Taiwan’s Olympic baseball team fell to 1-3 after yesterday’s 1-0 loss against the Cuban team, virtually eliminating Taiwan from medal contention and guaranteeing a bottom-rung finish in the standings.
While the players certainly share in the responsibility, poor roster selection and in-game management have played a crucial role in Taiwan’s embarrassing showing. If Taiwan wants to remain competitive in international play, this year’s disappointment has to serve as a wake-up call for its national team program’s decision-making process and management.
This year’s team in Beijing is missing several key components: a solid defensive shortstop, left-handed bats and, most crucially, pitching depth. Ni Fu-te is the only left-handed reliever on the squad, and the team’s bullpen has coughed up leads in two of the team’s three losses.
With a NT$900,000 payoff coming to each national team member, it raises eyebrows that several La New Bears players — including catcher Chen Feng-ming, subpar third baseman Shih Chih-wei and reliever Chang Chih-chia — were included on the roster by Taiwan manager Hong Yi-chung, who is also the Bears manager, effectively leaving the team lacking in key role players. Chen is the team’s third catcher, Shih’s spot would have been better used by a defensive shortstop and Chang obviously struggled during the team’s warm-up matches against Chinese Professional Baseball League teams during the final roster cuts.
Even with these omissions, Taiwan might have had a fighting chance, but Hong’s poor in-game management — notably his poor bullpen management and overall mishandling of the team’s pitching staff — have been a highly questionable aspect of the team’s performance.
Taiwan’s losses to Japan and China can be directly attributed to Hong’s failure to make necessary in-game strategic adjustments. His failure to anticipate lefty/righty matchups cost Taiwan the lead against Japan when he brought in righty Chang to face Japanese left-handed slugger Inaba Atsunori instead of staying with left-handed specialist Ni. Inaba drove in the go-ahead run in a game that could have been won with craftier managing.
In the contest against China, Hong’s decision to stay with an obviously rattled Lo Chia-jen for multiple innings led to China’s comeback as Chinese hitters caught up with his fastball.
Despite having three catchers available to him on the roster, Hong notably failed to pinch hit for light-hitting catcher Chen Feng-ming in the top of the ninth with two men on, two out and the game tied, with lefty Pan Wu-hsiung’s solid left-handed bat wasted on the bench. Chen flied out against a right-handed reliever, sending the game to its now infamous and ill-fated extra-inning loss.
Once in extra innings, Hong failed to replace losing pitcher Yang Chien-fu in time, leading to China’s dramatic comeback.
Taiwanese baseball fans can only hope that the team’s poor showing in Beijing will put Hong and his staff on notice when they choose their roster for the World Baseball Classic. Instead of using the Olympics to hand roster spots to his team members, he should choose the best talent available to him.
Hong needs to work on his handling of pitchers and learn to delegate specific roles to his relief pitchers to maximize their usefulness. He seems to have no strategy when handling his bullpen and seems to pay little or no attention to all-important situational matchups. In a game that is more often than not decided by strategic adjustments, the Taiwanese team cannot afford haphazard decision-making if it wants to win.
Taiwanese fans deserve a competitive team that is competently managed and equipped to compete with Cuba, Japan or South Korea. This begins with savvier roster choices and more thinking in advance from the top.
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