CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #57
Chinatrust Brothers News: Bennett Parry
Despite finished last in the first-half season, it seems the Chinatrust Brothers finally got their acts together in the second-half season.
Now with a shot at the second-half season title, the Brothers have announced the signing of left-handed pitcher Bennett Parry as the fourth backup.
Bennett Parry, who started the All-Star Game for the Liberty Division , has left the Ducks to pitch in Taiwan with the ChinaTrust Brothers.
— Mike Ashmore (@mashmore98) August 2, 2018
Parry, who lead the Atlantic League with 116 strikeouts have posted a record of 2.86 ERA and 1.24 WHIP over 85 innings for the Long Island Ducks.
According to the Brothers’ general manager, the 26-year-old southpaw is expected to arrive in Taiwan on August 6th. Depending on his condition and performance, the Brothers will decide whether to call Parry up to the first team before the August 31st trade deadline.
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.
Bennett Parry is a good choice. He had pitched really well in the Atlantic League. Also, he’s only 26 years old this season, which means if he can cut it in the CPBL, he could be an effective pitcher in Asia for some time. Even if he doesn’t get a shot in CPBL’s major league this season, he’s now in the mix for 2019.
As for Luke Heimlich and the Lamigo Monkeys, Heimlich’s story is a complicated one I wrote about earlier this season: https://notanotherbaseballblog.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/the-luke-heimlich-mess/
At the end of the day, though, Heimlich pleaded guilty to molesting his six year old cousin when he was 15. I don’t see how a team anywhere could sign him and not have it be a public relations fiasco, as the Monkeys have just found out. Heimlich’s story made the New York Times, which is why everyone in Taiwan learned about it almost immediately, even though the Monkeys apparently thought they could sign Heimlich and no one in Taiwan would notice.
I like the trend of the Brothers are going for much younger foreign players with some of their signing. I think that’s the plan with Parry, even if he doesn’t make the cut on 831 trade deadline, he will most likely to get a spring camp invite in 2019.
This is actually pretty smart move too, use the remaining of the 2018 season to ease Parry into the Taiwanese baseball environment. So there won’t be any issues of adjusting shall he come back for 2019 season.
Looking at the top of the Atlantic League stats leaders, a lot of familiar faces too. David Kubiak, Cory Riordan, Andy Van Hekken, Kyle Simon, Mitch Atkins and Rick Teasley.
I always quite like Teasley and Riordan. I still believe they should be given another shot with a full spring camp in Taiwan.
As for Luke Heimlich. oh boy… what a PR nightmare eh. I’ll put up blog post on quotes from the official and the team shortly, it’s been a busy morning, replied bunch of emails to publications from the United States.
I really don’t understand what the Monkeys front office were thinking when signing Heimlich. Did they really expect no one will find out in 2018? Seriously, even my 2-year-old kid is able to make the right call within 5 seconds.
Despite the “official” answer is his status is currently under review, long story short, based the players misconduct act, no way Heimlich can pitch in Taiwan.
I’m surprised he can even get a VISA to Taiwan in the first place. Unless he did not disclosed that at the immigration, or maybe it is not on his permanent record because he was a minor when he committed those horrible acts.
The Monkeys thought they could somehow slip Heimlich past Taiwanese baseball fans, which in this internet age and with a NY Times article reporting on Heimlich’s story was impossible. Why the Monkeys wanted to take a chance with Heimlich is obvious. But for his criminal history, he would have been at worst a 2nd or 3rd round MLB draft pick in either of 2017 or 2018. He would almost certainly have had the best stuff of any pitcher in the CPBL from the moment he entered the league. Taiwanese pitching prospects with Heimlich’s stuff get signed to $1 million-plus contracts by MLB.
Heimlich’s criminal record was expunged sometime after he turned 18, because he was a minor when the crime he pleaded guilty to occurred and he had no further run-ins with the law. His story came out because he grew up in Washington State, which is where the crime occurred, but he failed to register as a sex offender in Oregon, the state just south of Washington, where he attended Oregon State University.
Heimlich denies ever having committed the crime and now says he pleaded guilty because he wanted to prevent tearing apart his family. However, a guilty plea is a guilty plea, and I can’t see how any professional team anywhere signs him without it coming out that he is a convicted child molester. Pro baseball is entertainment, and it’s had for fans to sympathize with convicted child molesters.
My tinfoil hat theory. The Monkeys probably planning to sell Heimlich contract to the MLB organisation at a later stage. By signing him and getting him to play professionally it sort of set a precedent, in the concept of “someone already fired the first shot”.
There are 20 or so MLB organisations that have scouts permanently based in Taiwan. This is a perfect showcase ground for them.
There was talk about a month ago that the Kansas City Royals were considering signing Heimlich, but the rumor may have simply been floated out there by Royals’ management to see what kind of reaction it got. Needless to say, the reaction was highly negative, and Royals’ management quickly put the rumors to rest.
The top prospect for CPBL purposes in the Atlantic League now that Parry has signed with the Brothers is probably Dave Kubiak. He turned 29 a few days ago, so he’s still relatively young as foreign pitchers in the CPBL go. He’s leading the Atlantic League with a 2.52 ERA and has a good strikeout rate. Kubiak had a good WHIP and strikeout rate in the Atlantic League in 2017, although his won-loss record and ERA were not impressive.