CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #263
Rakuten Monkeys News: Brooks Hall
On January 25, the Rakuten Monkeys announced the signing of 32-year-old American right-hander Brooks Hall. According to the Monkeys GM, Brooks Hall is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan around mid-February.
Brooks Hall began his professional career in 2010 with the Milwaukee Brewers organisation. He never made it to the major but reached Triple-A in 2016. In over two Triple-A seasons, he posted a 6.04 ERA across 28.1 innings.
Between 2018 to 2022, Brooks Hall spent most of his time in the Atlantic League during summer and playing winter ball in Australia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. During that time, he managed to return to the MLB system with a minor league deal, where he was assigned to Double-A.
Prior to his signing with the Rakuten Monkeys, he was active in the Dominican Winter League, pitching for the Tigres del Licey. In over 31.2 innings, Brooks Hall posted a 2.84 ERA and 0.91 WHIP.
As of today, the Rakuten Monkeys have Bradin Hagens, Brandon Waddell and Brooks Hall. According to the Monkeys’ GM, they still have a few potential foreign players on their radar, and both are pitchers with no previous CPBL experience. The team also hinted that they are no longer actively pursuing Aaron Wilkerson.
Further Readings
Foreign players comes and goes, therefore we compiled a foreign players tracker to keep track of all the foreign players signing for the 2023 CPBL season.
Brooks Hall was on my radar as a possible CPBL sign. He pitched well in the Atlantic League (but only 12 starts) and then pitched well in eight starts in the Dominican Winter League. Going into his age 33 season, he’s not young. I definitely see him as a fourth or fifth foreign player on a split contract that pays him around $12,000 a month for minor league performance and $18,000 a month for major league performance.
I like Matt Pobereyko and Jeff Kinley, both of whom will be 31 in 2023 and who pitched well in the Mexican Winter Pacific League this winter, better as fourth or fifth foreign signings than Hall, mainly because they are both two years younger.
Space is running out, teams are all signing their 4th foreign players now. Maybe Mexican Winter League or LIDOM would be a good choice to find the players.
I think it would make sense for the Guardians to bring back Joe Van Meter, if he were willing to accept, say, a $50,000 four-month guarantee that would pay him something like $700 day for major league service. Although Van Meter wasn’t particularly good last season, he wasn’t bad either, and he sure ate up a lot of innings when other foreign pitchers were hurt or ineffective. At age 34, Van Meter probably does not have a lot of other options, if he wants to continue playing professional baseball. He’d certainly make a good 4th foreign pitcher at a reasonable price.
Yeah, the way Joe Van Meter ate those innings last season, some team should bring him back as the 4th pitcher.
Apparently the Uni-Lions have signed a new pitcher yesterday. He is a right-hander who played in Triple-A last year and pitched well in the Venezuelan Winter League. Based on the latest rumour, that player is Mario Sanchez.