With 2017 postseason just a week away, Uni-Lions have revealed some very troubling news today. The team’s starting pitcher Alfredo Figaro will be sidelined due to tears in his right elbow ligament.
Alfredo Figaro done for the season
Figaro first experienced minor elbow discomfort back in beginning of September. After 3 weeks of rest, he returned to the top team mainly being used as middle reliever. However, the discomfort returned on the 8th of October, after the MRI the doctor found tears in Figaro right elbow ligament.
“He is done for the season, he won’t be able to return in time for the Playoff series and the Taiwan Series.” Said Lions manager 黃甘霖 (Huang Kan-Lin).
With Figaro out of the rotation. Uni-Lions will going into the postseason with only 2 foreign pitchers (Bruce Billings and Michael Nix). Lions will take on the Chinatrust Brothers in a best-of-five playoff series next week, the winner will move on to the Taiwan Series.
Alfredo Figaro finished his 2017 CPBL season with the record of 6.30 ERA, 1.63 WHIP over 128.2 innings.
Playoff Series probable pitchers
According the Lions skipper. Bruce Billings will pitch game 1 in the playoff series against Chinatrust Brothers. 潘威倫 (Pan Wei-Lun) and Michael Nix will handle game 2 and 3. The rookie 施子謙 (Shih Tzu-Chien) will get the opportunity to start in game 4.
The 23-year-old Shih was drafted in the 3rd round by the Lions in 2017. Shih finished the 2017 season with 4.12 ERA, 1.47 WHIP over 19.2 innings of work.
Seems increasingly likely that Alfredo Figaro has already pitched his last game in the CPBL. Michael Nix likely needs to have a strong series if he wants the Uni-Lions to bring him back in 2018.
For Figaro maybe a role of reliever might be more suitable for him. He tend to pitch 3-4 good innings and then just self-destructed going into 5th and 6th inning this year.