Sun, Oct 05, 2003 page24

• The game's the same, but the strategy is different

  • By Paul Huang / CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
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  The parity between East and West is often portrayed in films and on television to show differences in the mindsets of those who were brought up in different cultures.

  Despite baseballs' universal constants, differences in the coaching styles between Taiwanese and Americans are readily apparent.

  Major League Baseball (MLB) managers, for example, call for sacrifice bunts sparingly and only in key situations where a pitcher is at bat and a runner can be advanced into scoring position, or during late innings where bunting a runners from first and second based would place both runners in scoring position.

  Local managers and some of their Japanese counterparts often attempt to bunt the leadoff man over to second base if there are no outs. Such a conservative approach trades an out for the possibility of an improved opportunity to score a run.

  American managers may argue that wasting an out just for a chance to score a run is too costly.

  Another difference is that Taiwanese managers often draw the infield in when there is a runner on third with less than two outs in the interest of making a play at the plate. American skippers usually leave the infield at normal depth, reasoning that a sharp grounder or a blooper could lead to even greater damage than letting a run score from third.

  The way in which Taiwanese managers like to move their pitching staff around to perform different roles is also very foreign to most American managers, who generally keep pitchers in well-defined roles.

  It's very common for Taiwanese managers, for example, to use a starter as a reliever, or let a starter skip starts for no particular reason.

  "That just doesn't make sense," Pedro, a Sinon Bulls pitching coach, said in a recent interview. "Pitchers should all have a clearly-defined role on the team, whether it's starting, long-relief, setup, or closing out a game. this is so that they aren't misused."

  Pedro is a veteran of Latin American and US pro baseball.

  Many blame a lack of top-shelf pitching talent.

  "Teams here [in the CPBL] are lucky if they have two solid guys in the starting position -- the rest are those who can throw the ball over the plate, but without much command or accuracy," former MLB starter for the Brother Elephants Jonathan Hurst said.

  The most successful teams in the the CPBL usually rely on their starters to go seven or eight innings before turning to their closer to finish the game. In games where the starter falters early, the relievers seldom can keep the game close, because the next best pitcher on the team is usually the scheduled starter for the following game.

  Another difference locally is the lack of aggressiveness in base-running. Coaches here, for example, seldom encourage players to try and stretch a long single into a double, preferring to "play it safe."

  But attitudes may be changing.

  "We are putting more emphasis on speed and base-running ability when we evaluate players coming into the CPBL, because it can be the difference between winning and losing," a senior official said on condition of anonymity.
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