Twenty games into the 300-game CPBL season and the Sinon Bulls top the standings -- but can last season's third-place finisher stay there?
After six games against two middling opponents in the Makoto Gida and First Securities Agan, the Sinon Bull are leading the standings at 5-1-0.
Apart from a tough loss against Agan ace Liang Rue-hao (
Bulls hang tough
It is still too early to tell if the Bulls are for real, however, because of the questionable strength of their opponents, but a good start should give them a boost going into a two-game series against the China Trust Whales and the Brother Elephants later this month.
The Whales are well known as having great pitching depth and such an advantage will become more obvious and effective as the four-game series is in place for this season.
"Manager Lin Jung-Chiu (縲腿繃) will have all the pitching power he needs to play against any team in the league," said Richard Wang, Director of News and Public Relations at the CPBL.
Closely behind the Bulls are the President Lions, Whales and Gida, all of whom are one-and-a-half games back.
These middle-of-the-pack teams all show promise, but have their weaknesses.
Sparing Lions
With a roster that includes three former number one draft choices and Joe Davenport of the US, the Lions have a league-best ERA of 1.92. This means three runs on offense would normally be enough to win the game for the Lions every night.
Commenting on the recent season-ending leg injury suffered by his ace starter Dzeng Yee-cheng, (縲姚繃) Lions manager Hsu Sheng-ming (徐生明) said, "We are grateful for the number of solid pitchers we have on our staff. Despite the unfortunate loss of Yee-cheng, we are hopeful that the other guys can step up right away and get the job done for us."
Loaded Whales
The Whales are also loaded with pitching talent, with Dominican sensation Geraldo Guzman, Nakayama Hiroaki of Japan, set-up man Lin Chao-huang (腿怠戧) and closer Kuo-Lee Chien-fu (郭李建夫).
Lin and Kuo-Lee are both veterans from Taiwan's 1992 Barcelona Olympic silver medal winning team.
The road to a championship for the Whales, however, lies in the bats of its hitters who are
averaging .314, second-best in the league.
Lucky Gida
Gida (4-3-0) has a winning record mainly because of their five-game home run-hitting streak.
All four Gida wins have been by one-run margins, otherwise, their minus-13 run differential, (26 runs scored and 39 runs allowed) and the lack of good pitching would have easily put them in the same category with the Agan and the Elephants.
Singular Agan
Sitting on figures of 2-5-0, the Agan epitomizes the term "one-man show."
Both of their victories thus far have come on hurler Liang Rue-hao's starts, where opponents were held to a total of five runs.
Liang is the type of pitcher who possesses unusual poise when he is on the mound. Agan ace Liang and closer Lee Feng-Hua (李風華) are the only bright spots on a troubled team thus far, but were a perfect combination in the only two wins for the club so far.
Jack Chen, a pundit for VOH Radio said, "Simply put, the Agan are 2-0 in the two games started by Liang, and 0-5 in games without his services."
The scoring margin in those five games was a whopping 47 to 7, and instead of waiting on the team to find some decent pitching help for him, Agan manager Hsu Sheng-ming (
Slumping Elephants
The biggest surprise of the season thus far, however, is the drooping defending champion Brother Elephants and their 1-5-1 mark.
The lack of quality starting pitching, due to the departure of 16-game winner Jonathan Hurst, has essentially put the burden to win on the shoulders of their offense.
The heart of the batting order, which batted .297 last season, is batting at a meagerly .259. With runners in scoring position the Elephant hitters are failing badly when compared to last season's .291 mark.
Elephants Manager Lin Yi-tseng (林易增) was reported as saying in the Chinese-language press last week that he hadn't had a decent night of sleep since the season-opening victory. In the middle of a six-game winless streak, who could blame him?
Fixtures
Today: Agan vs. Gida in Kaohsiung 2pm (makeup game); Agan vs. Gida in Kaohsiung 6:35pm; Lions vs. Elephants in Tienmu 5:05pm.
Tomorrow: Bulls vs. Whales in Tienmu 5:05pm; Lions vs. Elephants in Hsinchu 5:05pm.
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