As the second half of the 2024 Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) season progresses, here is a look at the top news and notes from the last week in Taiwan’s highest level of professional baseball.
TSG Hawks Sign RHP from Atlantic League
Right-handed pitcher Ljay Newsome began the 2024 season making starts for the Gastonia Baseball Club in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He will now take his talents to Taiwan and join the TSG Hawks.
The 27-year-old has spent most of his time in minor-league baseball in the United States, playing for the Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, and San Francisco Giants organizations. Newsome appeared in five games for Seattle in 2020 and made seven appearances for the club in 2021. Neither stint went exceptionally well, and the 2021 season was his last in MLB.
The TSG Hawks have struggled to form extended winning streaks in their first season as an expansion franchise in the CPBL. However, they have nothing to lose, giving a player of Newsome’s caliber, a pitcher with MLB experience, a chance to swing them in the right direction on the mound. Newsome went 5-1 with a 4.15 ERA in 11 starts in 2024 with the Gastonia Baseball Club.
NPB’s Fighters Coming to Taiwan?
According to reports made by Liberty Sports and CPBL Stats on X, Bros Sports Marketing, a Taiwan-based sports agency, indicated the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan are likely to play exhibition games against CPBL teams at the Taipei Dome in 2025.
“We are still actively pursuing it,” a Bros Sports Marketing representative told Liberty Sports. In March, the CPBL’s CTBC Brothers played an exhibition game against NPB’s Yomiuri Giants at the newly opened Taipei Dome to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Giants franchise. The following day, the Giants took on the Rakuten Monkeys of the CPBL.
The exhibition games between CPBL and NPB teams are prevalent among baseball fans. The Giants and Brothers drew a sellout crowd of 37,890 to their game that Saturday in March, the highest turnout at a baseball game in Taiwan history.
Uni-Lions Dominate Statistical Categories
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions players lead the CPBL in six significant offensive and pitching categories at the All-Star break. No other team (Rakuten Monkeys) leads in over two of the ten most prevalent categories. Steven Moya of the TSG Hawks leads the CPBL with 19 home runs.
Uni-Lions starting pitcher Mario Sanchez leads all qualified CPBL pitchers with a 1.53 ERA, ten wins, and 104 strikeouts. Other CPBL leaders from the Lions include Chen Chieh-Hsien’s .361 batting average, outfielder Chiu Chih-Cheng’s 97 hits, and outfielder Lin An-Ko’s 66 RBI.
The Lions finished the first-half season 37-0-23, clinching the best record in the CPBL during the first-half season and an automatic postseason berth. They begin a three-game series with the Wei Chuan Dragons on Friday.
This Day in Taiwanese Baseball History
On July 24, 2022, right-handed pitcher Michael Mariot’s contract with the Detroit Tigers was purchased by the CTBC Brothers.
Mariot has become somewhat of a journeyman in his professional baseball career, pitching in the CPBL, Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, the Atlantic League, multiple stints in minor league baseball, and MLB with the Kansas City Royals (2014-15), Philadelphia Phillies (2016), and Cincinnati Reds (2023).
Mariot played college ball at the University of Nebraska and was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the eighth round of the 2010 MLB Draft. He made five appearances for the CTBC Brothers in 2022, posting a 2.95 ERA with only two free passes in 18.1 innings.
CPBL Standings as of Wednesday, July 24
You can watch every CPBL game on DAZN.
Photo Credit: Ljay Newsome #74 of the Seattle Mariners delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Angels during a spring training game at Peoria Stadium on March 10, 2020 in Peoria, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
