1996 CPBL

The 1996 Chinese Professional Baseball League season was the 7th season for the Chinese Professional Baseball League and the last before the league's first major game-fixing scandal. It also marked the year before the Taiwan Major League formed to challenge the CPBL, giving it a sense of an end of era in two ways (in retrospect). Luis Iglesias set a home run mark that would stand for 11 years. The Jungo Bears became the Sinon Bears for the first half of the year and then the Sinon Bulls in the second half. It was also a year for foreign relievers: Mike Garcia set a new save record and led in strikeouts despite his relief role while Rob Wishnevski led in ERA despite being a reliever. The Uni-President Lions topped the Wei Chuan Dragons in the 1996 Taiwan Series.

Standings

1. Uni-President Lions, 34-15-1 first half; 26-22-2 second half
2. Wei Chuan Dragons, 25-23-2 first half; 30-20 second half
3. China Times Eagles, 28-20-2 first half; 28-21-1 second half
4. Brother Elephants, 29-19-2 first half; 23-24-3 second half
5. Mercuries Tigers, 16-33-1 first half; 23-24-3 second half
6. Sinon Bears/Sinon Bulls, 14-36 first half; 14-33-3 second half

Leaders

Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Batting Average	Luis de los Santos	Brother Elephants	.375
Runs	Hector Roa	Uni-President Lions	91
Hits	Kuei-Chang Tseng	China Times Eagles	143
Doubles	Sil Campusano	Wei Chuan Dragons	30
Triples	Hector Roa	Uni-President Lions	13
Home Runs	Luis Iglesias	Mercuries Tigers	31
Runs Batted In	Luis Iglesias	Mercuries Tigers	90
Stolen Bases	Cesar Hernandez	Uni-President Lions	36
Walks	Denny González	China Times Eagles	67

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
ERA	Rob Wishnevski	Brother Elephants	1.67
Wins	Chin-Hsing Kuo	Uni-President Lions	20
Losses	Kang-Chih Liao	Sinon Bulls	15
Saves	Mike Garcia	Wei Chuan Dragons	29
Innings Pitched	Don August	Sinon Bulls	228 1/3
Appearances	Mike Garcia	Wei Chuan Dragons	58
Hits Allowed	Don August	Sinon Bulls	272
Home Runs Allowed	Kang-Chih Liao	Sinon Bulls	24
Strikeouts	Mike Garcia	Wei Chuan Dragons	183
Base-on-Balls	Wen-Po Huang	Wei Chuan Dragons	69

Award Winners

Award	Player	Team	Position	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	W - L	SV	IP	HA	HRA	BB	SO	ERA
Most Valuable Player	Chin-Hsing Kuo	Uni-President Lions	P	Did not bat									20 - 4	1	185.1	189	15	38	123	2.57
Rookie of the Year	Tai-Shan Chang	Wei Chuan Dragons	IF	336	54	112	16	72	7	.333	.355	.565	Did not pitch

Best Ten

The following players were part of the 1996 Best Ten teams.

Position	Player	Team
P	Chin-Hsing Kuo	Uni-President Lions
C	Chi-Chen Tseng	Uni-President Lions
1B	Kuang-Huei Wang	Brother Elephants
2B	Chung-Yi Huang	Sinon Bulls
3B	Luis Iglesias	Mercuries Tigers
SS	Epy Guerrero Jr.	Brother Elephants
OF	Chuan-Chia Wang	Sinon Bulls
OF	Sil Campusano	Wei Chuan Dragons
OF	Kuei-Chang Tseng	China Times Eagles

Gold Gloves

The following players were the recipients of the Gold Glove Award in 1996.

Position	Player	Team
P	Yi-Hsin Chen	Brother Elephants
C	I-Chung Hong	Brother Elephants
1B	Wen-Chung Chang	Sinon Bulls
2B	Fu-Lien Wu	Brother Elephants
3B	Hector Roa	Uni-President Lions
SS	Kuo-Chong Lo	Uni-President Lions
OF	Kai-Fa Chen	Mercuries Tigers
OF	Kuei-Chang Tseng	China Times Eagles
OF	Chuan-Chia Wang	Sinon Bulls