Today, the Taiwanese national team breezed past the mighty Netherlands squad 5-0 in their opening Olmpic salvo (Way to save one of your better starters for the big games, by the way). With questionable pitching depth on the national team roster, one question begs to be answered:
Why is Cubs pitcher Chen Hung-Wen– who was just promoted to Daytona now has a 3.12 E.R.A, 1.18 WHIP, and, er, ONLY 21 WALKS IN 115 1/3 INNINGS IN HIS YOUNG PRO CAREER–not a part of the squad?
One can only guess as to why a pitcher who is dominating in the States at the pro level wasn’t included when aging CPBL vets are filling the roster.
(photo courtesy of Taiwan Baseball)
12 responses so far ↓
1 Simon Currie // Aug 13, 2008 at 8:37 pm
The club didn’t release him, probably. That happened to a few US players and a Canadian player (who’s actually just a hitting coach now) in the minor league system, right?
But yeah, Taiwan should’ve been able to win against the Netherlands with anyone on the mound, Japan’s thankful for that.
Cuba’s already scored one off Darvish.
2 Jackson // Aug 13, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I wouldn’t know anything about that Japan/Cuba matchup. Because I’m too engrossed in the Kazakhstan vs. Norway women’s team fucking handball tournament they’ve decided is more interesting on TV here.
Taiwan’s approach to sports broadcasting continues to defy explanation.
3 Simon Currie // Aug 13, 2008 at 9:11 pm
That’s absolutely bizarre. Isn’t, like, baseball way more popular than handball in Taiwan?
Darvish is struggling with his control but his stuff is good. But Cuban hitters are showing good command of the strike zone, hardly swinging at anything out of the zone.
4 jackson // Aug 13, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Allright, I’m a boob. It was on but not on the usual channel that covers the olympics here. I take it back. Just got finished watching Cuba jump on Darivish for 2 more runs and then Naruse baffle them. Also, Cuba’s middle infield plays wonderful defense! they’ve turned several dp’s and made it look easy…
5 Simon Currie // Aug 13, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Cuba had exact control over the strike zone, amazing… though the zone did seem rather tight.
Japan couldn’t get the extra base hit when they needed it.
6 jackson // Aug 13, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Just watched Lazo close the door, that last strike looked a bit off the plate. But he’s always a joy to watch.
7 hansioux // Aug 14, 2008 at 9:42 am
Jackson, try hichannel if you can’t find a game on TV. Basically CHT owns the broadcasting rights to the Olympics, so hinet broadcast the game via internet live or on demand. As long as you are in Taiwan, I think.
8 Simon Currie // Aug 14, 2008 at 10:07 am
Looks like I’ll (at least) need a Taiwanese proxy to view hichannel from outside Taiwan (if I deciphered the traditional Chinese characters correctly.)
9 hansioux // Aug 14, 2008 at 11:20 am
to Simon, yeah, getting a free proxy is not a hard thing to do, but these net streams had to do it since they only have the license for Taiwan.
10 IronChef // Aug 14, 2008 at 3:18 pm
HEHEHHEHEHEHHEHEHEHHEHEHEHHEHHEHE
11 IronChef // Aug 14, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Btw, i was watching Brazil vs. China soccer. My god Ronaldinho was Shitte
12 Amiao // Sep 2, 2008 at 6:51 am
More than likely it was because the headcoach Hung didn’t see Chen’s pitching in the US.
Hung had a brief visiting around the US to decide who he would take to China. His schedule of that visiting, however, was far from well-planned. He stayed in each city for very short time and missed most of the Taiwanese pitchers he suppossed to take a look.
Hung took Yen-wen Kuo at rookie level as a utility man to China. The reason was on the day he visited, Kuo hit four hits in the game. This made him felt Kuo is a good hitter.
The thing he didn’t know was that Kuo had a hitless streak both before and after that game.
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