Matthew Kent #21 of the Portland Sea Dogs delivers in a game. (Photo by Zachary Roy/Getty Images)
Each Chinese Professional Baseball League organization has played around 40 games this season, meaning there are only 20 left before the schedule flips to the second half of the season. As of Wednesday, the first half-season champions would be the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions (29-0-14).
As the CPBL season heats up, here is a look at the top news and notes from the past week in Taiwan’s highest level of professional baseball.
Rakuten Monkeys Sign LHP Matthew Kent
On Sunday, the Rakuten Monkeys announced they signed left-handed pitcher Matthew Kent as their foreign pitcher for the remainder of the season. Each team is allowed three foreign players on the roster.
The Boston Red Sox initially selected Kent in the 2015 Major League Baseball Draft out of Texas A&M. He has yet to make his MLB debut and spent the 2022 minor league baseball season in the Miami Marlins organization. Still, he has previous CPBL experience with the Fubon Guardians.
Kent posted a 3.23 ERA with 69 strikeouts in 150.1 innings with Fubon in 2023 and was named one of the starting pitchers for the 2023 CPBL All-Star games.
New CPBL Attendance Record at the Taipei Dome
The newly opened Taipei Dome in Taipei City, Taiwan, which seats 40,000, saw 29,688 fans attend Saturday’s game between the CTBC Brothers and the Wei Chuan Dragons, a record for attendance in the CBPL according to CPBL Stats.
The attendance record for a professional baseball game in Taiwan was set in March during an exhibition game at the Taipei Dome between Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yomiuri Giants and the CTBC Brothers.
Thirty-seven thousand eight hundred ninety fans attended the exhibition game in March. Still, multiple reports indicated that fans could have been more satisfied with the stadium’s operation, including the lack of clear signage, broken escalators, and water leaking from the roof.
Diamondbacks’ Chen Sheng-Ping May Enter 2024 CPBL Draft
According to a Yahoo! Sports Taiwan report, Arizona Diamondbacks farmhand infielder Chen Sheng-Ping is considering leaving minor league baseball to enter the 2024 CPBL mid-season draft.
Chen was born in New Taipei, Taiwan, and is currently on the roster of the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the Double-A affiliate of the Diamondbacks.
Chen can play every infield position besides first base and is hitting .167 with one home run and six RBI in 20 games for Double-A Amarillo in 2024. Forty-three players were selected in the 2023 CPBL mid-season draft, of which three came from an MLB affiliate, according to CPBL Stats.
This Day in Taiwanese Baseball History
On June 5, 2019, starting pitcher Michael Nix threw six shutout innings for the Lamigo Monkeys in an 8-0 win against the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions. The 2005 Atlanta Braves MLB June Amateur Draft pick struck out eight to improve his win-loss record to 6-3.
Monkeys’ center fielder Chen Chen-wei and catcher Lin Hung-yu each hit home runs to help boost the offense and give Nix more than enough run support.
The Lamigo Monkeys underwent a name change after the 2019 season and became the Rakuten Monkeys at the beginning of 2020.
CPBL Standings as of Wednesday, June 5
