Slugging It Out in Taiwan: The Best Foreign Hitters in CPBL History

This the first revised iteration of a post on the most successful foreign hitters in the history of Taiwan’s CPBL. The CPBL recognizes stats from a rival league, the Taiwan Major League (“TML”), which operated for six years before merging with the CPBL after the 2002 season. However, the CPBL does not publish TML stats and neither does baseball-reference.com.

Nearly all of the best foreign hitters in CPBL history played in the CPBL in its early years between 1990 and 2005, and many of the best foreign players jumped to the TML for more money. This makes it hard for someone like me with no working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese to find the TML stats. I have now revised this post based on Google Translate versions of Taiwanese wikipedia pages.

After about 2010, CPBL teams, following serious contraction in the number of teams, quite reasonably decided that foreign starting pitchers were more valuable to them than position players and relief pitchers, in no small part because it was easier for the foreign pitchers they signed to adjust to CPBL baseball right away than it was for foreign position players to do so.

With the expansion Wei Chuan Dragons starting CPBL major league play in 2021, creating a need for 25% more major league position players, CPBL teams all signed foreign position players for the 2022 season, although none of them has had success so far. The TSG Hawks will start CPBL major league play in 2024, meaning the CPBL will need to find another roster-full of major league position players.

Rob over at CPBL STATS has opined many times that he still thinks it doesn’t make sense for teams to sign foreign position players because pitchers are more of sure thing of proven value. I think it makes sense for CPBL teams to sign position players now, at least to play at the minor league level. I also think teams will have to sign position players when the TSG Hawks start major league play because you can’t add 50% more position players in five years and not have a serious diminution of talent unless you expand the player base beyond domestic Taiwanese position players.

Without further ado, here are my lists.

Batting Average (1,900 At-Bat Minimum)

1. Sandy Guerrero .333 (1,984 At-Bats)
2. Luis Iglesias .318
3. Angel Gonzalez .314 (1,964 At-Bats)
4. Francisco Laureano .306
5. Leo Garcia .300
6. Sil Campusano .290

Panamanian Luis Iglesias and Dominicans Sandy Guerrero, Francisco Laureano, Leo Garcia, Sil Campusano and Angel Gonzalez are the only foreign players to reach my 1,900 career at-bats threshold with certainty. Luis Iglesias had the most productive Taiwanese baseball career of any foreign hitter. He played seven years in the CPBL for the now-defunct Mercuries Tigers and then finished his Taiwanese career with two seasons in the TML. His career batting average in the CPBL of .318 matches his career Taiwan batting average, so it seems clear that the level of play in the TML was roughly equal to the CPBL, thanks mainly to allowing each team to sign a lot more foreign players than CPBL roster limits.

Iglesias had a good year with the bat in the Class A Sally League in 1987 at age 20, but his offensive production dropped in the Class A Florida State League in 1988; and his MLB organization, the Phillies, dropped him. He played for one of the last independent teams in an MLB-system minor league, the Miami Miracle, in 1989 and then signed with the Mercuries Tigers for the CPBL’s inaugural 1990 season at the still young age of 23. He did nothing but hit in the CPBL’s early days, while splitting his time between SS and 3B. His .331 batting average led the league in 1991.

Francisco Laureano, Leo Garcia and Angel Gonzalez played five successful seasons in the CPBL starting in 1992 and then played for two seasons in the TML. Leo Garcia got cups of coffee with the Cincinnati Reds in 1987 and 1988 and was the Reds’ starting AAA centerfielder for seven years before joining the CPBL’s Mercuries Tigers in 1992.

Angel Gonzalez led the CPBL with batting averages of .360 and .354 in 1994 and 1995. Sandy Guerrero played four years in the CPBL followed by two in the TML.

Sil Campusano played briefly for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies before playing three seasons in the CPBL followed by three seasons in the TML.

Dominican Luis De Los Santos batted .362 across three CPBL seasons from 1994-1996 for the Brother Elephants. His .375 batting average led the league in 1996, and he finished second in batting average in each of 1994 and 1995. His CPBL performance earned De Los Santos an NPB shot in 1997, where he flopped for the Yomiuri Giants; but he returned to Taiwan in 1998, where he led the TML with a .357 batting average. De Los Santos batted .353 over five seasons in Taiwan (634 hits in 1,796 AB). He also played parts of three MLB seasons for the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers before going to Taiwan and had a big year in the KBO at age 34 after he left Taiwan.

Except for De Los Santos, all of these players played up the middle, providing a great deal of value to their Taiwanese teams. De Los Santos could just plain hit.

Home Runs

1. Luis Inglesias 164
2. Sil Campusano 96
3. Luis De Los Santos 88
4. Leo Garcia 77
5. Corey Powell 75
6. George Hinshaw 68
7. Tilson Brito 66
8. Francisco Laureano 65
9. Angel Gonzalez 64
10. Ted Wood 61

Luis Iglesias hit 120 CPBL HR, including a record-setting 31 in 1996, and 44 HR in the TML. He also hit the first Taiwan Series home run, although the Mercuries Tigers lost the game 2-1 to the original Wei Chuan Dragons.

Corey Powell hit 25 HR in each of his three seasons in the TML.

George Hinshaw played briefly for the San Diego Padres and spent a season with NPB’s Chunichi Dragons before starting a four-year CBPL career at age 34 in 1994. He may also have played a season or two in the TML.

Tilson Brito played briefly for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Oakland A’s before having much greater success in South Korea’s KBO and the CPBL. His 33 HR in 2007 set a new CPBL record.

Ted Wood had three cups of coffee with the San Francisco Giants and Montreal Expos before playing three seasons with the Brother Elephants starting in 1997. He led the CPBL with a lusty .373 batting average in 1997. His strong performance got him a shot in the KBO in 2000, where he finished his pro career.

RBIs

1. Luis Iglesias 550
2. Luis De Los Santos 365
3. Sil Campusano 348
4. Francisco Laureano 346
5. Leo Garcia 316
6. Sandy Guerrero 289
7. Angel Gonzalez 272
8. George Hinshaw 246
9. Ted Wood 241
10. Tilson Brito 234

Runs Scored

1. Luis Iglesias 436
2. Sil Campusano 382
3. Frank Laureano 334
4. Leo Garcia 326
5. Sandy Guerrero 308
6. Luis De Los Santos 297
7. Angel Gonzalez 291
8. Ted Wood 207
9. Corey Powell 207

Stolen Bases

1. Bernie Tatis 147
2. Sil Campusano 122
3. Lonnie Goldberg 110
4. Angel Gonzalez 100
5. Leo Garcia 84
6. Cesar Hernandez 82
7. Freddy Tiburcio 68
8. Sandy Guerrero 67

Bernie Tatis played parts of four seasons in the CPBL but only regularly in 1997 and 1998, when he stole 71 and then 65 bases at the ages of 35 and 36. Clearly, he was great at reading pitchers’ moves and getting a good jump.

Lonnie Goldberg played three seasons in the TML after playing in the Independent-A Northeast League.

Cesar Hernandez is another former Cincinnati Reds outfielder. He signed with the Uni-President Lions in 1995 at the still young age of 28 and played four years for the Uni-Lions.

OF Freddy Tiburcio played six seasons for the Brother Elephants starting in 1990. His .318 batting average was second best in the circuit in 1991.

As you can see, Tilson Brito was the only foreign hitter to have much of a CPBL career after 2005, although former Boston Red Sox 3B Wilton Veras did finish 3rd in 2009 with a .360 batting average.

After 2010, foreign hitters nearly disappeared from the CPBL. Jim Negrich in 2014 and 2015 was the last foreign position player to play regularly in the CPBL until 2021, when the expansion Wei Chuan Dragons got their best offensive production from former MLBer Rosell Herrera. However, Herrera missed a lot of games with injuries and didn’t hit with much power, and the Dragons elected not to re-sign him for 2022.

In the early days of the CPBL, many foreign hitters had one or two big seasons. The best was Jay Kirkpatrick‘s 1998 campaign for the Sinon Bulls. He was the CPBL’s first Triple Crown winner, batting .387 with 31 HR and 101 RBIs, a feat not matched until current Nippon Ham Fighter Wang Po-Jung won the Triple Crown in 2017.

Also, in 1998, 37 year old former Houston Astro Ty Gainey finished second in all the Triple Crown categories — .376 batting average, 21 HR and 83 RBI.

Former Milwaukee Brewer Juan Castillo led the CPBL with a .326 batting average in 1992.

3B/OF Melvin Mora had the best MLB career after playing in the CPBL. After becoming a minor league free agent after seven seasons in the Astros’ system and coming off a light-hitting season at AAA in 1997, Mora apparently did not receive a minor league contract offer to his liking, because he ended up signing with the Mercuries Tigers to start the 1998 season. He batted .335 for the Mercuries Tigers in 44 games and was signed by New York Mets in late July, going on to greater MLB success as a Baltimore Oriole.

Given the late in career improvement as a hitter and the era in which Mora played, one must suspect that Vitamin S may have shot his career forward, as it did for the next player. Before going on to hit five MLB HR and 357 NPB HR, Alex Cabrera batted .325 with 18 HR in 1999 for the Chinatrust Whales, Cabrera’s age 27 season.

Former Red Sox and Oriole slugger Sam Horn blasted 31 HR in 1997, setting the all-time TML record.

No article on foreign hitters in the CPBL would be complete without mention of Manny Ramirez‘s half season in 2013 for the EDA Rhinos. The possible future Hall of Famer (PEDs) batted .352 and clubbed eight HR in 49 games before returning for a last shot in AAA baseball. The Rhinos offered to double his monthly salary to $50,000 if he would stay, because he had had a tremendous impact on CBPL attendance. However, Manny was just trying to get some quality professional at-bats to show that he still had something left in the tank at age 41 since his real goal was to return to MLB.

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