had some AB's where we taxed him a little bit."
Kuo, who was clocked in the low 90's/topping out at 94 mph - was hurt by a bout of wildness in the 3rd and 5th innings . A WP by Kuo in the 3rd inning and a leadoff walk in the 5th inning both led to runs scored for the Mets. Grady Little pulled Kuo in the 5th with the bases loaded and trailing 1-0 - he simply couldn't afford to give up any more runs thanks to a dominant performance by 40 year old veteran Tom Glavine (he threw 6 shutout innings). As for Kuo, he had 2 walks (1 intentional to load the bases in the 5th) to go along with 4 K's. Considering the fact that this was Kuo's 6th career ML start in an away game during the postseason with his team down 1-0 in the series - you have to chalk this one up as a valuable learning experience for Kuo. If Kuo can stay healthy, it'll be very exciting to see what kinda numbers he can post as a starter over a full season.

Box/Recap

SI appearance for Wang.....

In the latest issue of Sports Illustrated (10/9/06), there's a nice little interview on Wang, here it is - for your viewing pleasure:As for Kuo who will start tomorrow night against the Mets:
On ESPN tonight, Eric Byrnes - OF for the Arizona Diamonbacks was a guest anchor along with Vernon Wells. Eric had a lot of high praise for Kuo saying, "I won't lose any sleep if I never face that guy again.....He is probably the last lefthander in the game that I'd want to face right now...He throws a hard mid 90's fastball - he cuts it inside, every now and then he'll keep you honest and will 2 seam it away, (he has) a big looping curveball.....this guy has got some of the best stuff I've ever seen."

ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian went on to say that in a conversation with one time Mariner/Yankee Tino Martinez, Tino was so impressed by Kuo's last start against the Mets that he was quoted saying, "How is anybody gonna swing against this guy. I'd put him in the rotation right now for the post season." Someone in the Dodgers organization must've been listening to Tino.

Hopefully Kuo can help even things up for the Dodgers tomorrow night after today's close loss. The fact that Kuo is still pitching today is a testament to Dan Evans.

Japan
Hanshin won 4-2. Lin made an appearance in the game but had no stats.

"Wang is Just Right"

Well, Wang was "just good enough" to get the win tonight against the Tigers. With the offense providing run support - staking Wang to a 5-0 lead, Wang pitched well enough to hold the Detroit offense to 3 runs over 6 2/3 innings. However, he also gave up 8 hits (1 HR and 5 doubles). Wang's sinker wasn't as effective as usual, although he was throwing pretty hard - 95 to 96 mph on his 4 seam fastball. All in all, a solid start for the kid as he now has his first career win in the post season. The Yankees won 8-4.
Recap/Box
Fox TV has a nice little blurb on Wang and Kuo hailing from the same hometown of Tainan, Taiwan. It seems that a lot of the top baseball talent in Taiwan come from southern Taiwan.

Kuo will pitch Thursday night. Let's go Kuo!

Card of the Month - "Dragon" Lo - 2006 Bowman Chrome

Lo, who just turned 21 in late August, will begin next season with the Rockies "AA" affiliate. For the time being, you can follow Lo's development in the Hawaiian Winter League here.

As for the card listed above, all of his parallel inserts from the 2006 Bowman Chrome product are commanding a premium on Ebay. Check out some of the auctions here.

Kuo/Wang Updates.....

News articles on:
Kuo 1
Kuo 2

Wang 1
Wang 2
Wang 3 *New

How Sweet It Is............

......To see 2 of our boys represent their teams in the ML post season!

Chien-Ming Wang will pitch game 1 of the ALDS against the Tiger's Nate Robertson. Read more on the pitching and positional player matchup analysis for both teams. Wang was 1-0 this season against Detroit. Game 1 will take place Tuesday at 5:00 Pacific and will be televised by Fox.

The Dodgers advanced to the NL playoffs by winning the NL wildcard. Hong-Chih Kuo is tentatively scheduled to pitch game 2 of the NLDS against the NY Mets. If Kuo is a go on Thursday, then he would be set to face Tom Glavine. In 3 appearances against the Mets this year, Kuo is 1-0. Game time is set at 5:00 Pacific and will be broadcast by Fox.

*Edited 10/2/06*

End of the Line for Chang.....

The Seibu Lions released Chih-Chia Chang on Friday. Chang, the one time phenom who also starred on the Taiwanese NT, was never able to fully recover from numerous injuries to his throwing shoulder, elbow, and back - losing nearly 10 mph off of his fastball. The sad thing about this move is the fact that Chang is only 26 years old - the same age as Chien-Ming Wang. Chang, who caught the attention of Japanese scouts in 2001 when he beat a team of Japanese pros at the World Cup, was one of the top rookies in the NPB in 2002 when he won a career high 10 games. During his prime, Chang was widely considered to be one of the best pitchers out of Taiwan - bar none. Even though his peers all suffered serious injuries early in their professional careers (Wang - shoulder/Tsao - elbow & shoulder/Kuo - elbow), two of them are now starring in the US - with the jury still out on Tsao's recovery (although Tsao did fully recover from Tommy John surgery).

Here's where I feel there is one significant advantage to playing in the US versus Japan. The US has the best sports medicine in the world - the orthopedic surgeons, the athletic trainers, etc. all play a huge hand in helping injured players return to their previous abilities. Chang, who probably needed surgical intervention, did not get this same quality of care in Japan. When you look at all the Taiwanese pitching prospects who have gone over to Japan, it is startling to see how many guys have suffered injuries while in the NPB: Tai-Yuan Kuo, Chung-Yang Tsao, Ming-Chieh Hsu, Chien-Ming Chiang, Chih-Chia Chang, Wei-Yin Chen, Ying-Chieh Lin.......I'm sure there's more, but you get the picture. The only guy who perfomed well despite suffering an injury was Tai-Yuan Kuo. I can only pray that young Yi-Hao Lin has good people watching out for his precocious arm.

It's pretty obvious where I stand on where our young prospects should go when choosing between the US and Japan.

Moving on to scores in Japan:
Saturday
Lin was o-1 in a pinch hit appearance as Hanshin lost 7-1.

Sunday
Chiang lost his second game of the season despite pitching well. The Giants got shutout 3-0 as Chiang lasted 8 innings, giving up 1 run on 6 hits.

Majors
Kuo sounds iffy for the Asian Games coming up in December. Read more here.