The Brother Elephants selected right-handed pitcher Lin En-yu as the No. 1 pick in this year’s Taiwanese professional baseball draft, held even though the league’s future remains clouded by a major game-fixing scandal.
The Sinon Bulls then picked 18-year-old Chang Keng-hao of Nan Ying Vocational High School.
In all, 51 players were chosen by the league’s four teams.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
“With Lin’s talent and experience, he brings a lot to the table and will definitely be in our starting rotation next season,” Elephants manager Chen Jui-chen said after the draft.
Lin, a regular on the national team, has also played professionally in Japan for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
The 28-year-old compiled a 1-3 record for the Golden Eagles during his three-year stint in Japan from 2007 until last year, which was plagued by injuries and ineffectiveness.
He has spent the past two years in the Japanese minor league trying to regain the form that earned him Rookie of the Year and MVP honors in his first year in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in 2005.
The Elephants hope he will be able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the team, widely seen as the most popular franchise in the CPBL, out from under the darkest cloud in team history.
Thirteen Elephants members, including 12 players and manager Nakagomi Shin, were charged with game-fixing in an ongoing investigation by prosecutors in October and November, sparking concern that the team might be disbanded.
More than 40 active and former players and coaches in the league were implicated in the case.
“We are happy to have Lin on our team. He is a proven pitcher and seasoned veteran. Both Taiwanese baseball and the Elephants need him, especially now,” Elephants coach Feng Sheng-hsien told reporters. “He will shoulder a great burden of reviving fan interest in the national pastime and the Elephants.”
Before going to Japan, Lin spent two years (2005-2006) in the CPBL with the now-defunct Macoto Cobras, compiling a 29-16 win-loss record and setting an all-time single-season strikeout record of 209.
Sinon also has high hopes for the No. 2 pick, Chang, who will try to jump directly from high school baseball to the professional ranks.
“We have been keeping an eye on Chang for a while. He is a promising young pitcher, but it will take time for him to make the adjustment from high school ball,” Sinon assistant general manager Liu Chih-shen said.
For young players like Chang, it was not an easy decision to place their names in the draft pool at a time when the baseball community and fans are still reeling from the aftershocks of the scandal, CPBL secretary-general Wayne Lee said.
“Young players may have doubts about the league’s stability and future. Understandably, it was a difficult decision for them to apply for the draft at this time,” Lee said. “But I told them that as all the teams are still doing their best to prepare for the new season in this difficult time, there will be more and better opportunities for the young guys.”
In the two-hour draft, the short-handed Elephants picked up 19 players. Sinon and the La New Bears selected 11 each, while the defending champion Uni-President Lions added 10 newcomers.
All of the players selected in the first round were pitchers, as the Bears selected Lee Chu-kwan third and the Lions selected Tsai Ching-hao with their top pick.
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