There is a new foreign baseball team in town this winter. Meet the Asian Islanders, a baseball team that consists of players from Japan, Korea, the USA, Venezuela, Finland, Belgium as well as several former professional players.

Shogo Nakashima: Former NPB of the Tokyo Swallows

Katsushi Nakamichi: Former NPB of the Orix Buffaloes

Jose M Dieses: Former NPB Academy of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp (Academy)

Yeo Seung-Choi: Former KBO of the Hanwha Eagles

Park Gun-Man: Former KBO of the Nexen Heroes

Seeking Opportunities Playing in Taiwan

Led by head coach Toma Irokawa, who has plenty of international coaching experience working with the Irani, Pakistani and Hong Kong national teams. The Islanders will be seeking opportunities to play baseball professionally in Taiwan this year.

The Asian Islanders have scheduled a series of 17 exhibition games against the local university, the industrial league, and two CPBL teams from 25 January to 10 February. The Islanders will be able to showcase themselves in front of CPBL scouts and representatives from semi-pro Industrial League teams in order to earn themselves contracts for the 2018 season.

Footrans: The Company Behind the Asian Islanders

CPBL STATS have been fortunate enough to get the opportunity to talk with the Asian Islanders general manager Kotaro Nagata, who is also the owner of Footrans.

“Footrans is a Japanese sports agency that specialised in bringing Japanese players to a different baseball market outside of Japan. We want them to experience and play baseball in a different environment. In the past, we have consulted amateur baseball and football teams in Europe.”

“This is the first time for us to have assembled a team from the beginning. For the source of players, we advertised in Europe, Asia, Australia and USA last year. At the same time, we have been to many NPB and Independent Leagues try-outs in Japan,” said Kotaro Nagata, the general manager of the Asian Islanders.

Asian Islanders 2018 Schedule

Date Stadium Time VS 25-Jan Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Chii-Lih Coral 26-Jan Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Chii-Lih Coral 27-Jan Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Taidung University 28-Jan Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Taidung University 29-Jan Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Taidung High School 30-Jan Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Taidung High School 31-Jan Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Chii-Lih Coral 1-Feb Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Chii-Lih Coral 2-Feb Taidung Stadium #1 13:00 Taidung High School 3-Feb Taidung Stadium #1 9:00 Chii-Lih Coral 4-Feb Pingtung Linluo 13:00 Meiho University 5-Feb Pingtung Linluo 13:00 Meiho University 6-Feb TBA 13:00 Fubon Guardians 7-Feb Pingtung Stadium 13:00 Lamigo Monkeys 8-Feb Pingtung Stadium 13:00 Lamigo Monkeys 9-Feb Pingtung Stadium 13:00 Pingtung High School 10-Feb TBA 13:00 Fubon Guardians

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