Reds Sign Taiwan Prospect
With only four professional teams and the gambling issues that the professional league can not overcome, with players being kidnapped for not cooperating with gamblers, it is no wonder that the youth are abandoning the country’s professional league and signing with professional teams in Japan and the United States.
Per http://taiwanbaseball.blogspot.com/ Po-Cheng Chi signed with the Cincinnati Reds for $100,000. This is the third player that the Reds have signed out of Taiwan.
In the NPB the Hanshin Tigers signed Wei-Chu Lin and Wei-Yin Chen signs with the Chunichi Dragons. Yi-Cheng Wang signed with the Yokahama Bay Stars.
At least one player is remaining with Taiwan so far and that is rookie of the year Yi-Chuan Lin of the Sinon Bulls, who also netted the MVP award. It is still unclear whether the CBPL will have another season next year with the Brother Elephants, the most prestigious team in Taiwan rocked by a gambling scandal. However, with only four teams in the leage and many youth leagues fully developed on the island, that is not enough teams to accomodate all the players. If I was a betting man I would bet the CBPL has another season, but perhaps that bet is already covered.