Slightly Better than Replacement Level
When the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions signed Austin Bibens-Dirkx they thought they were getting an ace starter. They needed someone to pair with Ryan Verdugo, Josh Roenicke, and Pan Wei-Lun in what looked to be an impressive rotation. Biben-Dirkx’s signing took on added import with the injury to Verdugo that sidelined him for the first few […]
Just seven games into his 2019 Chinese Professional Baseball League season Zeke Spruill finds himself without a job. He was released this week by the Lamigo Monkeys, and it’s unlikely Spruill will be picked up by another CPBL club. On its surface, Spruill’s release isn’t much of an event. He wasn’t performing, and it makes […]
The sun shining, the pull of the tides, the moon filling up the night, and Mike Loree being the best pitcher in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. Since he entered the league in 2012 Loree has been at or near the top of the pitching leaders every year. In an extremely hitter-friendly league, he’s never […]
Foreign pitchers are the lifeblood of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. Every team is allowed to carry three foreign players on their main roster, and most of the time all three spots are occupied by foreign pitchers. Mike Loree has been the standard of excellence in this regard, but others like Darin Downs, Bruce Kern […]
2016 was a great year for baseball, all around. In Japan Shohei Ohtani was doing his thing, Mike Trout was being Mike Trout, Francisco Lindor emerged as a household superstar, and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. All of these things, and more combined to make 2016 a heck of a year for being […]