The 2020 CPBL season is just around the corner and there is a new name in the league as well as a returning one in the minor league in the Wei Chuan Dragons.

Rakuten Monkeys

It’s all change off the field in Taoyuan as the La New Corporation sold the Monkeys to the Japan’s Rakuten group during the off season.

There are new colours, a new logo, a new team manager but on the field, there will little difference. Lamigo as they were won 6 Championships in 8 years, the question is can Rakuten continue this success?

Long time coach Hung I-Chung departed to join Fubon Guardians and Rakuten promoted from within. The new man at the helm is hitting coach Tseng Hao-Ju who has worked with the Monkeys off the field since retirement in 2013. This is someone who knows the Monkeys well.

So what should we expect from the Monkeys in 2020? The hitting core remains intact and the Monkeys possessed 4 of the top 5 in average, hitting and RBIs in 2019. Their offense is what has brought them the last 3 CPBL titles. They are deep enough that even a few injuries or bad form will not have too much effect on the team.

On the pitching side, it’s all change in terms of foreign pitchers. 29 year old Ryan Carpenter signs having started in the MLB as recently as 2018 and Elih Villenueva joins having spent 2018 and 2019 with Chinatrust Brothers. Villanueva ended the season with a 2.92 ERA and 5 straight regular season wins. Radhames Liz initially re-signed but due to injury issues will not be with the Monkeys this year. Lisalverto Bonilla and Justin Nicolino have since joined to give Rakuten 4 foreign pitchers.

Fans are in Taoyuan are used to success and with that hitting core intact, Rakuten Monkeys should be competing for the CPBL title. Pitching is key though, pitch well and expect another trip to the Taiwan Series, pitch poorly and expect a lot of high scoring and long games.

Uni Lions

The 2019 season was not kind to Uni Lions who won just 48 games in part due to a terrible injury crisis that consumed the whole season. With injuries having cleared, what can this relatively young team do? Can they go back to 2018 form and return to the play-offs or will it be another year of misery in Tainan?

There are changes off the field in Tainan too with a new manager and changes in coaching. Former Lions pitcher Lin Yueh-Ping has been promoted from farm team pitching coach to manager whilst Jamie Navarro has been appointed first team pitching coach. Last season’s manager Liu Yu-Chen returns to his former job as first team hitting coach.

In 2019 the Lions struggled with the bat due to a mix of injuries and poor form. A total of 34 players made plate appearances last year and only two Lions players who played more than 60 games hit over 0.300 and they were veterans Pan Wu-Hsiung and Chen Yung-Chi. There is hope though, Chen Chieh-Hsien and Wu Chieh-Rui both only played around 20 games and when healthy have career averages over 0.350. Su Chih Chieh hit  0.282 last season and as the anchor of the offense last season. Other questions remain, can Kuo Fu-Lin get back to how he played in 2018 after a below par 2019? Will Cheng Wei-Sheng have a break out year? And most importantly can the Lions show some consistency with the bat instead of flashes of promise?

Talking of consistency, Josh Roenicke is the only one of the three Uni Lions foreign pitchers to return from 2019. He pitched solidly in 2019 despite going 5-6 over 19 games but a lot of this was down to a lack of offensive support. He will be joined by Donn Roach and Ryan Feierabend.

Uni Lions local pitchers will have a large say in what the team does in 2020. Two stars from the 2018 Taiwan Series run Shih Tzu Chien and Jiang Chen-Yen regressed in 2019 mustering 9 wins over 37 starts between them compared to 19 over the same period in 2018. The Lions cannot keep relying on the ageing Pan Wei Lun and developing local starters is key. The bullpen will need to improve in 2020. Only Chen Yun-Wen and Liu Hsuan-Ta pitched with an ERA under 5 last season with some of the stats quite unpleasant to look at.

The 2020 Lions should reach at least 55 wins but consistency on both hitting and pitching is important. There is a lot of talent, particularly young talent and if certain players get back to form there is no reason why this team won’t be making a push for the play offs again.

Chinatrust Brothers

5 years and 4 Taiwan Series appearances but not a single championshipto show for it. Can Brothers finally win the Taiwan Series for the first time since 2012?

The 2019 season brought about hope that they would end their championship drought as they had an excellent 2nd half of the season. Brothers were the stand out team as they won 36 of their 60 games, they went back to Taichung 1-1 in the Taiwan Series and then were comprehensively beaten in all three home games. These games were not even close losing 8-4, 15-8 and 20-3.

Brothers decided to part ways with Scott Budner due to sexual harrassment allegations and have promoted from within as… comes to the helm. Brothers fans will hope he can take a talented team to a title.

Brothers have plenty of talent throughout the team. In terms of hitting, three players Chiang Chih-Hao, Lin Chih-Sheng and Chan Tzu-Hsien all hit 26 homers last year. Wang Wei-Chen is an ace at stealing bases and is useful with the bat too. Brothers can score runs at will.

Their local starting pitchers can be a bit up and down although Liao Yi-Zhong emerged last season and is worth keeping an eye on. Brothers bullpen was strong last season and it included Cheng Kai-Wen who had an ERA of 2.96 over 65 games and CC Lee who pitched 50 innings giving up with an absurd 1.26 ERA. Brothers retained Mitch Lively and he is joined by Ariel Miranda and Jose De Paula.

Expect Brothers to be there or thereabouts come October.

Fubon Guardians

As alluded to in the Rakuten Monkeys preview Fubon Guardians have acquired long time Monkeys coach Hung I-Chung. There is no questioning his experience or winning pedigree, as he helped the Monkeys win 6 of the last 8 Championships. Since Fubon’s takeover of the EDA Rhinos, the Guardians have failed to reach the Taiwan Series. Can this change in 2020?

Fubon’s were unlucky last season not to make the play offs. They posted a winning record which was good enough for 2nd in the league but having won neither phase missed on even a first round series. So what can get them to play offs and Taiwan Series?

Fubon’s biggest strength will be their starting pitching. They bring back Mike Loree for his 9th CPBL season and also Henry Sosa who went 8-0 over 9 before being bought out by KBO side the SK Wyverns last season. Fubon retain Ryan Bollinger and stick with CPBL vet Bryan Woodall who had an uncharacteristically poor season. Loree and Sosa will both be in the running for best pitcher in the league, and if Woodall even gets close to what he was in 2018, Fubon will be very difficult to match up against. This is without mentioning Chen Shih Peng, Fubon’s best local starter who went 11-8 over 23 games with a 3.48 ERA.

Fubon’s bullpen is a mixed bag. Lin Yi-Hao is one of the league’s best relievers and Chen Hong-Wen was second in saves in 2019 with a 6-0 record over 50 relief appearances. Aside from those two, of those who made 10 or more appearances only Wang Wei Yong and Ou Shu Cheng had ERAs under 5. This bullpen could certainly do with a bit more depth and for certain players to have better 2020 seasons. If however the starters perform to expectations, they’ll probably have lighter workloads than other bullpens in the league.

What can we expect with the bat then? The main hitters in 2019 were Lin Yi Chuan, Hu Chin Long and Zhang Zheng Wei all of whom would be considered veterans evenby CPBL standards. Last year Fubon suffered from injuries such as with Fan Guo Chen. This was a reasonable side with the bat last year, but in some games just didn’t do enough.

Fubon have the pieces, they have a great coach, a solid rotation backed up with a few good bullpen pitchers and some fine batters. Can they pull it together and at least win a phase, or will they just fall short again. They have to try and match Rakuten, or it’ll be another season to forget.