Lin Yi-chuan

Yi-Chuan Lin (Chinese: 林益全; born 11 November 1985) is a Taiwanese baseball infielder for the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). He has previously played in the CPBL for the Fubon Guardians.

Lin Yi-Chuan
Uni-President Lions
First baseman/Third baseman
Born: (1985-11-11) 11 November 1985
Tainan, Taiwan
Bats: Left
Throws: Right
CPBL debut
March 29, 2009, for the EDA Rhinos
CPBL statistics
(through 2022 season)
Batting average.335
Home runs205
Runs batted in1,074
Teams
Career highlights and awards

He was the first position player to be named Rookie of the Year and MVP in the Chinese Professional Baseball League the same year.

Career

Sinon Bulls/EDA Rhinos/Fubon Guardians

Lin debuted for the Taiwan national baseball team in the 2005 Asian Baseball Championship, which he led in home runs. He hit .250/.294/.313 as a part-time third sacker in the 2005 Baseball World Cup. In the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, he hit .135/.158/.162 as the starting third baseman for Taiwan. He batted .306/.342/.500 in the 2007 World Port Tournament – he tied Sidney de Jong for fifth in the tournament in home runs (2), tied Yosvani Peraza for 6th in runs (6) and was 6th in RBI (5). His offensive production was similar to the USA's third baseman, top prospect Pedro Alvarez. He helped Taiwan win a Silver Medal. In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, Lin went 0 for 1 as the backup third baseman to Tai-Shan Chang.

Lin hit .130/.231/.174 for Taiwan in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament as the starting third baseman. Despite his struggles, they won a spot in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Lin had a couple defensive gaffes in a loss to the South Korean national baseball team. In the second inning, he did not get to a grounder by Dae-ho Lee that reporters said was within his range. Later in the inning, he again did not get to a ball in close range of third hit by Jin-man Park. The two plays, coupled with a Che-Hsuan Lin miscue, contributed to two Korean runs and the win.

Lin was the top pick in the 2007 CPBL draft, taken by the Sinon Bulls. He had played for the amateur Fubon Bull previously. He did not play in 2008, as he was fulfilling his military commitment. In late 2008, he announced that he didn't want to play for Sinon when he came out of the military and that he wanted to remain an amateur. Lin changed his mind and signed with Sinon in March 2009, inking a deal with a signing bonus equivalent to $145,000. That was the second-largest bonus in CPBL history, behind Chung-Nan Tsai and even with Chang-Wei Tu, Chih-Yuan Chen and Yi-Cheng Tseng.

Lin was 0 for 8 with two strikeouts as one of Taiwan's worst performers in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Lin had a great pro debut. Manning first base and hitting 7th, he was 3 for 4 in Sinon's 2009 opener. He reached 100 hits in 249 AB and 62 games, the fastest player to that mark in CPBL history to that point. On August 13, he set new CPBL rookie records for RBI (77, surpassing Tai-Shan Chang) and hits (119, breaking the mark held by Chih-Wei Shih). He hit .348/.395/.543 for the 2009 CPBL campaign and drove in 113 runs, breaking Tilson Brito's CPBL record. He finished 4th in average (behind Wu-Hsiung Pan, Cheng-Min Peng and Wilton Veras), second in hits (169, behind Veras) and third in home runs (18, behind Chih-Sheng Lin and Chin-Feng Chen). He won a Gold Glove at first base and made the Best Ten. He was named Rookie of the Year and MVP, the third player and first position player ever to accomplish that double honor; En-Yu Lin had been the last pitcher to pull off the feat (in 2005).

He played in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. 2013CPBL Home Run Derbychampion.

Lin won the Taiwan Series with the then EDA Rhinos in 2016. Lin was in the Opening Day lineup for the Fubon Guardians in 2021.

Uni-President Lions

On January 19, 2023, Lin signed with the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League.[1]

Career statistics

YearTeamGABHHRRBISBBBSOTBGDPBAOBPSLGOPS
2009Sinon Bulls1204861691811364046264190.3480.3950.5430.938
2010Sinon Bulls10740613485543052184140.3300.3740.4530.827
2011Sinon Bulls1013681178552425617080.3180.3830.4620.845
2012Sinon Bulls113450167139223846258170.3710.4190.5730.992
2013EDA Rhinos113417149187944342229200.3570.4150.5490.964
2014EDA Rhinos119465161148814533237130.3460.3980.5100.908
2015EDA Rhinos1174521662312615053265120.3670.4220.5861.008
2016EDA Rhinos106417146178115062221110.3500.4160.5300.946
2017Fubon Guardians105385136177144250212150.3530.4200.5510.971
Total1001384613451367602533944020401290.3500.4050.5300.935

References

  1. "Uni-Lions Sign Lin Yi-Chuan". cpblstats.com. Retrieved 2023-01-19.

Awards
Preceded by CPBL RBI Champion Award
2009
Succeeded by
Lin Chih-sheng(林智勝)
Preceded by
Lin Chi-wei(林其緯)
CPBL Rookie of the Year Award
2009
Succeeded by
Wang Ching-ming(王鏡銘)
Preceded by CPBL MVP of the Year Award
2009
2013-14
Succeeded by
Peng Cheng-min(彭政閔)
Lin Chih-sheng(林智勝)
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