Asians in Baseball

Being a huge baseball fan and Asian, I have decided to write about the influx of Asian baseball players to the Major League Baseball (MLB) scene. I will focus on two import baseball players from Asia. Also I am going to mention about the MLB expansion to China. 

First of all, it is not easy to be a Toronto Blue Jays fan these days. Since the 1993 World Series victory, the Blue Jays have missed the playoffs for 18 consecutive seasons. Last December, they were in the thick of things of signing with the Japanese baseball pitching phenom - Yu Darvish. There was rumors that the Blue Jays would land him, only for the Texas Rangers to ultimately win his negotiating rights. Darvish has proved to be a phenomenal starting pitcher for Texas so far. As of today, he is ranked first among all American League pitchers in wins, with 8 in total. He is 6 foot 5 inches tall and only 25 years old. He has won the Japanese MVP player award multiple times and is one good looking man. His father is from Iran and mother is from Japan. If he signed with Toronto, he could have helped the Blue Jays to sell tickets, especially Toronto has a huge Asian population. He has a lot of pitches in his repertoire, which makes him very tough to beat. It makes me feel terrible that the Blue Jays did not pull the trigger on him.

                                  Photo belongs to Jason Pemberton

And then we have a young pitcher from Taiwan. His name is Chen Wei-Yin and he is 26 years of age. He arrived at the MLB with the Baltimore Orioles, after spending four years in Japan's baseball scene. He has good command on his fastball and could also throw different pitches as well. Chen was being smart to join the Orioles, which has a weak pitching staff. This season, Chen almost immediately won a rotation spot with the Orioles. Now he already has 6 wins for the season. Chen is a left-handed, which makes him much more valuable in the team. Here is the reason. The Blue Jays will face him regularly, as both Orioles and the Jays are in the same division. I hope he will be a successful pitcher, but not at the expense of the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Asian players are becoming more popular in the Major League Baseball. They allow the MLB teams to expand their fan base locally and internationally. Each year, MLB players travel to countries like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to play in exhibition games. However, the MLB have yet to be able to crack the market in China. China has a huge population but there is zero baseball player that comes from China (Taiwan is not part of People's Republic of China). The MLB knows China is where the money is so they will continue to attract the Chinese youth to take part in the sport of baseball.