The 2018 CPBL draft is done and dusted, out of the 88 players who entered the draft, 32 players were drafted and will start a brand new chapter in their baseball career.
In this group of 32 players, there are 17 pitchers, 5 catchers, 7 infielder and 3 outfielder with an overall draft rate of 36%.
The CPBL draft order is determined by the final ranking in the post-season, not the overall standings. Therefore, the Fubon Guardians will draft first, then the Uni-Lions, Chinatrust Brothers and the Lamigo Monkeys.
The Pingzhen high school’s 戴培峰 (Tai Pei-Feng) and 古林睿煬 (Gu Lin Ruei-Yang) are the 2018 first and second overall draft pick. After being partner (catcher and pitcher) for almost ten years, Tai and Gu-Lin will now have the opportunity to face each other as professional players.
Surprisingly, the former MLB pitcher 李振昌 (C.C Lee) takes the third overall place in the first round. And wrapping up the first round draft pick is right-handed pitcher 翁瑋均 (Weng Wei-Chun) from the Kainan University.
- 2018 CPBL Draft Predictions.
- 2018 CPBL Signing Trackers.
Draft Breakdown by Positions
It is not a surprise to see the 2018 draft results is once dominated by pitchers (17 players). With the CPBL being a hitter’s league, there is always a demand for new pitchers in the organisation.
| Position | Number of Players | Drafted | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher | 39 | 17 | 44% |
| Catcher | 10 | 5 | 50% |
| Infielder | 22 | 7 | 32% |
| Outfielder | 17 | 3 | 18% |
| Total | 88 | 32 | 36% |
Year of the High School Players: Trend for Future?
It is a huge year for high school players, 15 out of 32 drafted players are high school players. There is also a new trend that the CPBL teams prefer to draft high school players rather than university players.
“CPBL teams these days are more willing to spend time to develop high school players. The farm teams are able to provide much better training and higher quality of games for the young players than university,” said the Lamigo Monkeys skipper 洪一中 (Hung I-Chung) after the 2018 CPBL draft.
Based on the 2018 draft stats, out of 28 players that are over the age 23, only 4 were drafted. Majority of the university players that got drafted this year have decided to turn professional half-way through their university study.
2018 CPBL Draft Results
| Round | Order | Team | Name | Age | Position | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Guardians | 戴培峰 (Tai Pei-Feng) | 18 | Catcher | High School |
| 1 | 2 | Uni-Lions | 古林睿煬 (Gu-Lin Jui-Yang) | 18 | RHP | High School |
| 1 | 3 | Brothers | 李振昌 (C.C Lee) | 31 | RHP | MLB |
| 1 | 4 | Monkeys | 翁瑋均 (Weng Wei-Chun) | 19 | RHP | University |
| 2 | 5 | Guardians | 王正棠 (Wang Cheng-Tang) | 23 | Infielder | University |
| 2 | 6 | Uni-Lions | 張偉聖 (Chang Wei-Sheng) | 21 | Outfielder | High School |
| 2 | 7 | Brothers | 高宇杰 (Kao Yu-Chieh) | 21 | Catcher | University |
| 2 | 8 | Monkeys | 陳晨威 (Chen Chen-Wei) | 21 | Infielder | Industrial League |
| 3 | 9 | Guardians | 陳品學 (Chen Ping-Hsueh) | 23 | RHP | MiLB (A) |
| 3 | 10 | Uni-Lions | 劉軒荅 (Liu Hsuan-Ta) | 21 | RHP | University |
| 3 | 11 | Brothers | 江坤宇 (Chiang Kun-Yu) | 18 | Infielder | High School |
| 3 | 12 | Monkeys | 邱丹 (Chiu Tan) | 18 | Outfielder | High School |
| 4 | 13 | Guardians | 胡冠俞 (Hu Kuan-Yu) | 18 | Infielder | High School |
| 4 | 14 | Uni-Lions | 李丞齡 (Li Cheng-Ling) | 18 | Catcher | High School |
| 4 | 15 | Brothers | 吳俊偉 (Wu Chun-Wei) | 19 | RHP | Industrial League |
| 4 | 16 | Monkeys | 賴智垣 (Lai Chih-Yuan) | 21 | RHP | University |
| 5 | 17 | Guardians | 王尉永 (Wang Wei-Yung) | 22 | RHP | University |
| 5 | 18 | Uni-Lions | 方建德 (Fang Chien-Te) | 22 | RHP | University |
| 5 | 19 | Brothers | 王奕凱 (Wang Yi-Kai) | 18 | LHP | High School |
| 5 | 20 | Monkeys | 陳克羿 (Chen Ke-Yi) | 18 | RHP | High School |
| 6 | 21 | Guardians | 楊彬 (Yang Pin) | 22 | RHP | University |
| 6 | 22 | Uni-Lions | 林靖凱 (Lin Ching-Kai) | 18 | Infielder | High School |
| 6 | 23 | Brothers | 王政順 (Wang Cheng-Shun) | 21 | Infielder | University |
| 6 | 24 | Monkeys | 江國謙 (Chiang Kuo-Chien) | 18 | RHP | High School |
| 7 | 25 | Guardians | 王詩聰 (Wang Shih-Tsung0 | 22 | Outfielder | University |
| 7 | 26 | Uni-Lions | 姚雨翔 (Yao Yu-Hsiang) | 18 | Infielder | High School |
| 7 | 27 | Brothers | 林丞軒 (Lin Cheng-Hsuan) | 25 | RHP | Industrial League |
| 7 | 28 | Monkeys | 范柏絜 (Fan Po-Chieh) | 18 | RHP | High School |
| 8 | 29 | Guardians | 歐書誠 (Ou Shu-Cheng) | 25 | RHP | Industrial League |
| 8 | 30 | Brothers | 吳俊杰 (Wu Chun-Chieh) | 21 | RHP | University |
| 9 | 31 | Guardians | 蕭憶銘 (Hsiao Yi-Ming) | 18 | Catcher | High School |
| 10 | 32 | Guardians | 曾慈恩 (Tseng Tzu-En) | 19 | Catcher | High School |
Fubon Guardians 2018 Post-Draft Review
It is safe to say, the Guardians’ know exactly what they want coming into the draft. Their draft strategy is definitely focusing on building a future Guardians three to five years down the line, rather than getting a short term boost.
First Round
With their current primary catcher 林宥穎 (Lin Yu-Ying) turning 31, and with a history of injuries starting to catch up to him, picking up highly touted high school catcher 戴培峰 (Tai Pei-Feng) is certainly a good choice.
Batting wise, Tai is still not CPBL first team ready, but give it another two seasons in the minor league, it is very likely to see Tai gets the call-up to the first team and take over the primary catcher role.
Second Round
23-year-old 王正棠 (Wang Cheng-Tang) who can cover both the infield and outfield should be another good addition to the Guardians’ lineup depth.
Despite his fielding ability maybe not as consistent as other middle infielders in the first team, but hitting-wise, he should be better than most of the Guardians middle infielders.
Third Round
The Guardians’ third round pick RHP 陳品學 (Chen Ping-Hsueh) is an interesting choice. With a long history of previous injuries, the hard-throwing former Cleveland Indians’ farmhand is pretty much a ticking time bomb.
Historically speaking, pitchers with qualification less than MiLB Double-A generally do not last very long or do well in the CPBL. But maybe Chen will prove everyone wrong with his performance in the second-half season.
Uni-Lions 2018 Post-Draft Review
After drafting several high profile CPBL first team ready players in the last three seasons, you can say the Uni-Lions have successfully rebuilt their ageing lineup. The Uni-Lions definitely have room to “gamble” a little in the 2018 draft.
First Round
As long he is healthy, talent-wise, the high school RHP 古林睿煬 (Gu Lin Ruei-Yang) definitely has all the tools to start in the Uni-Lions’ first team rotation. As Gu-Lin throws a 147kph fastball with late movement and also have decent control over his wild range of breaking pitches.
We will probably see Gu-Lin spend the remaining of 2018 and the 2019 season in the farm team as a starting pitcher. And depending how well he can adjust to the professional pitching schedule, very likely to see him get the first team call-up in 2020.
Second and Fourth Round
According to several scouting reports, outfielder 張偉聖 (Chang Wei-Sheng) is best known for his overall athletic ability, arm strength and speed. Despite having a two years gap in high school baseball due to personal reasons, Chang still projecting to be the Fubon Guardians’ 張正偉 (Chang Cheng-Wei) somewhere down the line.
While I don’t think we will see Chang in the Uni-Lions’ first team until 2020, but with him practicing to become a middle infielder, there is a possibility of Chang going down the path of the Monkeys’ super utility player 余德龍 (Yu Te-Lung).
The Uni-Lions’ fourth round pick 李丞齡 (Li Cheng-Ling) is another interesting one. Despite of his above average arm strength, he only has two years of experience playing as a catcher, it will be interesting to see whether the Uni-Lions will continue to develop him as a catcher or put Li in the outfield.
Chinatrust Brothers 2018 Post-Draft Review
[To Be Continued…]
A dearth of left-handed pitchers in this year’s draft class.
Good LHP tend to get picked up by MLB or NPB after high school. Hopefully next year there will be a few solid LHP enter the draft. Lin An-Ko from Culture University should be a good one. (But there’s injury concern)
How much different is the CPBL draft from the MLB draft? It looks like there is a difference in where they can select from and the number of rounds. Is there any other differences?
Number of rounds, generally speaking is between 7 to 12 rounds, but it heavily depend on the draft pool and the team’s need.
Players normally come from high schools, university, industrial league teams (similar to Japan’s JABA League) and players coming back from MLB / NPB system.
There are a couple ways to be eligible to enter the CPBL draft.
1. Have the national team experience either in the senior level or high school level. This only applies to the following international tournaments. (Olympics, WBC, Premier 12, WBSC U-21, U-23, U-18 World Cup, Asian Games, BFA Asian Baseball Championship)
2. Won batting or pitching award in the industrial league that year. For example strike out leader or batting title in the industrial league.
3. CPBL teams recommendation.
4. High school students either recommended by a CPBL team, recommended by the league, recommended by high school wooden bat division committee.
5. Via the amateur tryout.
How many players who entered the draft based on being approved because of their performance in the tryout ended up being drafted?
Normally about 80 to 100 players participate in the tryout and based on the past three seasons, around 20-30 players from the tryout will be given a chance to enter the draft. And out of that tryout group, maybe about 3 to 6 players will actually get drafted. (4 in 2018)
Majority of the players that got drafted via the tryout process tend to be career farm team players, most of them never last that long in the CPBL. They generally get drafted in the late round.