English Rosters and League Overview

English Rosters for 2022 CPBL Season

Useful Blog Posts for the 2022 CPBL Season

Below are a few useful 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.

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.

In 2019, the CPBL announced that Wei Chuan Dragons would return to professional baseball as the fifth team in the league. The Dragons will began their 2020 season in the CPBL minor league and make their inaugural season in 2021.

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. Unlike the MLB, the CPBL games can be declared as a tie after 12 innings of play.

Postseason Structure: Playoff Series & Taiwan Series

The CPBL has a two-tier postseason system, a best-of-five Playoff Series, followed by a best-of-seven Taiwan Series. With the split season format, there are two possible scenarios.

Scenario #1 – If two different teams win each half-season.

The half-season winner with the higher win percentage will go straight to the Taiwan Series. Meanwhile, the half-season winner with the lower win percentage will have to play in a Playoff Series against a non-half-season winning team with the highest win percentage. The winner of the Playoff Series will move on to the Taiwan Series

Scenario #2: If a same team win both half-season.

This one is much straight forward. If a team win both half-season titles then that team will head straight to the Taiwan Series. The team with second and third best overall win percentage will play in a Playoff Series, the winner of that will advance to the Taiwan Series.

First Team, Farm Team

Each team is allowed to carry a 26-man in their first team roster including foreign players. Teams are allowed to register up to four foreign players on their active roster and keep three in the first team.

A typical CPBL organisation will have a first team and a farm team with a total around 60 to 70 players in the organisation. Domestic players sent down to the farm team must remain for at least ten days before they can be called up again. For foreign players, it is 15 days.

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.