This year’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) season officially ended earlier this week with the award ceremony in Taipei.
Lin Chih-sheng came away as the top winner on the day by claiming the coveted Most Valuable Player (MVP) honor to go along with his top-ranked shortstop distinction and the Taiwan Series MVP selection.
The veteran Lamigo Monkey slugger who became the first 30-30 man in league history (30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the same season) this season beat out EDA Rhinos home-run threat Luo Kuo-hui (league-best 39 homers) by a whopping 138-68 margin in total points for his first league MVP honor.
“It’s a tremendous honor to win [MVP], given the number of great players around the league. I would like to thank each and every one of my teammates and coaches for making it possible,” Lin said upon receiving the MVP trophy.
Lin was not the lone winner with multiple winnings, as Mike Loree of the Rhinos also pocketed five trophies, highlighted by the Triple Crown in pitching for his league-leading earned run average — ERA (3.26), most victories (16) and most strikeouts (144).
The former Lamigo standout, who returned to Taiwan at the start of this season after spending last season with the KT Wiz of South Korea’s KBO, also set a new standard for pitching excellence with one of the best outings by a hurler in recent years.
“Baseball is a team sport and I could not have done it without the support of the entire team,” Loree said after the ceremony.
Rounding out the rest of the individual awards were Brothers Baseball Club bullpen stars Guan Da-yuan and Chen Hung-wen, whose respective 19 holds and 24 saves landed them the Setup Man of the Year and the Closer of the Year honors.
The Rookie of the Year honor was given to Hsu Chi-hung of the Brothers Baseball Club for a terrific season at the plate with a .319 average with 13 homers and 56 RBIs.
The Most Improved Player of the Year went to the Monkeys’ Lin Po-yo, who took over the closer’s role for Manager of the Year winner Hung Yi-chung with a 13-save season after a campaign last year that netted the third-year righty an even 4-4 mark in 12 starts and seven relief appearances.
The Most Stolen Base honor went to Lamigo speedster Lin Chih-ping for the second straight year with 32 stolen bases to his credit, two more than fellow teammate Lin Chih-sheng’s 30.
Former big leaguer Hu Chin-lung also proved his worth by taking home the Top Hitter and Most Hits honors with a .383 average and 171 total hits.
The top-ranked players by position were EDA pitcher Loree, catcher Cheng Da-hung, and first baseman Lin Yi-chuan, Uni-President Lions second baseman Lin Chih-hsiang, Monkeys third baseman Lin Chih-ping and shortstop Lin Chih-sheng, Brothers Baseball Club outfielder Chang Cheng-wei, EDA outfielders Luo Kuo-hui and Chang Chien-ming and Monkeys designated hitter Lin Hung-yu.
The Gold Glove winners by position for this year were EDA pitcher Loree, Brothers Baseball Club catcher Chen Chia-chui, EDA first baseman Lin Yi-chuan, Lions second baseman Lin Chih-hsiang, Brothers Baseball Club shortstop Wang Sheng-wei, Lion outfielder Luo Kuo-lung, and Monkeys outfielders Chan Chih-yao and Yu Teh-lung.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five
RSS