2020 Chinese Professional Baseball League season

The 2020 Chinese Professional Baseball League season is the 31st season of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). The season was scheduled to begin on 14 March, earlier than previous seasons in order to free up time for the CPBL players to participate in the final qualifying tournament of the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak, opening day was delayed.[2][3] On 1 April, the CPBL announced that the season would begin on 11 April with last season's champions the Rakuten Monkeys hosting runners-up the CTBC Brothers, but behind closed doors with no fans attending.[4]

31st CPBL season
League	Chinese Professional Baseball League
Sport	Baseball
Duration	April 12 – October 28, 2020
Number of games	60 (each half season, each team)
Number of teams	5 Wei Chuan Dragons (minor league)[1]
TV partner(s)	MOMOTV Eleven Sports Videoland Television Network ELTA TV
First half-season
Season champions	CTBC Brothers
Second half-season
Overall season
Taiwan Series

Due to inclement weather, game #1 and #2 hosted by Monkeys were postponed. This led to game #3, the CTBC Brothers hosting the Uni-President Lions on April 12 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, becoming the first game of the season to play to completion.[5][6] On May 8, a maximum of 1,000 fans were permitted to attend games.[7][8] Restrictions were further relaxed on June 5: as long as there was one-seat spacing between spectators, attendance number was no longer restricted, and masks were no longer required while seated; food prepared on-site was again allowed.

The CPBL received international coverage because other major baseball leagues such as Major League Baseball in North America, Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, and the KBO League in South Korea were still severely impacted by the virus outbreak and unable to confirm the dates of their respective season openings.[9]

The annual CPBL All-Star Game was cancelled for the first time to accommodate to the compact schedule.[10] The season will be concluded in late October with the Taiwan Series.

Competition

Four teams, the Rakuten Monkeys, Uni-President Lions, Fubon Guardians, and CTBC Brothers will contest the CPBL, the highest level of professional baseball played in Taiwan. The season is divided into two halves, with each team playing 60 games in each half. The winners for each half-season plus the non-winner with the best overall record will qualify for the playoffs. In the event that the same team wins both halves, the next 2 teams with the best overall records will advance.

In May 2019, commissioner John Wu announced that the CPBL had reached an agreement with Ting Hsin International Group, largest and managing shareholder of Wei Chuan Foods Corporation, to reactivate Wei Chuan Dragons. The Dragons would participate in the minor league during 2020 season and expected to return to the major league in 2021.[11]

Broadcast rights

Following a dispute between the CPBL and MP & Silva during the 2014 CPBL season,[12][13] broadcast rights to CPBL games were acquired over the intervening seasons by Eleven Sports, ELTA TV, MOMOTV, and Videoland Television Network.[14][15] English-language broadcasts were added on a trial basis and streamed via the Twitter account of Eleven Sports Taiwan.[16] A number of international fans tuned in,[17][18] and all CPBL teams subsequently announced that they would feature English commentary.[19]

Standings

First Half standings

CTBC Brothers claimed the first half Championship on July 14, by defeating Uni-President Lions with a score of 6:1 in the resumption of game #62, which was suspended on May 26 at top of third inning with a score of 1:0 due to rain.

Team	G	W	T	L	Pct.	GB
CTBC Brothers	60	37	0	23	0.617	--
Rakuten Monkeys	60	34	0	26	0.567	3.0
Uni-President Lions	60	26	0	34	0.433	11.0
Fubon Guardians	60	23	0	37	0.383	14.0

Second Half Standings

(as of August 15th, 2020)

Team	G	W	T	L	Pct.	GB
Uni-President Lions	16	9	0	7	0.562	--
Rakuten Monkeys	15	8	0	7	0.533	0.5
Fubon Guardians	15	8	0	7	0.533	0.5
CTBC Brothers	16	6	0	10	0.375	3.0

Overall standings

(as of August 15th, 2020)

The team among the non-half-season-winners with the best overall record will gain the wild card spot and the third seed in the playoffs.

Team	G	W	T	L	Pct.	GB
CTBC Brothers	76	43	0	33	0.566	--
Rakuten Monkeys	75	42	0	33	0.560	0.5
Uni-President Lions	76	35	0	41	0.461	8.0
Fubon Guardians	75	31	0	44	0.413	11.5

• Green denotes first half or second half champion.
• Bold denotes clinching playoff qualification.

Statistical leaders

Hitting

Stat	Player	Team	Total
HR	An-Ko Lin	Uni-President Lions	25
AVG	Chieh-Hsien Chen	Uni-President Lions	0.390
H	Chieh-Hsien Chen	Uni-President Lions	122
RBIs	An-Ko Lin	Uni-President Lions	75
SB	Chen-Wei Chen	Rakuten Monkeys	30

Pitching

Stat	Player	Team	Total
W	José de Paula	CTBC Brothers	9
ERA	José de Paula	CTBC Brothers	3.89
SO	José de Paula	CTBC Brothers	121
SV	C.C. Lee, Yun-Wen Chen	CTBC Brothers, Uni-President Lions	13
Hld	Chun-Wei Wu	CTBC Brothers	15

Play-offs

Rules

All regular season rules apply with the following exceptions:

• Each team is allowed to register 28 players on its active roster.
• No tied games.
• Two outfield umpires are added to the games.

References

1. 雷明正 (2020-02-05). "中職／味全龍今年打二軍球季　行銷經營全比照一軍規格" (in Chinese). NOWnews. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
2. Gleeson, Scott (7 April 2020). "Chinese Professional Baseball League team will have robot mannequins fill in as fans at games". USA Today. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
3. Bengel, Chris (7 April 2020). "Rakuten Monkeys will have robot mannequins dressed as fans when 2020 season begins". CBS Sports. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
4. Armstrong, Megan (8 April 2020). "CPBL's Rakuten Monkeys to Use Robot Mannequins as Fans Amid COVID-19". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
5. Yen, William (11 April 2020). "Opening game of Taiwan baseball season postponed due to rain". Central News Agency. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
6. Yen, William (12 April 2020). "Taiwan launches world's only baseball season amid COVID-19 (updated)". Central News Agency. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
7. Pan, Jason (9 May 2020). "Virus Outbreak: Taiwan opens stadiums to ball fans". Taipei Times. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
8. Hsieh, Ching-wen; Mazzetta, Matthew (8 May 2020). "Taiwan the first to open pro baseball games to fans in 2020". Central News Agency. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
9. Flannery, Russell (5 April 2020). "Taiwan To Achieve Feat That Eludes U.S.: Open Baseball Season This Month". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
10. "關於中職-聯盟組織架構" (in Chinese). CPBL. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
11. Shan, Shelley (14 May 2019). "Wei Chuan Dragons are fifth team to join CPBL". Taipei Times. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
12. "Fox Sports picks up rights to Taiwanese baseball league". Sportcal. 6 August 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
13. Pan, Jason (10 August 2014). "CPBL reeling from series of scandals and feuding". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
14. Yeh, Joseph (8 August 2014). "CPBL returns to cable TV to acclaim by fans happy". China Post. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
15. Li, David K. (22 April 2020). "The only baseball in the world right now is in Taiwan — and they need English broadcasters". NBC News. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
16. Yen, William (14 April 2020). "Taiwan's pro baseball league to broadcast games in English". Central News Agency. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
17. Lin, Hung-han; Mazzetta, Matthew (16 April 2020). "CPBL game draws 650,000 viewers at home and abroad". Central News Agency. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
18. Lin, Hung-han; Mazzetta, Matthew (18 April 2020). "CPBL English broadcasts provide a lifeline to deprived sports fans". Central News Agency. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
19. Yang, Chi-fang; Yeh, Joseph (23 April 2020). "All Taiwan's four-team pro-league games to have English commentaries". Central News Agency. Retrieved 23 April 2020.

External links

"CPBL official website". (in Chinese)