Dark Horse = Real Trooper?

Ever since Head Coach Hung has announced the 24 men rosters for the 2008 Chinese Taipei Olympic Baseball Team, Hung surprised media and all the CT fans by building his team with fewer stars than everybody expected. Like Hung’s last CT team roster for Olympic Qualifying Game in March, his 24 men rosters has incorporated Taiwanese professional ball players from CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League), players from foreign professional baseball leagues, which are NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball Organization), and MLB (Major League Baseball), and players from Taiwanese Universities. Despite that Hung has more available all-star players for him to select than he had in February, Hung still decides to stick with the players that he had chosen in February. In fact, 16 players are picked from Hung’s Olympics Qualifying Game roster. Thus, players from CPBL have accounted for three quarters of the spots, and that is the highest proportion of CPBL players in Chinese Taipei team roster ever since professional players are allowed to play in the international tournament. Moreover, Hung’s team arrangements also brought up the debates among the fans and media.

Tsao's Doubtful Shoulder

Unlike previous Chinese Taipei team structures, Hung has only selected three players from foreign professional baseball leagues, which are believed to be more competitive than CPBL. Those players do not include former Big Leaguer ― Chin-Hui Tsao, who just released by Kansas City Royals in early June. Tsao has been battling with his shoulder injury since 2005 season but he has shown some consistent Big League performance while he was with Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007. This year, Tsao was invited to Royals’ Big League spring training this year then started his season from 3A; however, he got waived again due to injury. This injury marks a big question mark for Tsao’s closer position of team Chinese Taipei. According to his last International performance, which is the 2007 Asian Championship Game against Japan, Tsao was still finding his rhythm when he entered the game with runners on the scoring positions. Although he quickly gained his pace back, which he strikes out the side to finish the next inning, the damages have already coasted Chinese Taipei the game. In fact, Tsao is still seeking his pitching power that he had shown in 2004 Athen Olympics, so the doubt that whether Tsao can still close the games out in this competitive tournament will continue to bother all the fans. “He (Tsao) still has some problems with his pitching movement; low release point and up-and-down arm swinging won’t help his balance while he pitches…” said Chang-Hun Hsieh, the pitching coach for team Chinese Taipei. Hsieh commented on Tsao’s condition after watching Tsao’s pitching practice the day before Hung announced the team roster; Hsieh believes that Tsao still able to find his rhythm back before the Olympics.

Long Inning Challenge

Similar to Tsao, pitcher Wei-Ying Chen from Chunichi Dragons was battling with injuries in the past few years. Chen, who finally returns to Dragons’ lineup this year, had arm surgery in 2005 and was demoted as development players (育成選手) in 2006. There is still doubt that whether he can still able to continue his professional career; however, he earns himself the setup role for Chunichi when he makes his return to the first team. But, according to the press, Coach Hung plans to place Chen into Chinese Taipei’s starting rotation; this will bring out another concern regarding the young left hander that “Can Chen handle long innings?” Since Chen usually takes one or two innings while he plays as the setup pitcher for the Dragons, the minimum pitching quota as a starting pitcher, five or six innings, might be too much for Chen. Hung’s move might be risky for team Chinese Taipei because Hung only selects ten pitchers instead of eleven, which people are expected; that will in terms to put more pressures to the young CT pitching staff if the starter cannot fulfill his quota.

Surprise Attack?

Nevertheless, Hung does try to minimize this risk by recruiting Wen-Hsiun Hsu and Chi-Chia Chang from his own CPBL team ― La new Bears. Hsu and Chang are considered as the surprises (dark horses) of Hung’s roster; in fact, these two players are familiar with this nickname in their previous international appearances. Hsu, not notably by most of the press and fans before the roster announcement, had an outstanding performance when he pitched against NPB Champion, Sapporo Nippon Fighters, in 2006 Konami Asia Series. Hsu shut down the fiercest batting lineup in Asia for six innings of Konami Cup’s championship game. However, since then, Hsu’s performance in CPBL still unable to convince the media and fans for his presence in team CT’s roster. Although, Hsu has solid statistic with the Bears this year, the question regarding whether he can maintain this kind of performance in the Olympics, which is a more competitive tournament than CPBL, will remain uncertain.

The Return of C.C.?

Consequently, Chi-Chia Chang, coming out from nowhere, astounded the whole Asia with his dominant pitching performance when he was still a nobody who just graduated from high school before 2001 World Championship tournament. After that, he quickly acquired by Saibu Lions and went to Japan for his professional career. Chang and Daisuke Matsuzaka, currently played for Boston Red Sox, had form the most vicious pitching rotation in NPB. However, Chang started to battle with injuries after 2004 Athens Olympics. After Chang returned from Japan, he had not show any signs of dominance while he played in CPBL. Therefore, Chang’s invitation to the team can not convince the stakeholders especially the press. Although Chang had found his rhythm in his last international relief appearance against Korea in March, however, Chang still has trouble to find his commend when he played for La New Bears. Chang’s consistency should remain questionable! Therefore, whether Hung's ability to turn these dark horses into real troopers will become the most vicious challenge for Hung’s coaching creditability.