CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #56
Chinatrust Brothers News: New Pitcher Coming
After spending several months in the farm team, the Brothers’ new foreign pitcher Elih Villanueva made his CPBL first team debut last Friday against the Guardians.
Despite of Villanueva’s seven scoreless innings performance, according to the Brothers general manager, the team will still bring in another new foreign pitcher as the fourth backup.
“We are in contact with several players,” said Brothers’ general manager Liu Chih-Wei. “Should be able to finalised within the next few days, the new pitcher will be in Taiwan mid-August.”
Uni-Lions News: David Martinez or Chinen Kohya
With the 8-31 trade deadline approaching, the Uni-Lions management are now trying to figure out what are they going to do with David Martinez and farm team backup pitcher Chinen Kohya.
In 13 starts, Martinez has posted a 7.42 ERA and 1.66 WHIP over 60.2 innings. In his last outing on July 24th, Martinez exit the game early with a strained groin.
Despite the advice from the doctor that Martinez will required at least 10 days rest. After the bullpen session on July 29th, the Uni-Lions have decided to give Martinez another chance to start on August 1st.
Should Martinez continue to struggle in the first team, the Uni-Lions might have to release him and call-up the Japanese LHP Chinen Kohya (知念広弥).
Chinen, who was signed by the Uni-Lions as the fourth foreign pitcher back in March, has been really solid in the farm league. In 15 starts, he posted a 2.85 ERA, and 1.06 WHIP over 75.2 innings.
“Even if we don’t call-up Chinen this year, I would love to see him return for the 2019 season,” said Uni-Lions manager Huang Kan-Lin. “He’s got a big heart and passionate about baseball, from what I saw, he will do okay in the CPBL first team.”
Further Readings
Foreign players come and goes, therefore we have compiled a foreign players tracker to keep track of all the foreign players for the 2018 CPBL season.