The St Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball (MLB) team on Monday signed Taiwanese amateur pitcher Lin Chen-wei (林振瑋), the first player the team has ever signed out of Taiwan.
The 21-year-old Tainan native played college baseball at Chinese Culture University before making his US debut in a collegiate summer league last year, the Cardinals said.
“Chen-wei possesses an explosive fastball to go along with his projectable physical attributes and impressive athleticism,” said Matt Slater, the Cardinals’ special assistant to the general manager.
Photo courtesy of Flight International Co.
“He is also the type of individual whose overall makeup showed well in our evaluations,” Slater said.
The 2.03m-tall Lin pitched in the MLB Draft League this year, making four starts for the Frederick Keys in Maryland and posting a 3.24 earned run average over 16.2 innings pitched, the Cardinals said.
The right-handed pitcher represented Taiwan at the U-23 Baseball World Cup in 2021 and last year, and joined Taiwan’s World Baseball Classic team as they prepared for this year’s event.
“Chen-wei is someone we feel has intriguing potential with the ability to develop into a future big-leaguer,” John Mozeliak, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, said in the statement.
“We are excited to welcome Chen-wei Lin to the St Louis Cardinals organization as the first player the team has ever signed out of Taiwan,” he added.
Lin is the nephew of Kuo Hong-chi (郭泓志), who pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 to 2011.
“I want to thank my family and people who have helped me along the way for their support,” Lin said in a statement released by his representative, Flight International.
“Especially my uncle. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity to take on this challenge. I will continue to work hard and make him proud,” he said.
Lin would soon report to the Cardinals’ training complex in Jupiter, Florida, the team said.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS