WP - Jermaine Van Buren (3-1, 1.1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 K, 0 BB's)

LP - Hung-? Huang (4-6, 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 K's/BB's)

Bears lineup:
RF Chien-Wei Tsai 2-4
1B Gary Burnham 1-4, RBI

Whales lineup:



WP - Luther Hackman (4-1, 7 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 8 K's, 1 BB) - game MVP


Lions lineup:
3B Tilson Brito 0-2
RF Fu-Hao Liu 0-1, RBI

CF Chia-Hsien Hsieh 0-3



NPB:
The Tigers won 11-6. WC Lin walked in his only PA and stole a base. Box

The Lions won 5-4 in 10. MC Hsu pitched two innings, giving up 1 run on 2 hits (3 BB's). Box


CC Lee:
More on CC Lee's signing (in Chinese). He received a $350K signing bonus + a possible $90K for tuition if he performs well in the fall instructional league.
Aside from the high six figure offer from a NPB team, Lee received interest from the Indians and 4 other ML teams. The other clubs' offers were all rumored to have been less than $150K (with the Twins offering less than $100K).
The article also goes on to say that the reason for some of the scout's apprehension with not offering/or the lower offer for Lee, was because of Lee's limited upside (will probably be a middle reliever) and that he was overutilized in Taiwan.

MLB:
The Indians inked their third player from Taiwan in RHP Chen-Chang Lee. You can read all about Lee's former exploits and accolades here. He is the 6th member of the 2004 junior national team to sign with a ML club. Lee reportedly received a signing bonus in the ballpark of around $350K (*Edited) - hopefully he passes his physical with flying colors.

CC Lee's Blog/Album


CC Lee's stats from this past year - from the CTBA website:
1)2008 Spring League Tourney (Domestic amateur competition):
3-3, 55 IP, 1.80 ERA, 40 K's, 12 BB's

2)2008 Honkball Haarlem Tournament:
0-1, 11.67 IP, 0.77 ERA, 6 K's, 3 BB's

3)2008 FISU World University Baseball Championships:
0-1, 11.33 IP, 4.76 ERA, 7 K's, 4 BB's

4)2008 Olympic Games:
0-1, 9 IP, 2.00 ERA, 11 K's, 2 BB's
*UPDATED


NPB:
The Tigers lost to the Dragons 5-2. WC Lin was 0-1 while WY Chen got back on the right track by picking up the win. Chen allowed 2 runs on 8 hits over 7 IP (9 K's). Box



CPBL:
Bears 5 - Whales 4:
WP - Chin-Chih Huang (3-3, 2.1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 K, 0 BB's)
SP Wen-Hsiung Hsu earned a ND (6.2 IP, 4 R, 8 H, 5 K's, 1 BB)

LP - Yu-Chan Liu (6-2, 2.1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 3 K's, 1 BB)
SP - Fu-Te Ni earned a ND (6 IP, 4 R - 2 ER, 6 H, 3 K's, 2 BB's)

Bears lineup:
SS Chih-Sheng Lin 1-5, GW RBI in the 9th - game MVP
1B Gary Burnham 0-4
3B Chih-Wei Shih 2-4
LF Cheng-Yu Chung 1-3, HR #3, RBI
DH Hao-Chu Tseng 2-4, HR #4, 2 RBI's
2B Chih-Tsung Chiang 2-4, RBI

Whales lineup:
LF Yeh 1-3, RBI
3B Wilton Veras 2-4, RBI
DH Cheng-Chi Huang 2-4, 2B, RBI
1B Chia-Hsien Tseng 0-2, RBI


Elephants 9 - Bulls 3:
WP - Dan Core (8-3, 5.2 IP, 3 R, 6 H, 2 K's, 3 BB's)

LP - Chien-Fu Yang (4-12, 2.1 IP, 6 R - 4 ER, 7 H, 0 K's, 1 BB)

Elephants lineup:
DH CYC 2-4
1B Chia Chia 5-5, 2 RBI's - game MVP
3B Jui-Chen Chen 2-4, RBI
RF Huai-Shan Chen 1-5, RBI
C Yi-Feng Kuo 1-3, RBI
2B-3B Chiang-Ho Chen 1-4, 2 RBI's
CF Cheng-Wei Huang 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI's

Bulls lineup:
3B Tarzan 2-4, RBI
1B Kuo-Long Hsu 1-4, RBI
2B Chung-Nan Lin 1-4, RBI


Amateur:
In Kaohsiung, the Royals scout was rumored to have been checking out San-Hsin P's Chia-Ming Huang and Tzu-An Wang.
*UPDATED

There were three amateurs on the NT - all pitchers: Chia-Jen Lo, Kai-Wen Cheng, and Chen-Chang Lee.

One player def. helped himself with his performance in Beijing while two others potentially hurt their stock.


RHP Chen-Chang Lee
The side-armer reached 92 mph in his outing against the USA and flashed an above average slider to help boost his value in the tournament after living in oblivion over the past 2 years. He is currently with CSMG and has reportedly turned down a $150-175K offer ($90 K per another source) from the Indians before. Lee, who was once hyped by Keith Law as the top signable Taiwanese collegiate pitcher in 2007, has garnered little interest over the past 2 years due to poor performances but has rebounded now. His expectation is likely to reach ~ $300,000. The down-side to Lee is the fact that being a side-armer limits his potential somewhat and he hasn't had the best track record over the past 2 years. He also has a history of a shoulder injury as reported by the Taiwanese media. CC Lee's blog/album *edited/updated



RHP Chia-Jen Lo
The most sought-after prospect available on the team. His value dropped as a result of his performance during the Olympics. Velocity topped out at 93 mph but he had poor command of his fastball and poor breaking pitch offerings. Throw in his rumored demand of ~$400,000 and a possible history of a shoulder injury, his chances of signing with a MLB team are lower now than before the tourney. Word is that the Red Sox and Rangers have held off in their pursuit of him. Also the Twins made an offer to Lo prior to the Olympics which was turned down. That offer is now off the table. His agent is Kenny Lin, who broke off from KDN. CJ Lo's album/blog *edited


RHP Kai-Wen Cheng
His performance against Japan significantly dropped his value; he was lacking in a few key elements: composure on the mound, command of his pitches, and velocity on his fb. He is still young but because he is undersized, has average velocity, a subpar release angle, and history of a shoulder injury, the chances of him signing anytime soon are unlikely. In addition, his signing bonus demand is ~ $300,000. The Twins and Royals likely still have some interest but the offer would be very low. He is represented by Bros Sports. KW Cheng's album/blog


To wrap things up, all 3 pitchers are talented but also have a history of injuries and high signing bonus demands. If Lee and Lo do not sign anytime soon, then they will likely play in the CPBL. Cheng will continue on with college.

US MINORS:
AA - Jacksonville won 8-2. Hu was 1-5. Box

A - Greenville won 5-4. Chiang was 1-4. Box

A - Wisky is tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 10th inning. Lo is currently 2-5 with his 3rd error of the season and another OF assist. Box

A - Lansing lost game 2 of a doubleheader - Keng allowed 1 hit in 0.1 innings. Box

MLB:
Wang will start the series finale versus cross-town rival - the NY Mets tomorrow. His mound opponent will be Orlando Hernandez. Hopefully Wang picked up a few tips from Kuo, who owns both of his career victories against the Mets.

Kuo is scheduled to pitch on Wed. against the Blue Jays. He will face another tough mound opponent in Roy Halladay.

NPB:
Lin broke out of a mini-slump with a big game for the Tigers. Lin was 3-4, hitting his 10th HR of the season, and was intentionally walked in the 9th inning - the Tigers would put up 9 runs in that inning. The Tigers beat the Marines 11-7. Box

Yang is 2-9 since returning to the Fighter's nigun team.

CPBL:
Bears 4 - Cobras 3: The Bears gained a game on the first-place Cobras behind strong performances by SP Gary Rath (picked up win #8 throwing 7.2 innings - allowing 3 runs on 9 hits) and game MVP Chih-Sheng Lin who hit HR # 8 and was 2-4 with 3 RBI's. CFC DNP for the Bears.

Bulls 5 - Lions 2: The Bulls kept pace with the Bears and also remain 1.5 games behind the Cobras by beating the Lions on the strength of Tarzan's 8th HR of the season. Tarzan, who was the game MVP was 2-3 with 2 RBI's. The Bulls pitching staff limited the Lions to just 5 hits - although 2 of the hits were solo homers by Chih-Kang Kao (#3 on the season) and Lien-Hung Chen (#4 on the season).

Alaska:
Chen-Chang Lee picked up win #1 on the season with the Anchorage Bucs on Thursday night. Lee shut down the Bears, throwing 7 innings - allowing 1 run on 3 hits to go along with 9 K's and 2 walks. The Bucs won 2-1. He was clocked in the low 90's. Box

"*ESPN with a news article on Taiwan Baseball. Pretty good stuff - a few notes: Chien-Ming Wang didn't have elbow surgery - rather he had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder. The player named Lung-Hao Hsieh is also known as Rong-Hao Hsieh on this blog."

Ok, the ESPN article listed above is now only available to Insiders, so by popular request, I thought I'd share the article with you.

The NT lost their 3rd warm up game today to the Australian NT. Starting pitcher Chen-Chang Lee, the 19 year old amateur player who beat Cuba earlier this summer, lasted 3 innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits. Lee was clocked at 92 mph on his fastball. His replacement, fellow amateur pitcher Ko-Chien Lin came in and pitched 2 innings, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits. Relievers Yueh-Ping Lin (clocked at a high of 94 mph) and Po-Hsuan Keng managed to stop the bleeding and blank Australia the rest of the way. As for the NT's offense, it was pretty non-existent except for amateur IF Yi-Chuan Lin's 3 run blast in the 4th inning. Lin would also crack a double in the 7th inning, steal 3rd base and score on catcher Chih-Kang Kao's rbi single. The NT only managed 6 hits for the entire game.
The NT's final warm up match will be tomorrow versus the Cuban NT, who narrowly beat the Italian NT 3-2 today. Amateur Cheng-Lung Lo is scheduled to start tomorrow's match for the NT.
The Intercontinental Cup will then kick off on November 9th, with Taiwan's shedule listed below:
1)11/9 vs Italy
2)11/10 vs Japan
3)11/11 vs Australia
4)11/12 vs Korea
5)11/14 vs the Netherlands
6)11/15 vs Cuba
7)11/16 vs the Philippines
On the 18th, the semifinals will match up the top 4 teams with the championship/consolation game to be played on the 19th of November.

Other News
The New York Daily News writes about Daisuke Matsuzaka, the highly sought after NPB superstar pitcher from Japan. Matsuzaka is an admirer of fellow 26 year old Chien-Ming Wang and wants to be like him. The two could very well be teammates next year as the Yanks figure to be one of the favorites in their pursuit of the NPB's brightest star. *edited*

More on the recent CPBL postseason awards.

Taiwan battled Cuba on it's home soil and pulled out an unforgettable 2-1 win in 15 innings! With a pitcher's duel keeping things deadlocked for the first 8 innings, DH Hung-Yu Lin gave Taiwan an early lead with a solo blast in the 2nd inning. Cuba came right back to score against Lee in the top of the 3rd inning. Lee pitched extremely well - he was clocked in the low 90's, giving up only 2 hits in 8.1 innings to go along with 6 K's. In fact the only downside to Lee's night was the fact that he did struggle with his command - he had 5 walks. Lee's counterpart - Cuban starter was also dominant - Deynnis Saurez pitched 7.2 innings, giving up 3 hits - 1 run, while K'ing 14 and walking 3.
Taiwan's relievers managed to hold down Cuba's offense - C.F. Chen, C.J. Lo and K.C. Lin blanked Cuba for the last 6.2 innings. The hero on the night offensively for Taiwan was pinch hitter Han Lin, who drove in the game winning run in the 15th with a RBI single.
Box
From what I can recall, the last time we beat Cuba in a men's senior competition was in the 1980's ( the 1983 Intercontinental Cup, the 1984 and 1986 Baseball World Cup). This victory has been a long time coming.
Taiwan won't get much rest and time to celebrate as it will now face the US today for the championship game at 8:45 pm local time. Taiwan will attempt to win against the US for the first time in 9 tries this summer. The US is also looking to defend it's WUBC crown - it won the title in 2004. I'm curious as to who the starter for Taiwan will be, as Tseng pitched a complete game on Sunday and Lee pitched last night. Good luck to our boys tonight! Jia Yo!!!

Two pitchers were cut from the 24 man list that participated in the Holland Tournament to finalize the roster below (22 players).

PITCHERS:
1)Wei-Jen Cheng
2)Chia-Chun Tang
3)Chen-Chang Lee
4)Chia-Wei Lin
5)Ching-Ming Wang
6)Sung-Wei Tseng
7)Chia-Jen Lo
8)Chien-Fu Chen
9)Ko-Chien Lin
***Hung-Wen Chen and Cheng-Yang Chen were cut from the team after the Holland tourney

CATCHERS:
1)Yi-Wei Lee
2)Kuan-Yi Yang
3)Hung-Yu Lin

INFIELDERS:
1)Fu-Jen Shen
2)Sheng-Wei Wang
3)Han Lin
4)Chih-Hsiang Lin
5)Hsien-Hsien Yang

OUTFIELDERS:
1)Ken-Wei Lin
2)Chen-Yu Chung
3)Chih-Yao Chan
4)Chia-Hui Wu
5)Chun-Yu Kuo

After 2 games, Taiwan is currently undefeated in their pool play. Taiwan beat Mexico today 7-2, despite using 5 pitchers and giving up 2 HR's. Taiwan was down 1-0 until the bottom of the 6th inning when CF Chen-Yu Chung blasted a 3 run HR to give Taiwan a lead it would not relinquish again. Chung was the star of the game, going 3-4 with a 2B, a HR, and 3 RBI's. 1B Fu-Jen Shen chipped in 2 more RBI's with a 1-4 day at the plate. C Yi-Wei Lee was 2-4 with a double and a run scored. As for the pitching, 5 pitchers (C.F. Chen, C.M. Wang, K.C. Lin, C.W. Lin, C.J. Lo) combined for 8 hits, 2 runs allowed (on solo shots), struck out 7 and walked 2 batters. Ko-Chien Lin got the win, throwing 3.2 perfect innings. Taiwan plays the Virgin Islands tomorrow and has a good chance of being undefeated before it plays it's final preliminary game against the US.

I've been informed by my anonymous source that the mystery kid the Indians have been looking at is Cheng-Chan Lee. Born 10/21/86, the kid stands 5'11" and weighs 176 pounds. Lee is right-handed and has a side-arm throwing motion. His fastball maxes out around 91 mph. Lee was on the junior national team that competed in the 2004 "AAA" world championships. In an exhibition game against the US junior NT in August 2004, Lee pitched 3 innings and K'd 6 while giving up no hit and runs. During the AAA championships, Lee faced top notch competition: 1)against Japan: Lee started the game against Japanese phenom Yu Darvish, pitched 3.2 IP gave up 1 ER and K'd 2 and had a no decision
2)against the US: Lee came in relief and pitched 2.2 innings, struck out 4 with 0 earned runs
My source stated that the Indians offered Lee a signing bonus of $20,000. If the Indians want to get their foot in the doorway in Taiwan, they will need to throw some more money at the kid. That kind of offer will NOT get it done with Lee.

In a personal sidenote....My wife and I found out that we will be having a baby boy in February!!!! Can't wait to get the lil slugger a bat in his hands!!!!!