CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #278
Rakuten Monkeys News: Jake Dahlberg
On June 16, the Chicago Dogs announced on its social media that the Rakuten Monkeys of the CPBL have purchased the contract and signed Jake Dahlberg from the American Association.
According to the Monkeys’ farm director, Jake Dahlberg is set to arrive in Taiwan next week. The team was targeting three potential foreign pitchers from the independent leagues and Mexican league, one of the candidates even had previous experience pitching in Asia. But ultimately, the team picked with Jake Dahlberg because the coaching staff wanted a left-handed pitcher.
“Jake Dahlberg’s fastball velocity is between 143 to 146 kph, he throws a curveball, slider, changeup and splitter,” the Monkeys farm director told TSNA. “He has quite a deceptive delivery.”
Jake Dahlberg, the 29-year-old American left-hander, began his professional career in 2017 with the St Louis Cardinals organisation. He spent most of his minor league career with the San Francisco Giants’ Double-A team but had a short stint in Triple-A. In 2022, he posted a 4.31 ERA and 1.37 WHIP over 100.1 innings in Double-A.
In 2023, after leaving the MLB system, Jake Dahlberg joined the Chicago Dogs of the American Association. Prior to his signing with the Rakuten Monkeys, he compiled a 6.16 ERA and 1.69 WHIP over six starts and 30.2 innings of work.
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.
Seems like a strange move. Dahlberg pitched fairly well in AA ball last year, but hadn’t pitched well in the Indy-A American Association this year.
Yeah, it’s quite rare to see CPBL teams going for pitchers from American Association.
There are some good players in the American Association, but a CPBL team should be looking for a pitcher who is dominating the American Association, which Dahlberg certainly was not. However, I don’t see a lot of stand-outs in either the Atlantic League or the American Association who look like strong CPBL prospects. The younger guys mostly still have MLB dreams, and I don’t see lot of 28 and 29 year olds who look like great prospects.
Oh for sure, there were some pretty successful cases of CPBL teams signing players from the American Association in the past. Players like Scott Richmond and Bradin Hagens. The Guardians will be looking for a new foreign pitcher too with Tyler Eppler leaving due to personal reasons.