FEATURE/Behind the miracle: Keys to Taiwan's historic WBSC Premier12 title

By Chao Yen-hsiang, CNA staff writer

Anyone who said they thought Taiwan would win the WBSC Premier12 tournament when manager Tseng Hao-jiu (曾豪駒) announced the team's roster on Oct. 7 is lying.

Even team captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after Sunday's 4-0 victory over Japan in the final: "We've achieved a miracle. This championship is truly a miracle for us."

The roster would have been stronger if fireballers like the MVP of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), Gu Lin Ruei-yang (古林睿煬), had not pulled out due to injuries.

Instead, the team had only two players based overseas, leading Japan-based SportsNavi to project Taiwan as the second weakest team in the tournament -- ahead of only Australia -- in their power ranking.

That was why the team's ultimate triumph was so stunning, especially given its significance.

It is widely considered to be Taiwan's greatest baseball achievement, surpassing its third-place finish in the 2003 Baseball World Cup, the Premier12's predecessor, and silver-medal showing at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Some may discount the Premier12 as not having the same prestige as the World Baseball Classic (WBC) because teams are not allowed to field players on MLB 40-man rosters, but it still remains one of the three international tournaments at the highest level of the game.

While Taiwan saw several stellar performances on the field, several other factors contributed to the team's unprecedented success.

Early scouting, smooth communication

After Taiwan clinched the title, ELTA Sports anchor Wu Sheng-fu (吳昇府) read out a long list of names unfamiliar to the public: the 24 members of Taiwan's scouting team.

It was a rare moment in which these unsung heroes were given the spotlight.

The last Premier12 in 2019 was the first time Taiwan's national pastime was supported by a professional scouting team, led by local baseball data analytics startup StatsInsight (灼見運動數據).

Cheng Kai-chun (鄭凱駿), co-founder of Rebas (野球革命), another Taiwan-based sabermetrics firm, highlighted two major improvements in the CPBL's scouting efforts over the past five years -- creating a scouting structure and making the results helpful to players.

"The establishment of a permanent scouting team was a critical step" that brought stability, allowing for greater preparation ahead of tournaments, Cheng said.

According to the CPBL, the permanent scouting group, led by retired CPBL player Chen Jui-chang (陳瑞昌), was set up on Oct. 1, 2023 and traveled to LoanDepot park in the United States to watch the Caribbean Series in late January 2024.

The project involving the 24-member scouting team for the Premier12 tournament was then formed on April 1.

Early preparation is ineffective, however, without seamless communication.

This is where the inclusion of Lin Han (林翰) and Wu Sheng-feng (吳昇峰) in the scouting team became pivotal. The two players bridged the gap between the data-heavy insights of the scouts and practical strategies players could execute.

"They translated complex scouting data into language players could understand, filling a gap we had struggled with before," Cheng said.

StatsInsight confirmed this in a Facebook post following Taiwan's 8-2 victory over the U.S. on Nov. 22, Taiwan's first professional win against the U.S. in 21 years.

"Our scouting began in 2019, and we've worked tirelessly to improve. With Wu Sheng-feng's help, we finally took our revenge. We can finally leave Tokyo Dome with smiles on our faces," the post read.

No fixed roles

A story in South Korea-based Money Today on Nov. 19 highlighted another factor that has led to the narrowing gap in baseball strength between Taiwan and South Korea.

Describing Taiwan as a team that can "no longer be ignored," the report credited Taiwan's progress to its willingness to send promising players abroad to be developed and recall them for key tournaments.

"Taiwan has a different mindset. They send their prospects abroad immediately, and many are in the minor leagues. When tournaments come around, they bring them back, which makes a noticeable difference," South Korean manager Ryu Joong-il was quoted as saying.

Taiwan's roster had two players in the Arizona Diamondbacks' minor league system, including No. 7 prospect Lin Yu-min (林昱珉), while South Korea had no overseas-based players on its team.

More important, perhaps, was Taiwan's handling of its players, especially its pitching staff.

"Except for Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇) and Wu Chun-wei (吳俊偉), who usually pitched the last two innings, the coaches changed pitchers based on the situation rather than following an established formula," Cheng said.

"In the final game, it was even Lin Kai-wei (林凱威) who closed it out."

That strategy was inspired by the Los Angeles Dodgers' playoff run this year, according to manager Tseng.

Baseball commentator Tseng Wen-cheng (曾文誠) said the strategy blurs the line between starters and relievers and is designed to keeping pitchers from facing batters a third time in a game.

The tactic paid off as Taiwanese pitchers recorded a 1.80 ERA in the group stage, the lowest among all 12 teams, and held all of Taiwan's opponents to three or fewer runs in each game.

Cheng said the strategy also applied to the final against Japan.

Whereas Lin Yu-min was substituted after throwing 69 pitches over four scoreless innings, probably because Japanese batters started making good contact against him in the fourth, Japan's manager Hirokazu Ibata may have kept Yomiuri Giants ace Shosei Togo in too long.

Togo threw 95 pitches over five innings, including 33 in the decisive fifth inning in which he allowed four runs on two home runs.

What the title means for Taiwan

The tournament helped Taiwan improve its record in the WBC and Premier12 to 12-8 at home and 6-12 overseas, reflecting Taiwan's general struggles when it plays abroad.

But manager Tseng Hao-jiu acknowledged that the victory did not imply that Taiwan had caught up with or surpassed Japan.

"Beating them today only means we've narrowed the gap," he said.

Yet Taiwan's title did suggest its baseball program is headed in the right direction, Cheng said.

"Recruitment didn't go smoothly this time, but the team demonstrated how to achieve success with the cards we have," he said.

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