CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #231
Uni-Lions News: Mike Fiers
After parting ways with Wilin Rosario and with Logan Ondrusek landed on the injured list. The Uni-Lions have been looking for a new foreign player from the Mexican League for the past two weeks.
At first, the Uni-Lions was targeting Kennys Vargas. However, on June 22, the team revealed that the deal did not pan out, and they would sign a foreign pitcher instead.
Fast forward to June 26, TSNA reported that Mike Fiers is very likely to be the Uni-Lions’ new foreign pitcher. And on June 28, Mexican media BeisbolPuro confirmed that Mike Fiers is indeed heading to Taiwan to join the Uni-Lions.
Shortly after BeisbolPuro broke the news, the Uni-Lions’ general manager confirmed the signing of Mike Fiers. According to the team, the 37-year-old former MLB right-hander will arrive in Taiwan next week.
LANZANDO ? EN CANCÚN
Por #G500Tremendo duelo de fieras en el nuevo Estadio Beto Ávila, y Fiers se luce??#VíveloComoFiera pic.twitter.com/6bXFsCkazc
— Leones de Yucatán (@leonesdeyucatan) May 15, 2022
Mike Fiers has extensive MLB experience. From 2011 to 2021, he compiled a career record of 4.07 ERA and 1.26 WHIP over 1151 innings. This also includes two no-hitters he threw in the 2015 and 2019 seasons.
Apart from the no-hitters, Mike Fiers is also known for his crucial role as the whistle blower of the Houston Astros cheating scandal in 2019.
After leaving the MLB system, Mike Fiers signed with the Leones de Yucatan of the Mexican League. During his time there, he posted an outstanding 2.84 ERA and 1.21 WHIP over 44.1 innings. As of today, he is currently in second place on the LMB ERA leaderboard.
According to the information on Baseball Savant, Mike Fiers has five pitches in his repertoire. He throws a 4-seam fastball, sinker, slider, changeup and curveball.
Mike Fiers a no-no. ?
(MLB x @YouTubeTV) pic.twitter.com/mzYhCwDBUu
— MLB (@MLB) May 8, 2019
Further Readings
Foreign players come and goes, therefore we compiled a foreign players tracker to keep track of all the foreign players signing for the 2022 CPBL season.
It will be interesting to see what Fiers has left at age 37. He didn’t strike out many in Mexico, but he walked even fewer. He gave up the hits but not the home runs. If he can continue to avoid the HR ball, he should be successful in Taiwan.
Very interesting signing given his age. But yeah, would be interesting to see how Fiers will perform in Taiwan.
By the way, they are going to sign another foreign player. (No hint so far).
Radhames Liz is pitching well in Mexico at age 38. I could see a CPBL team bringing him back for late season action.
Liz would be a good choice. Would love to see him in the CPBL again.