Chin-Feng Chen

Chin-Feng Chen (陳金鋒)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 189 lb.
• High School Chung-Hua High School
• Debut September 14, 2002
• Final Game July 20, 2005
• Born October 28, 1977 in Tainan City, Taiwan

BR page

Biographical Information

Chin-Feng Chen was the first player born in Taiwan to play in Major League Baseball when he debuted with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2002. His older brother is Lien-Hung Chen.

Chen signed with the Dodgers in 1999 and was assigned to the San Bernardino Stampede of the California League. There, he hit .316/.406/.580 with 21 home runs and 123 RBI in 131 games, winning league MVP. Promoted to AA San Antonio of the Texas League the following year, Chen had a line of .277/.355/.376 with only 6 home runs and 67 RBI. Splitting time between Vero Beach (Florida State) and Jacksonville (Southern) in 2001, Chen had a combined line of .290/.382/.523 with 22 home runs, 91 RBI and 31 doubles. He spent most of 2002 playing for the AAA Pacific Coast League's Las Vegas 51s. He hit .284/.352/.503 with 26 home runs in hitter-friendly Cashman Field before his late season call up. He only got action in 3 games, drawing a walk but striking out three times in five at bats. Chen spent most of the next three seasons with Las Vegas and received marginal playing time when called up to the big club. In those years he hit; .281/.360/.530 with 26 home runs (2003), .289/.359/.584 with 20 home runs (2004), and .278/.354/.495 with 15 home runs (2005). Chen never appeared in more than 8 games for the Dodgers in a single season and only had 22 at bats in his 19 game MLB career, batting .091 with 2 RBI.

After the 2005 season, his contract with the Dodgers expired. Rather than stay in North America, Chen returned to Taiwan to be closer to his parents and entered the CPBL draft, chosen with the first pick by the La New Bears. He was the MVP of the 2006 Taiwan Series in which the Bears swept the Uni-President Lions in four games. In the 2007 CPBL, Chen hit .382 to lead the league by 20 points over Cheng-Min Peng. His 26 home runs were second to Tilson Brito and he was 5th with 66 RBI. He hit four homers in the 2007 Taiwan Series but the Bears still lost in seven games. He was named his team's Most Outstanding Player in the Series thanks to his fine effort. On July 13, 2008, Chen went 4 for 4 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI and set a CPBL record with 13 total bases in a game. Despite being sidelined by injury for most of 2008, Chen finished among the CPBL leaders in RBI (70, 4th) and homers (16, 3rd). His .367 average would have ranked second to Cheng-Min Peng had he qualified. On April 5, 2011, Chen hit his 100th homer in the CPBL, doing so in his 453rd game in the league. He broke Luis Iglesias's record of reaching 100 the fastest (478 games). He won four Best Ten honors at DH (2006-2009), a record until Hung-Yu Lin broke it in 2017. He retired in September 2016. He was voted into the Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2023, the youngest player voted in to that point and the first former major leaguer (34 people had been inducted before him).

Chen was an international play veteran. First, he helped his team win the 1990 Little League World Series. He batted .375/~.423/.625 with 6 RBI in six games as Taiwan's top hitter in the 1997 World Port Tournament and won Bronze in the 1997 Asian Championship. He hit .379/.400/1.069 with 5 home runs, 8 runs scored and 12 RBI for the Taiwanese national team in the 1998 Baseball World Cup, tying Orestes Kindelan and Alessandro Flisi for the most home runs in the tournament. He later won Bronze with Taiwan in the 1998 Asian Games. He played in the 1999 Asian Championship. In the 2001 Baseball World Cup, Chen batted .429/.488/1.029 with 9 runs scored, 6 doubles, 4 homers and 14 RBI in 10 games. He was 4th in the Cup in average, second to Freddy Herrera in doubles and led in home runs and in RBI. He helped Taiwan to a Bronze Medal and made the All-Star outfield alongside Yoshinobu Takahashi and Mark Budzinski. Chen played for Taiwan in the 2003 Asian Championship, as they won Silver and a spot in the 2004 Olympics. He was on the Taiwanese team that won Gold in the 2006 Asian Games, something no Taiwanese baseball team had done before (as of 2020, no one has copied the feat either). Chen did not do as well in the 2007 Baseball World Cup as he had done in the 1998 and 2001 events. He still hit .302/.362/.512 with 11 runs scored and 8 RBI in 10 games as the cleanup hitter for the host Taiwan team. He was one run behind tourney leader Trent Oeltjen. He drove in half of Taiwan's 12 runs in the 2007 Asian Championship, going 5 for 10 with 2 homers, 2 walks and a time hit by pitch. He was second in the tourney in average behind Shinnosuke Abe, led in RBI and tied Young-min Ko for the most homers. Chen missed the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament due to injury but Taiwan still earned a spot in the 2008 Summer Games. Chen was a bust in the 2008 Olympics, going 2 for 14 with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts while splitting DH duties with Wu-Hsiung Pan.

He became manager of the Fubon Guardians for 2024, succeeding Chang-Rong Chiu‎.

Notable Achievements

• 1999 MVP California League San Bernardino Stampede

Related Sites

• BR Minors page