Taiwan’s pro baseball league CPBL opens spring training

Taiwan’s pro baseball league CPBL opens spring training
07/02/2022
All five clubs of the Taiwan-based Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) have started their spring training following the Lunar New Year break.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- With the Weichuan Dragons and the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions having opened their camps on Monday at Tianmu Baseball Stadium and Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium, respectively, all five CPBL clubs have started their preparation for the upcoming 2022 season.

The league will open the season on the 2nd of April with the defending champions CTBC Brothers facing their 2021 Taiwan Series opponent Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions. The Brothers swept the Lions in the best-of-seven championship series, to win its first title since 2010.

Weichuan Dragons officially returned to CPBL in 2021 after spending the season of 2020 in the minor league as a mandatory for an expansion club. The Dragons finished third, ahead of the Guardians and the Monkeys, in the second half of the 2021 season, marking the best half-season standing for an expansion club in its debut season.

The most notable addition to the Dragons roster is current CPBL home run record leader Ngayaw Ake (Lin, Chih-Sheng). The veteran slugger asked his former team CTBC Brothers to leave him out of the 60-man protective list to become a free agent before signing a one-year deal with the Dragons. Currently tying the career home run record with Dragons hitting coach Chang, Tai-Shan at 289, Ngayaw Ake is expected to be the first player in Taiwan baseball history to collect 300 home runs in his professional career.

The CPBL played its inaugural season in 1990 and is heading into to its 33rd. The league was the only baseball organization in the world to play full schedule in both 2020 and 2021 amid the outbreak of COVID-19. CPBL is an Associated Member of WBSC.