Pedro Fernandez, ace pitcher with the Rakuten Monkeys, on Wednesday won the CPBL regular-season Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, becoming the first international player to do so.
Fernandez, who is from the Dominican Republic, earned 208 points out of a possible 230 in MVP voting for the regular season.
He also claimed the Taiwan Series MVP award at the ceremony at Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel.
Photo: CNA
In the league’s 36-year history, it was the first time that an international player had taken the two awards in one year and the fourth time that any player had done so.
“I want to thank each of my coaches and teammates. They are part of this special honor,” the right-hander said in a recorded speech.
“This achievement is not mine alone, but the fruition of our entire team,” Fernandez said, adding that he would never forget the moment.
Photo: CNA
Fernandez, who joined the Monkeys in 2023, had his second full CPBL season this year, leading the league with 168 strikeouts and 15 wins over 170 innings in 26 starts, while ranking fourth with a 2.01 ERA.
Fubon Guardians reliever Li Wu Yung-qin was named Most Improved Player, while TSG Hawks closer Lin Shi-xiang won the rookie and saves awards.
Li Wu tossed 42-1/3 innings in 56 appearances this season for the Guardians, posting an ERA of 2.76.
Photo: CNA
He thanked his wife for supporting him through “a decade of ups and downs,” during which he mostly played in the minors.
Lin, 24, played in 60 games out of the bullpen, throwing 60-1/3 innings and recording a league-high 30 saves with a 1.79 ERA.
CPBL commissioner Tsai Chi-chang at the ceremony announced plans to introduce a ball-strike challenge system in 2027.
Photo: CNA
The league would trial TrackMan — a Doppler radar technology system that tracks the movement and characteristics of a baseball — next season, with the aim of officially implementing the automatic ball-strike challenge system in 2027.
Other initiatives include recruiting Japanese umpires to improve the quality of the games and launching a new CPBL app, he said.
Photo: CNA
Photo: CNA
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah on Tuesday said that he would leave the English club at the end of the Premier League season, marking an earlier-than-planned departure for one of the club’s greatest-ever scorers and soccer’s biggest names. The 33-year-old Egypt forward, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, “reached an agreement” to quit the team a year before his contract was due to expire, the Premier League champions said. Salah’s form has dipped in his ninth year at Anfield, to such an extent that he was dropped for a stretch of games late last year — leading to the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
There were some big games to be played yesterday in the NBA, with the Atlanta Hawks to play the Detroit Pistons in a matchup pitting a Hawks team who are rolling against a Pistons team trying to lock up the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder were to play the Boston Celtics, a showdown featuring the two most recent champions, while the Houston Rockets faced the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game that could factor mightily into Western Conference seeding. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards were to play the Utah Jazz, with the Wizards on a 16-game slide visiting against a team
RSS