Strong foreign pitching will continue to be a major factor in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League this year.
Teams that have one or two consistent foreign starters will have a much better chance at winning this year, especially with a shortened season (100 games over 26 weeks, instead of the usual 30 weeks) that schedules four games per week for every team, instead of the previous three-game set.
In terms of best projected starting rotation this year, there's no clear favorite since the Sinon Bulls did not resign the league's all-time winningest pitcher in Osvaldo Martinez, whose 108 career victories are second to none, or Lenin Picota of Panama, a 16-game winner last year.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL
This leaves us with the President Lions, who brought in lefty Eric Cyr from Canada to take some of the heat off ace starter Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen and second-year starter Lin Yueh-ping.
While the Lions appear to enjoy a slight advantage in their starting pitching over the rest of the league, their real strength seems to be an infield that features second baseman Yang Seng and first baseman Kao Guo-ching.
Newly arrived shortstop Luis Ugueto of Venezuela and second-year third baseman Chen Jia-wei should back up the Lions starters extremely well.
A lack of speed in the outfield may cause some problems for the Lions, along with in poor hitting, two areas of concern for first-year Japanese manager Ohashi.
La New Bears
Returning starter Chris Wright of the US will get plenty of help with the addition of Dominican righty Gustavo Martinez and a healthy Wu Si-yo, the once promising left-hander who was hampered by an injury last season.
Team defense will be the biggest area of concern for second-year manager Hong Yi-chung, whose young squad is missing veteran leadership.
Absence of a good defense will not matter much for the Bears as they will look to outscore their opponents with longball threats and crowd-pleasers Chen Chin-fong, Lin Chih-sheng, Pan Chung-wei and Huang Long-yi -- all of whom are capable of double-digit home run seasons.
Chinatrust Whales
A deep-and-versatile pitching staff may carry the Chinatrust Whales out of the cellar this year, with ace closer Dario Veras leading a group that can either start, work mid-inning relief, or make an occasional late-game appearance as a closer.
The defense, anchored by All-Star shortstop Cheng Chang-ming and veteran speedster Chi Jung-lin patrolling the outfield will help manager Lu Lai-fa focus his efforts on improving the Whales offense, which ranked last in team batting and total runs scored last year.
Brother Elephants
The return of their former ace Yofu Tetsu will not solve the Brother Elephants' pitching woes as the most popular team in the league kicks off without the services of veteran right-handers Jonathan Hurst and Bronswell Patrick, who were both waived after last season.
Uncertainty with the two other foreign pitchers, Brian Rodaway and Blas Cedeno, could mean that local starters Chuang Hong-liang and Liu Jung-nan will likely get the nod at least once a week.
The Elephants will have to look to their outstanding defense to secure some wins.
Hitting, especially with runners in scoring position, will likely determine if the Elephants will remain competitive as their top guns, such as Chen "Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan and Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-min, return from serious injuries.
CPBL ROUNDUP
A pair of home runs by Chen Jia-hong helped the Chinatrust Whales beat the Brother Elephants 10-2 in Tienmu Saturday night for the Whales' first victory of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League season.
The third-year third baseman out of the National Taiwan College of Physical Education blasted two solo shots, both off Elephants starter Chuang Hong-liang, on a 2-for-4 night with three RBIs in the Whales' lone victory of the four-game series.
The Elephants got on the board first in the bottom of the first on Chen Guan-ren's grounder to short that scored the runner from third.
It was all Whales from that point on as they hammered the Elephants' Chuang Hong-liang and reliever Pei-chuan for nine runs over the next six innings to build a commanding 9-1 advantage.
Whales starter Kao Jien-san allowed a run on six hits in 5-1/3 innings of work, dodging a big bullet in the third when he managed to work out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam by getting Hsu Ming-lan to pop out and Chen Huai-shan to ground into an inning-ending fielder's choice.
Offensively for the Whales, six of their 10 hits were for extra bases. Clutch hitting, going 5-for-10 with men in scoring position, resulted in a win.
Whales 3, Elephants 3
Poor late-innings relief finally cost the Elephants a win as the Whales rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth to force a 3-3 tie in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader in Tienmu.
Shaky late-game relief first surfaced on Friday night for the Elephants when they nearly blew a 6-1, ninth-inning lead by squandering four runs in the ninth to beat the Whales by a 6-5 margin.
After the Whales jumped to a 1-0 advantage in the top of the fourth on the strength of outfielder Huang Kwei-yu's solo blast to deep-left off Elephants starter Liu Jung-nan, the Elephants promptly answered in the bottom of the fifth when Chen Huai-shan's sacrifice fly brought home Hsu Ming-lan from third to make it 1-all.
Chen "Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan helped the Elephants reclaim a 3-1 lead in the eighth with a two-run homer off Whales starter Du Chang-wei, only to see Liu give a run right back on consecutive base hits in the ninth before closer Blas Cedeno yielded a game-tying single to the Whales' Kuo Dai-chi.
Bears 3, Lions 2
Chen Chin-fong hit a two-run home run and Lin Chih-sheng added an RBI single to account for all the scorings in the La New Bears' 3-2 win over the President Lions at Kaohsiung on Saturday.
With the game tied at 2-2, Lin Chih-sheng slapped a two-out blooper single off Lions reliever Lin Cheng-fong to shallow-right that dropped for a base hit in the bottom of the seventh to score the go-ahead run for the home Bears.
Reliever extraordinaire Hsu Chih-hua picked up his second win of the season by tossing four innings of one-hit ball, outshining starter Wu Si-yo, whose return from a season-ending injury last season appeared promising in his first start this year.
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