CPBL Home Run Rates (1990-2020)
The last few seasons, Taiwan’s CPBL has turned into a pure hitter’s league due to many reasons as listed below:
- Stacked lineup
- Smaller strike zone
- Pitcher familiarity
- Ability to retain top amateur positional hitters
- Unable to retain top amateur pitchers
- The infamous juiced ball
In my opinion, I do not think the league intentionally juiced the ball hoping to make the game more exciting, because the league is not that smart to pull that off.
What I suspect it is rather a case of the league were trying to cut costs on the baseball and they did not follow the standard quality control procedure during the manufacturing process.
After the 2016 infamous juiced ball year, the CPBL has implemented a more frequent check on the COR value of the official ball since 2017. With people now paying attention to the quality of the official ball, the overall hitting stats have returned to a somewhat reasonable level.
However, in the 2020 season, the quality control issue happened again. During the first-half season, the league messed up the ball and led to the “super juiced baseball”. After getting hammered by the media, the CPBL decided to change the ball in the second-half season and everything went back to normal.
Other CPBL Historical Hitting Stats (1990-2020)
| YEAR | GAMES | HR | HR/G | AVG | OBP | SLG | AB/HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 180 | 182 | 1.01 | 0.262 | 0.321 | 0.365 | 67.3 |
| 1991 | 180 | 202 | 1.12 | 0.255 | 0.313 | 0.359 | 58.6 |
| 1992 | 180 | 314 | 1.74 | 0.264 | 0.333 | 0.395 | 38.4 |
| 1993 | 270 | 319 | 1.18 | 0.262 | 0.322 | 0.376 | 56.9 |
| 1994 | 270 | 380 | 1.41 | 0.273 | 0.324 | 0.398 | 48.6 |
| 1995 | 300 | 387 | 1.29 | 0.266 | 0.325 | 0.381 | 52.5 |
| 1996 | 300 | 475 | 1.58 | 0.283 | 0.341 | 0.415 | 43.4 |
| 1997 | 336 | 480 | 1.43 | 0.270 | 0.337 | 0.390 | 46.7 |
| 1998 | 315 | 381 | 1.21 | 0.270 | 0.337 | 0.383 | 55.4 |
| 1999 | 278 | 257 | 0.92 | 0.257 | 0.319 | 0.353 | 72.4 |
| 2000 | 180 | 175 | 0.97 | 0.257 | 0.324 | 0.358 | 68.0 |
| 2001 | 180 | 190 | 1.06 | 0.259 | 0.327 | 0.362 | 63.6 |
| 2002 | 180 | 254 | 1.41 | 0.268 | 0.340 | 0.387 | 47.0 |
| 2003 | 300 | 298 | 0.99 | 0.264 | 0.329 | 0.364 | 67.6 |
| 2004 | 300 | 339 | 1.13 | 0.249 | 0.316 | 0.349 | 58.4 |
| 2005 | 300 | 318 | 1.06 | 0.260 | 0.321 | 0.362 | 63.5 |
| 2006 | 300 | 300 | 1.00 | 0.265 | 0.323 | 0.359 | 67.9 |
| 2007 | 300 | 430 | 1.43 | 0.284 | 0.344 | 0.403 | 48.7 |
| 2008 | 298 | 318 | 1.07 | 0.277 | 0.338 | 0.381 | 65.5 |
| 2009 | 240 | 323 | 1.35 | 0.287 | 0.349 | 0.406 | 52.2 |
| 2010 | 240 | 159 | 0.66 | 0.262 | 0.319 | 0.347 | 103.6 |
| 2011 | 240 | 238 | 0.99 | 0.285 | 0.347 | 0.390 | 70.0 |
| 2012 | 240 | 265 | 1.10 | 0.287 | 0.354 | 0.400 | 62.2 |
| 2013 | 240 | 193 | 0.80 | 0.282 | 0.337 | 0.376 | 85.6 |
| 2014 | 240 | 209 | 0.87 | 0.274 | 0.329 | 0.367 | 79.1 |
| 2015 | 240 | 429 | 1.79 | 0.301 | 0.362 | 0.434 | 40.0 |
| 2016 | 240 | 603 | 2.51 | 0.308 | 0.374 | 0.476 | 29.0 |
| 2017 | 240 | 494 | 2.06 | 0.288 | 0.355 | 0.442 | 34.0 |
| 2018 | 240 | 399 | 1.66 | 0.294 | 0.352 | 0.427 | 42.3 |
| 2019 | 240 | 514 | 2.14 | 0.288 | 0.351 | 0.439 | 32.7 |
| 2020 | 240 | 561 | 2.34 | 0.299 | 0.359 | 0.462 | 30.8 |
| YEAR | 7624 | 9927 | 1.30 | AVG | OBP | SLG | AB/HR |
Brand of Baseball Used by CPBL
- 1990: SSK / ZETT
- 1991: Mizuno 100
- 1992: Mizuno 500 / Sun-up 101
- 1993 – 1995: Mizuno 500
- 1996 – 1998: Sun-Up 101
- 1999 – 2009: Sakurai 990
- 2010: Mizuno 210 / Mizuno150
- 2011 – Present: Sakurai 990
Notes: Below is an example of the “out of control super juiced ball” from the 2016 season. In 2017, the league lower the COR back down to .560
