CPBL will have 2 exhibition games against Samurai Japan (Japanese WBC Team) at the Fukuoka Dome on 28 February & 01 March. The team is predominately made up by Lamigo Monkeys players and players from the other 3 teams that did not participate in the upcoming WBC tournament.

There’s a long story behind the boycott against CTBA (Taiwan national team organizer) & WBC tournament. I won’t be talking about it here, will save it for longer blog post on why I support this CTBA boycott movement and why it is better for Taiwan baseball development in the long run.

Predicted lineup for CPBL All-Star

RF- 陽耀勳 Yang Yao-Hsun – Pitcher turned batter. former LHP for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Older brother of Yomiuri Giants’ Yoh Dai-Kan (陽岱鋼).

LF- 潘武雄 Pan Wu-Hsiung – CPBL batting champion in 2009 & 2012. Goes opposite with a solo homer against Masahiro Tanaka (田中将大) in 2012 CPBL vs NPB exhibition. (Video below)

CF- 王柏融 Wang Po-Jung – 0.414 batting average. 2016 MVP & Rookie of the year. Broke the single season hits record (200 hits in 116 games). 2B against Yuji Nishino (西野勇士) in last years CPBL vs Samurai Japan exhibition. (Video below @1:07 mark)

C- 林泓育 Lin Hung-Yu – Offensive catcher that hits for .400/ .458/ .665 in 2016. Will most likely to take on the Taiwanese national team cleanup spot in the future. Homered against Hirokazu Sawamura (澤村拓一) in 2016 CPBL vs Samurai Japan exhibition (Video below).

1B- 陳俊秀 Chen Chun-Hsiu – Former Cleveland Indians 3A player.

DH- 彭政閔 Peng Cheng-min – 5 times CPBL batting champion. 38-year-old veteran is the poster child of CPBL.

3B- 林智平 Lin Chih-Ping – Stolen base leader for the past 3 seasons in CPBL.

2B- 陳傑憲 Chen Chieh-Hsien – U21 baseball tournament gold medalist in 2014. One of highly touted prospect for Uni Lions.

SS- 林承飛 Lin Cheng-Fei – 19-year-old is the youngest player in this CPBL team. A highly touted prospect for Lamigo Monkeys.

G1 SP- 王溢正 Wang Yi-Cheng – Former LHP for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.

G2 SP- 鄭凱文 Cheng Kai-Wen – Former RHP for the Hanshin Tigers.

Closer – 陳禹勳 Chen Yu-Hsun – One of the most reliable RP in 2016 season. Had a scoreless inning, faced Ginji Akaminai (赤見内銀次), Ginjiro Sumitani (炭谷銀仁朗), Shogo Akiyama (秋山翔吾), Tetsuto Yamada (山田哲人) & Ryosuke Hirata (平田良介) in the 2016 CPBL vs Samurai Japan exhibition. (Video below).

With several CPBL pitchers currently training with the Taiwanese WBC team. This CPBL All-Star team will bring three foreign pitchers (Zack Segovia, Darin Downs & Nick Additon) to this exhibition. The CPBL manager have named 王溢正 (Wang I-Cheng) and 鄭凱文 (Cheng Kai-Wen) as the starting pitchers for this exhibition series against the Japanese WBC team. Interestingly, both Wang and Cheng had experiences playing in the NPB. This exhibition will be their chance to showcase themselves to their former teams.

It’s all about Lamigo Monkeys’ 王柏融 Wang Po-Jung

Lamigo Monkeys’ bat flipping rookie 王柏融 Wang Po-Jung had a dominating season in 2016 where he hits for .414/.476/.689 with the OPS+ of 171. At the same time, setting the single season hits record at 200 hits in just 116 games. After the 2016 season, Lamigo Monkeys immediately extended Wang’s contract to a 5-year deal with a 400% salary increase.

王柏融 Wang Po-Jung CPBL Stats

Year G PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS+ 2015 29 122 18 36 6 1 9 29 0 9 22 0.324 0.377 0.640 151 2016 116 550 130 200 40 3 29 105 24 51 59 0.414 0.476 0.689 171 Total 145 672 148 236 46 4 38 134 24 60 81 0.397 0.458 0.680 –

*Bold = CPBL Record

The 23-year-old super rookie mentioned several times in public that he would love to play in the oversea market if there’s an opportunity to do so. Ideally, he would like to go to NPB first then moving on to MLB later on. However, would consider MLB first if there’s a 40-man roster with no less than 2A offer. During the 2016 season, several MLB scouts had been spotted at the CPBL games to watch Wang Po-Jung. According to the current CPBL rule, Wang Po-Jung will be eligible for international free agency in 2019.

With Lamigo Monkeys boycotting the 2017 WBC Tournament. This exhibition games against Samurai Japan we will get to see Wang Po-Jung facing pitchers at the higher level. When asked which NPB pitchers Wang Po-Jung look forward to face in the upcoming exhibition games. Wang named Yomiuri Giants’ Tomoyuki Sugano (菅野智之) & Rakuten Golden Eagles’ Takahiro Norimoto (則本昂大).

Here’s a video of the bat flipping rookie in action during the regular CPBL season.

Collection of 王柏融 Wang Po-Jung HR/ bat flips

Wang Po-Jung complete HR collection 2015

Wang Po-Jung complete HR collection 2016

CPBL All-Star graphical roster / stats based on OPS+ & ERA+

Catchers

NAME G PA AVG OBP SLG OPS OPS+ BABIP IsoP wRC+ BB% K% AB/HR GO/FO 林 泓 育 106 466 0.400 0.458 0.665 1.123 161.9 0.436 0.265 153.2 7.3 14.2 18.2 0.8 高 志 綱 76 250 0.264 0.336 0.301 0.637 52.9 0.302 0.037 61.0 8.4 12.0 X 1.3 劉 時 豪 65 155 0.234 0.310 0.270 0.580 39.4 0.274 0.036 49.5 9.7 14.2 X 1.5

Infielders

NAME G PA AVG OBP SLG OPS OPS+ BABIP IsoP wRC+ BB% K% AB/HR GO/FO 陳 俊 秀 99 423 0.294 0.383 0.565 0.948 120.9 0.282 0.271 116.4 13.0 13.5 13.9 0.7 彭 政 閔 105 403 0.341 0.417 0.466 0.883 109.1 0.367 0.125 107.2 11.7 11.7 42.9 0.9 林 智 平 91 392 0.365 0.421 0.444 0.865 105.6 0.405 0.079 106.1 7.7 10.7 87.8 1.7 陳 傑 憲 37 131 0.345 0.403 0.457 0.860 103.5 0.365 0.112 103.3 8.4 8.4 58.0 2.1 林 承 飛 97 385 0.307 0.362 0.458 0.820 92.8 0.373 0.151 93.0 7.5 21.3 38.3 0.8 林 威 廷 114 453 0.286 0.345 0.450 0.795 86.6 0.363 0.164 88.4 7.1 24.5 30.6 0.9 陳 凱 倫 91 342 0.244 0.315 0.320 0.635 51.3 0.300 0.076 59.1 8.2 18.4 151.5 1.6

Outfielders

NAME G PA AVG OBP SLG OPS OPS+ BABIP IsoP wRC+ BB% K% AB/HR GO/FO 王 柏 融 116 550 0.414 0.476 0.689 1.165 171.7 0.428 0.275 160.5 9.3 10.7 16.7 1.1 潘 武 雄 96 412 0.346 0.427 0.564 0.991 132.4 0.383 0.218 127.5 11.2 15.8 19.9 0.8 周 思 齊 114 491 0.342 0.428 0.555 0.983 130.8 0.353 0.213 123.9 12.8 11.4 24.1 0.6 陽 耀 勳 89 391 0.281 0.335 0.490 0.825 92.3 0.311 0.209 93.2 6.4 18.9 21.1 1.5 詹 子 賢 15 49 0.304 0.347 0.457 0.804 88.6 0.324 0.153 90.8 6.1 14.3 23.0 0.3 唐 肇 廷 99 362 0.307 0.363 0.426 0.789 86.3 0.350 0.119 88.6 7.2 15.8 41.1 1.1

Pitchers