On July 1, a record-breaking 145 amateur players entered the 2019 CPBL draft. At the end of the night, 63 young players were selected and set to begin a new chapter in their baseball career.
The draft order this year is as follow. With the Wei Chuan Dragons being the expansion team, they got the incentive to draft twice in the first four rounds. The Dragons went 28 rounds deep and drafted 32 players.
Wei Chuan Dragons
Chinatrust Brothers
Fubon Guardians
Uni-Lions
Lamigo Monkeys
Wei Chuan Dragons
CPBL managers taking group photos before the 2019 draft. Photo Credit: (CPBL Official Site)
Positions Breakdown
Position
Number of Players
Drafted
%
Pitcher
63
30
47.6
Catcher
13
7
53.8
Infielder
31
13
41.9
Outfielder
38
13
34.2
Total
145
63
43.4
Age Breakdown
Age
Drafted
18
17
19
6
20
6
21
8
22
14
23
5
24
2
25
4
26
0
27
1
Total
63
Qualifications Breakdown
Level
Drafted
High School
17
University
29
Industrial League
16
MLB system
1
Tryout Route Success Rate
Out of 145 players that participated in the 2019 draft, 58 of them came from the pre-draft tryout. The whole purpose of the tryout is to give those amateurs who are not eligible to enter the draft a chance to turn professional.
The sad truth is they are probably just roster filler. But I hope they can proved me wrong.
I’m more interested to know how much signing bonus will those 20+ round pick will receive. It is kind of funny the Wei Chuan Dragons finished the draft by drafting a catcher named Wei Chuan.
A few interesting draftees are pitcher Liu Yu-Chen (Dragons’ 22nd round pick). He came out of MLB Development Centre.
Lin An-Ko, LHP (Uni-Lions’ 1st round pick) who is half Taiwanese half Argentine, had a bit of arm fatigue or injury issues. If he is completely healthy, he is likely to head to the MLB system for at least 500k to 700k USD signing bonus. One of Taiwan’s top tier LHP before. But now enter the draft as OF.
Dragons’ 3rd round pick Kuo Tien-Hsin who last year I tweeted about how 3 MLB teams were in contact with him (Giants, Royals and an unnamed one). I guess he wasn’t happy about the signing bonus.
I will update this blog post later and talk more about some of the interesting draftees when I have a chance to do so. You are getting a sneak peek of it now.
Would be interesting to see if any of the 18 players drafted by the Dragons after the 10th round amount to anything.
The sad truth is they are probably just roster filler. But I hope they can proved me wrong.
I’m more interested to know how much signing bonus will those 20+ round pick will receive. It is kind of funny the Wei Chuan Dragons finished the draft by drafting a catcher named Wei Chuan.
A few interesting draftees are pitcher Liu Yu-Chen (Dragons’ 22nd round pick). He came out of MLB Development Centre.
Lin An-Ko, LHP (Uni-Lions’ 1st round pick) who is half Taiwanese half Argentine, had a bit of arm fatigue or injury issues. If he is completely healthy, he is likely to head to the MLB system for at least 500k to 700k USD signing bonus. One of Taiwan’s top tier LHP before. But now enter the draft as OF.
Dragons’ 3rd round pick Kuo Tien-Hsin who last year I tweeted about how 3 MLB teams were in contact with him (Giants, Royals and an unnamed one). I guess he wasn’t happy about the signing bonus.
I will update this blog post later and talk more about some of the interesting draftees when I have a chance to do so. You are getting a sneak peek of it now.
I think the lions screw this year draft