12th Taiwanese MLB player

Recreation Sports
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Chih-Wei Hu was with the Durham Bulls when he got the call two days ago. Today he stepped on the mound, threw 9 pitches for a scoreless inning in his first MLB appearance.

Hu is 24, right handed, a native of Taichung, and throws upwards to 97mph. He was signed by the Twins when he turned 20, then traded to the Rays in 2015.

Here’s Hu’s interview when he got the call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JbVokWzClk

His picked up an accent very common these days among international baseball players.

2 Likes
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I saw this. Hu was pitching? Nice job getting the Korean native outfielder Kim for his 1st major league out. You did your country proud son.

https://www.facebook.com/TAIWAN.MLB/videos/1388990211188214/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN8u0KdaqK0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5jIAl81JK4

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He looks like he’s about to launch laser beams out of his eyeballs there.

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He got recalled up. Really nice looking change with late movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLk1AZLC6Ag

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Immediately sent back to AAA after the game though

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I don’t mind it, he was sent down to single A ball last time correct? If he got sent to AAA, it means they think he’s MLB ready but would still like to give him some time to develop with many older guys down there that have MLB experience but older or just below in skills to keep a MLB spot. He’s young, 23 if i’m correct? So let him develop. and thats 2/3 minor league options.

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I think he was with the AAA the first time he got called up, he was at Durham, which is a AAA team.

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I could be wrong. I saw he went to single A ball. But I could have misread. still he looked good. I think he needs a 3rd pitch though. Slider didn’t look that impressive. I liked how he was pretty good about going away, in, and down. Not too many mistakes missing his spots. He missed it outside of the zone.

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For all the years they won the LLWS (17 of 25, plus a few runner-ups) they didn’t cough an MLB’er until 2002. That is strange.

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Well there’s a lot of factors.

  1. Baseball in reality is a children’s game. It might be great for these young kids. But the pursue of a baseball career back in the day even now is pretty crazy. It’s not like the US where you can get a huge scholarship and sports are encouraged. So eventually these kids focus more on realistic careers, and most of these teams are from poor areas in the south. It prospect of having your son try to pursue baseball is pretty hard for parents to accept.
  2. Not great development of talent. It’s not the US where you have access to hitting, pitching coaches and such. Facilities to train athletes.
  3. Not protecting players. Most Taiwanese pitchers were not pitchers for most their playing careers. Pitch counts and protecting arms were not a thing here until recently. Guys would pitch and play the next day in the field or have another pitching session. So their arms were all damaged. Chien Ming Wang was a first baseman most his playing career if I’m not mistaken.