CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #62
Fubon Guardians News: Bruce Billings
After giving up five earned runs in 1.1 innings on August 24th against the Monkeys. The Fubon Guardians have released Bruce Billings shortly after the game.
“There’s nothing we can do, we gave Billings plenty of opportunities already,” said the newly appointed Guardians manager 陳連宏 (Chen Lien-Hung).
Known for his great fan service outside of the stadium, Billings finished his 2018 CPBL season with the record of 5.72 ERA and 1.62 WHIP over 20 starts, 102.1 innings.
It is also worth mentioning, due to the 2-28 regulation, the Guardians weren’t allowed to signed Billings until March 1st. Having to missed out a significant portion of the 2018 spring training, maybe this have something to do with Billings’ performance this year?
Maybe this outdated CPBL regulations should be review by the league officials and the team owners during the off-season?
Fubon Guardians News: Taylor Jordan
Now with a gap in their starting rotation, the Guardians will call up Taylor Jordan from the farm team. The former Washington Nationals RHP was signed by the Guardians earlier this month as the fourth back up foreign pitcher.
Since arrived in Taiwan, Jordan had pitched one game in the farm league, where he went 7 scoreless innings with 4 strikeouts and only allowed 4 hits against the Uni-Lions.
“We will call up and register Taylor Jordan tomorrow and he will makes his CPBL first team debut on August 26th,” said the Guardians skipper 陳連宏 (Chen Lien-Hung).
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.
Do you think a future expansion to 6 teams would be a good idea/help make it less one sided? And some rule changes would certainly help as well.
For domestic players, 6 teams will certainly help. But the last time it was less one sided was during the 2 leagues, 11 teams era. But it will always be one sided for foreign players, due to supply and demand. (At least at this stage)
Sorry to see Bruce Billings go — he pitched well overall in his three CPBL seasons. That said, Taylor Jordan pitched well in his first CPBL major league start, so we will see what he can do the rest of the way.
Yeah, from my heard from many baseball fans in Taiwan, Billings is probably one of the nicest players in the league. Seems like a great teammates to have around the clubhouse too.
Taylor Jordan was saying he felt kind of bad that it is him that replaced Billings. Since both of them were teammates during their time in the Washington Nationals system.
Maybe there is still a chance a team might still sign Billings next year, he did pitched quite decent in the beginning of the season. Just don’t know what went wrong this season.
By the way, Andy Van Hekken made his farm team debut as well (4.1IP, 6H, 3ER, 3K)
Given Billings’ age, it might be wiser for CPBL teams to let him start the 2019 season in the Atlantic League, where he can show if he still has something left. It’s also possible that Billings may decide it’s time to retire.