CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #63
Uni-Lions News: Chinen Kohya
The Uni-Lions have released the Japanese left-handed pitcher Chinen Kohya (知念広弥) to make room for Andy Van Hekken in the first team.
With a string of rainout games in the past week, the Uni-Lions was unable to give Chinen Kohya another start in the first team before the August 31st trade deadline.
#UniLions' new foreign player Chinen Kohya (知念広弥) makes his #CPBL debut with 3 strikeouts in the 1st inning. pic.twitter.com/HhJQfQuvZ7
— CPBL STATS (@GOCPBL) August 22, 2018
“It was a difficult decision, we simply ran out of time due to the weather and had to make a decision before the trade deadline,” said the Uni-Lions’ manager Huang Kan-Lin. “If possible, I hope we can see Chinen again next season.”
Huang also mentioned it was not fair to Chinen, as he should be evaluate for at least three games, not only based on one outing.
Chinen Kohya made his CPBL debut on August 22nd, where he gave up 7 earned runs in 4.2 innings while issued 5 strikeouts against the Guardians. It is worth noting that six of those runs happened in the bottom of fifth with two outs.
Chinen posted a combined record of a 3.10 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 16 starts, 81.1 innings while pitching in the Uni-Lions farm team.
#UniLions' Japanese LHP Chinen Kohya (知念広弥) is making his #CPBL debut tonight against the Fubon Guardians. Chinen's wife is also in attendance. pic.twitter.com/k83sYcMe8w
— CPBL STATS (@GOCPBL) August 22, 2018
Uni-Lions News: Andy Van Hekken
The Uni-Lions have call up the left-handed pitcher Andy Van Hekken from the farm team. This will be Van Hekken’s second tour of the CPBL, with his first tour dated back in 2007 with the Macoto Cobras.
“Andy Van Hekken wasn’t that impressive in his farm team debut, but he’s got plenty of experience, and was able to locate all his pitches,” said the Uni-Lions manager. “It just the matter of making the adjustment to the CPBL for him”
In Van Hekken’s farm team debut last week, he gave up 6 hits and 3 earned runs while struck out 3 in 4.1 innings of work.
Apparently the Uni-Lions was not the only team that was eyeing Andy Van Hekken during his time in the Atlantic league. According to the news report, Van Hekken was also the Lamigo Monkeys’ watchlist.
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.
It will be interesting to see what Van Hekken came do in the CPBL at age 38. Van Hekken was very good in the KBO last year, but his age and salary expectations were the reasons Nexen didn’t bring him back. However, Van Hekken didn’t pitch as well in the Atlantic League this year as he did in the KBO last year, although he got better after a slow start.
He certainly know how to pitch, and no one has seen him pitch who joined the CPBL after the 2007 season. He’s definitely a better bet than Kohya, although it would have been nice for Kohya to get the three starts he was due.
Van Hekken is scheduled to start this Thursday. Would be very interesting to see how he goes in the first pitch. From what I saw in his two farm team games, his fastball velocity just hoover around 130kph to 135kph, but location wise is pretty accurate though.