Yanks head to China for talent; eggroll or can of soda not included
ByFrom Pete Abraham:
The New York Yankees announced today that they have signed left-handed pitcher Kai Liu and catcher Zhenwang Zhang to minor league contracts, becoming the first Major League team to sign a player from the People’s Republic of China with approval from the Chinese Baseball Association.
The 19-year old Liu began playing baseball in 2000 for the Guangdong Province team. In addition to his playing career in the six-team Chinese Baseball League with the Guangdong Leopards, he was chosen to participate as a member of the People’s Republic of China National Team.
Zhang, 19, began his playing career in 1998 in the Municipality of Tianjin. He helped lead his team, the Tianjin Lions, to the CBL championship series in three of the past five seasons (2002, 2005 and 2006) and was selected to represent his country as a member of the PRC National Team. Zhang also participated in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
Finally, a lefthanded pitcher! I know absolutely nothing about these 2 guys, but as soon as I dig something up, I’ll let you know.
Cool. Hopefully this will be cheaper than the posting system.
Global domination. Thinking outside the box. I like it
yanks are gonna start playing some home games in china like the expos of a few years back
does approval mean that these players were signed out of their system without having to wait for them to become free agents ? i dont really understand what that means by “becoming the first Major League team to sign a player from the People’s Republic of China with approval from the Chinese Baseball Association.”
Mike,
I’ve dug out a little bit of information about those two players.
Firstly, I would want to say don’t get too excited with these two Chinese players, or any Chinese player in general. The standard in baseball in China is a good 10, 20 years behind their little cousin Taiwan, and that is being polite. You might think I’m joking but it really is.
The Chinese started their professional league only in 2002. In last year’s WBC, China went winless and was spanked by Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Also, every year at the end of baseball seasons, the champion team from Japan, Korea and Taiwan would compete in a tournament that will determine Asia’s best baseball club. A Chinese team is also invited, but it’s their all-star team. Results? They scored 4 runs in three games while gave away 32 runs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.....eries_2006
Some might say quality comes from quantity? But without proper system and structure, it’s hard to see any decent baseball player coming from China in the next 10 year.
I think there were about 10 or so Taiwanese kids (high school, college) that were signed this year to play ball in the US. And not to mention the ones that’s already in the system.
If the Yankees are looking for talents, China would be the last place out of Japan, Korea and Taiwan to look from. However, from a marketing point of view, it is not a bad move.
Anyway, onto the two players.
Zhenwang Zhang, catcher. Played in the WBC last year. Plays for this team in China called Tianjin Lions. The most recognised person is that club is the two coaches who were retired baseball players from Taiwan.
Kai Liu, lefty pitcher. Born 11 of Nov 1987. 185 cm tall, 80kg. http://www.gdbaseball.com/team_big.asp?id=13 He has been chosen in the Chinese national team, but did not represent them in WBC. Liu Recently (12th of May) struck out 16 batters in a game. Although the Chinese themselves aren’t sure whether that’s a record or not because they did not keep the data.
The one good thing is that they are fairly young at 19 they havent had that long to learn any bad habits from bad Chinese coaches. I also like that we got a pitcher and a catcher so they can work together. Id be interested to see how hard he throws
You are a racist pig, how dare you write something as ignorant and as ridiculous as “eggroll and can of soda not included”? You are basically associating two random native Chinese baseball players with an Americanized Chinese fastfood add-on. I am not doing this to be controversial, nor will I give you the dignity of giving me an apology. Let’s just stay respectful; okay, my adolescent bigot friend? Great.
It was inevitable that someone was going to say something about that.
Robert Magnum
Just wait until A-Rod hits a home run off of a Japanese pitcher. Then we’ll offend another Pacific rim nation.