Taipei, Dec. 30 (CNA) Right-handed pitcher Lin En-yu was selected as the number one pick by the Brother Elephants in the 2010 Taiwanese professional baseball draft, held even though the league's future remains clouded by a major game-fixing scandal.
Lin, a regular on Taiwan's national baseball team who played professionally in Japan for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, was chosen first by the Elephants, before the Sinon Bulls picked 18-year-old Chang Keng-hao of Nan Ying Vocational High School.
In all, 51 players were chosen by the league's four teams.
"With Lin's talent and experience, he brings a lot to the table and will definitely be in our starting rotation next season, " Elephants manager Chen Jui-chen said after the draft.
The 28-year-old compiled a 1-3 record for the Golden Eagles during his three-year stint in Japan from 2007 to 2009, which was plagued by injuries and ineffectiveness.
He has spent the past two years in the Japanese minor league trying to regain the form that earned him Rookie of the Year and MVP honors in his first year in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in 2005.
The Elephants hope he will be able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the team, widely seen as the most popular franchise in the CPBL, out from under the darkest cloud in team history.
Thirteen Elephants members, including 12 players and manager Nakagomi Shin, were charged with game-fixing in an ongoing investigation by Taiwan prosecutors in October and November, sparking concern that the team might be disbanded.
Over 40 active and former players and coaches in the league were implicated in the case that shocked the country, where baseball remains the national pastime.
"We are happy to have Lin on our team. He is a proven pitcher and seasoned veteran. Both Taiwanese baseball and the Elephants need him, especially now," Elephants coach Feng Sheng-hsien told reporters. "He will shoulder a great burden of reviving fan interest in the national pastime and the Elephants." Before going to Japan, Lin spent two years (2005-06) in the CPBL with the now-defunct Macoto Cobras, compiling a 29-16 won-loss record and setting an all-time single-season strikeout record of 209.
Sinon also has high hopes for the No. 2 pick, Chang, who will try to jump directly from high school baseball to the professional ranks.
"We have been keeping an eye on Chang for a while. He is a promising young pitcher, but it will take time for him to make the adjustment from high school ball, " said Sinon Assistant General Manager Liu Chih-shen.
For young players like Chang, it was not an easy decision to place their names in the draft pool at a time when the baseball community and fans are still reeling from the aftershocks of the scandal, CPBL Secretary-General Wayne Lee said.
"Young players may have doubts about the league's stability and future. Understandably, it was a difficult decision for them to apply for the draft at this time, " Lee said. "But I told them that as all the teams are still doing their best to prepare for the new season in this difficult time, there will be more and better opportunities for the young guys." In the two-hour draft, the short-handed Elephants picked up 19 players. Sinon and the La New Bears selected 11 each while the defending champion Uni-President Lions added 10 newcomers. None of the players selected in the draft were on hand to witness the process, however.
All of the players selected in the first round were pitchers, as La New selected Lee Chu-kwan third and Uni-President selected Tsai Ching-hao with its top pick.
President Ma Ying-jeou convened a Cabinet-level task force to tackle the issue of reviving local baseball after the scandal broke out and hundreds of fans marched the streets requesting the government's help in "saving the national pastime."