33 out of the 85 amateurs have passed the pre-draft tryout and received a recommendation from the coaches of the CPBL teams. With this recommendation, they are now eligible to enter the 2018 CPBL draft on July 2nd.

There are a total of 16 pitchers, 4 catchers, 4 infielders and 9 outfielders from this tryout that will enter the draft and hopefully achieving their dream of becoming a professional baseball player.

Few Notable Players from the Tryout

Big thanks to the Taiwan Baseball Notes and their dedicated team, all the tryout footage are available on their official YouTube channel. We will picked a few notable players from the 2018 tryout and provide some quick facts about them.

蔡易廷 (Tsai Yi-Ting)

  • 21 years old.
  • Knuckleball as his primary pitch.
  • Currently played for Chiayi University.
  • Selected to represent Taiwan in the upcoming University Baseball World Cup.


吳俊偉 (Wu Chun-Wei)

  • 19 years old.
  • Clocked 150kph at the tryout.
  • Currently played for New Taipei City in the industrial league.


石弘傑 (Shih Hung-Chieh)

  • 25 years old.
  • Clocked 147kph at the tryout. but have reached 150kph in the past.
  • Currently played for the New Taipei City in the industrial league.
  • Passed the 2017 tryout, but was undrafted.


呂偉晟 (Lu Wei-Cheng)

  • 18 years old.
  • Clocked 146kph at the tryout.
  • Currently played for Mei-Ho University.


楊彬 (Yang Bin)

  • 22 years old.
  • Clocked 143kph at the tryout.
  • Currently played for the University of Kaohsiung.
  • On the Brothers and the Guardians’ watchlist.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Industrial leagues, if well developed, are a great way to develop baseball talent without the expense of professional organizations maintaining a large farm system.

    • Taiwan’s Industrial League is a little different than Japan’s. In Taiwan they combined university teams, cities teams, and the semi-pro companies teams together. So it’s about 35 teams all together.

      Long long time ago, they tried to integrate industrial league teams into the CPBL farm league, but it was done half-arsed (More like CPBL back in the day doesn’t want to create a minor league) so it never went anywhere.

      But I always support the idea CPBL minor league adding a few top tier industrial league teams into the minor league schedule. Teams like Taiwan Power Company and Taiwan Cooperative Bank.

    • I think if given a chance in the KBO maybe they will do okay. But the problem with them going to the KBO or the NPB is they will have to take up a foreign player spot. Historically speaking, Asian professional teams prefer to have foreign positional players coming from the MLB or MiLB system.

      The first player Chang Chih-Hao is a bit old to play overseas now, but in 2017 WBC he hit pretty well against the Korea and the Netherlands WBC team.

      Second player Chen Tzu-Hao is young with a lot of raw power, represented Taiwan in the 2017 Asia Professional Baseball Championship.

      Third player Chan Chan Tzu-Hsien won the 2017 CPBL Rookie of the Year award. Currently he is in a bit of a sophomore slump right now, but I’m sure he will bust out of it in the second half season. More of a line drive hitter with the occasional pops, got a great arm in the outfield to cover his average ability to read the fly-ball.

      • Thanks for that, just as a sort of clairification. Where would you qualify the CPBL talent level? Would it be around AA quality overall?

        • It’s really hard to answer this question. As in Taiwan the league structure isn’t as matured as the MLB, where they might have 7 or 8 different class levels in the minor league.

          In the CPBL, there is only one top team and one minor league team, and normally an organisation will keep a roster around 60 or so players.

          So, it is a really a giant mix-pot of players so do speak, you might have Taiwanese players with MLB, NPB or Triple-A, Double-A experiences playing along side with kids fresh out of high school or university.

          But if you really have to put a level to it, I’d say on average, it is around High-A to Double-A.

          The reason for it is historically speaking, positional players with less than Double-A experience won’t do well in Taiwan, and foreign pitcher wise, the CPBL tend to sign players at least Triple-A or with some MLB experiences.

          • Someone like Jeff Manship, Cody Martin, Drew Hutchison? I would think that they would be possible targets for a team in the CPBL.

        • There’s always a possibility of signing of those players. But it all comes down to money and whether they will accept it or not.

          For your KBO connections, Eric Hacker was in the Uni-Lions and Guardians’ pocket list, but according to the Uni-Lions GM, Hacker was too expensive.

          According to The Athletic, Austin Bibens-Dirkx reportedly have received a “pretty good offer” to play in Taiwan earlier this year.

          CPBL doesn’t pay MLB, NPB and KBO money, but foreign players can still earn roughly between $15,000 to $20,000 USD a month here. If they had a good track record, can even earn more than $20,000 USD a month.

          I believe a lot of time, CPBL tend to be used as a spring board to get into the NPB and KBO.

          • Sounds better than AAA in pay. I think Manship might use the CPBL as a springboard next season. He seems to be injured right now, but I don’t really know since one of the worst teams in the MLB in pitching (the Reds) didn’t want him because his physical.

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