English Rosters and League Overview

English Rosters for the 2018 CPBL Season

*Note: Will update this to 2019 when the CPBL updated their 2019 roster.

Useful Blog Posts for the 2019 CPBL Season

Below are a few useful daily English Guide related to the CPBL, we’ll teach you how to set up CPBL TV, read the schedule, buying merchandise and most importantly, how to buy tickets at the stadium.

The following guides are from Tom, a die-hard Uni-Lions fan based in Tainan City. Tom has done a fantastic job of putting together a complete stadium guide. And most importantly, how to purchase tickets using those automatic ticketing machines at the convenience stores.

CPBL Brief History

CPBL was established in 1990 with a four teams structure, after several expansions in 1997, Taiwan reached a record high of 11 active teams. However, due to a string of game-fixing scandals, the CPBL has reduced down to four teams since 2009.

Here’s a graphical chart which show the CPBL history timeline.

Regular Season Structure

Each team plays 120 games with 60 games each in the first and second-half season. The half-season winner is eligible to advance to the post-season.

Post-Season: Best-of-Five (Wild Card)

If a non-half-season winner team have the highest overall winning percentage than any other half-season winner, then this team gains a wild-card status and is eligible to play in the Playoff Series against the half-season winner with lower winner percentage.

If the same team clinches both first and second-half seasons, then the Playoff Series would be staged for teams with overall second and third winning percentage. The winning team will advance to the Taiwan Series.

Taiwan Series: Best-of-Seven

The winner of each half-season will play a best-of-seven series in the Taiwan Series. However, if the same team clinches both first and second-half seasons, then this team is awarded one win to start the Taiwan Series and will play against the winner from the wild card series.

First Team, Farm Team

Each team is allowed to carry a 26-man active roster including foreign players. Teams are allowed to register up to three foreign players on their active roster and play two simultaneously on the field.

A typical CPBL organisation will have a first team and a farm team with a total of 55 to 60 players in the organisation. Players sent down to the farm team must remain for at least ten days before they can be called up again.

CPBL Draft

The CPBL draft is held in the middle of the season for amateur players as well as military reserve players. Upon drafting the players, the team will have up to August 31 to sign them.

Trade Deadline

August 31 is the trade deadline and the last day to register foreign players for the remaining of the season. Any players acquired after the trade deadline are not eligible to play in the regular season games and the post-season games.

Free Agency, International Free Agency

The FA system was implemented in 2010. Players with nine years of service will be granted free agency (Eight years for those completed university). Players with three years of service will be eligible to file for international free agency status with the consent of the player’s team.