Taiwan has been clobbering Hong Kong and China in the Little League and Pony League Asia Pacific regional tournaments. In the Bronco division, Taiwan defeated Hong Kong 29-0 (!) in a matchup that played like an unintentionally comic Pacific theatre re-enactment of the Bad News Bears, sans the uplifting unexpected comeback.
Hearts went out […]

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Nikkan sports has released a list of the major players in Japan who will become free agents after the 2008 season. Uehara Koji heads a list that includes Chunichi’s Kawakami Kenshin and prized lefty Iwase Hitoki–all of whom should command high salaries from MLB clubs.
And then there’s the rumor that that one Dervish? Delvish? […]

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Not quite sure why Lenn Sakata came to mind today. Maybe it’s because I’m still combing the waiver wire for a stopgap measure at shortstop in the EWC fantasy league. Maybe it’s the giant poster of John Lowenstien we keep in our family living room.
In any case, in researching my salute to the […]

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For the Obama supporters in our EWC community, here’s an event more than worth attending if you’re nearby: Musicians Andrew Broder and Joe Selinsky have organized a Minnesota Obama Benefit featuring some of the top names in rock and hip-hop dubbed  “Eight is Enough: The Concert to End Our Long National Nightmare”.
The event, held at […]

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Without a doubt, the biggest story of the season in the CPBL to date is Tong Yi-Lions pitcher Pan Hui-Lun’s recent no-hitter and near perfect game. Congratulations again to Pan. In the mean Time, the La New Bears have been the team to beat in the second half. To the rankings […]

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The Detroit Tigers’ first Taiwan signing is left-handed hitting outfielder Tang Chao-Ting. The 20-year old Tang Stands at 5′11 and weighs 176 pounds, and has joined the GCL Tigers’ rookie league squad. Tang marks the first MLB signing by first-year Taiwan-based area scout Allen Lin. The Director of International Scouting for the […]

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The Hanshin Tigers have purchased the contract of pitcher Chris Resop from the Atlanta Braves. The 6′3 righty is being viewed as a potential closer or setup man by the club.
Resop has spent the last three years bouncing back and forth between AAA and the major leagues, compiling a lifetime 3-3 record with […]

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Tong-Yi Lions staff ace Pan Hui-Lun threw a no-hitter Thursday night in rainy Tainan Stadium, leading the Lions to a 7-0 victory against the punchless Chinatrust Whales. His game marked only the 6th no-no in CPBL history.
Pan, who has won 14 consecutive games in Tainan stadium, narrowly missed a perfect game, his only […]

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I recently came across an interesting site called The Baseball Requilary, which describes itself as “a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history”. TBR, in a fascinating piece, elected Dock Ellis to its “Shrine of the Eternals” in 1999. […]

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As I continue my job scouting, I learn more about the mechanics of pitching.  Seasoned scouts, coaches, and major league pitchers see miniscule details and nuances of pitching mechanics that us normal humans don’t.   Rumor has it that Tim Lincecum actually had his delivery–one of my favorites–retooled when a family friend created a computer program that […]

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It’s official: Taiwan’s storied Nan-Ying High School’s staff anchor, 5′11 Right-hander Huang Wei-Sheung, is headed for the Atlanta Braves.  The move, which area baseball afficionados had been anticipating for quite some time, nets $120,000 for Huang and gets the Braves a battle-tested if not unspectacular arm. Huang, who has hit 89 but sits on 85-87 […]

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Heads up EWC readers: The Iron Chef, our Taiwan-based MVP and Tai-Da University med school braniac, has unleashed a cameo venomous diatribe against Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner and fans making lame pleas that somehow baseball’s rules and the NL are to blame for Wang Chien-Ming’s recent injury. Duck and cover!
Note: EWC takes no responsibility […]

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As a lifelong Timberwolves fan who grew up attending home games during the Pooh Richardson era, I nearly cried for joy when Kevin Garnett earned his first of what will hopefully be many rings he earns during his career. It a joy that a great individual and team leader like Garnett–now in hindsight the indisputable […]

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Is it a Jackson Pollack painting?
No, it’s behind home plate of Chiayi County Stadium, one of the sites of the very wet Yu-Shan Cup high school tournament going on in the past week in Chiayi, Douliou, and Taichung. Taiwan’s major baseball schools have been meeting, and eager parents, scouts, and teams are looking […]

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EWC readers interested in baseball mechanics and scouting should be prepared to spend far too much time at Chris O’ Leary’s “The Pitching Mechanic”. O’Leary has assembled a comprehensive site breaking down the mechanics of Major League Pitchers past and present–from all-time greats like Nolan Ryan to ‘trainwrecks’ (pitchers with a high injury risk) […]

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Ed. Note: The following article first appeared in The Taipei Times Saturday, May 25th.
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In 2002, former LA Dodgers and current La New Bears star Chen Chin-feng (陳金鋒) became the first Taiwanese baseball player to don a Major League uniform. Shortly thereafter, the first four Taiwanese players signed to MLB contracts— including Chen, Yankees starter […]

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I do apologize to our readers for not yet following up on the epic saga of trying to get English language rosters from the CPBL administrators as promised. I will resume our tragi-comic mission this week. I know I shouldn’t bother the English-language liasion with petty requests like asking him to do his job when […]

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16 Years, 427 Home Runs, .308 lifetime average.  12-time All-Star– Not bad for a 62nd round draft pick.
Piazza, the son of a multi-millionaire, is rumored to have taken batting lessons from Ted Williams in his backyard as a youngster and was drafted by Tommy Lasorda and the Dodgers as a personal favor.  He now retires, […]

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Despite being perhaps the first player in MLB history to miss significant time due to anal fissures and widespread dismissal as a terrible offseason signing by Astros’ GM Ed Wade–one major MLB site decried it the “worst signing of the offseason” and questioned the sanity of the Astros’ brass–Matsui Kazuo is again proving to be […]

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As if massive excitement from the baseball community as it awaits EWC’s 3rd installment of CPBL power rankings weren’t enough, to add to this week’s fun my quixotic quest to ascertain an English name list of CPBL players continues into it’s 3rd straight week. I actually sat down and translated the names myself over the […]

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