Kai-Fa Chen

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Kai-Fa Chen (陳該發)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 5' 10", Weight 182 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Kai-Fa Chen played in Taiwan and for the Taiwanese national team.

Chen represented Taiwan in the 1990 Haarlem Baseball Week. [1] In the 1994 Baseball World Cup, he hit .333/.419/.667 with 3 homers and 7 runs in 7 games. He was Taiwan's main center fielder and also played left, handling 11 putouts without an error. He led the team in dingers and tied for 7th in the event. [2] He won Bronze with Taiwan in the 1994 Asian Games. [3]

In the 1995 Asian Championship, he homered off South Korea's Sung-min Cho in the 9th to tie the game. Taiwan again won Bronze. [4] He fell to .190/.190/.333 in the 1995 Intercontinental Cup with one error in five chances in left. [5] He turned pro with the Mercuries Tigers in the 1996 CPBL, batting .260/.311/.398 with 66 runs in 97 games. He tied for third in the league with five triples, was 8th in runs and tied for 4th with 16 sacrifice hits. He fielded .995 and had nine assists, winning a Gold Glove. The other Gold Glove winners in the outfield that season were Chuan-Chia Wang and Kuei-Chang Tseng. [6]

The Tainan native slipped to .251/.304/.383 and .955 in 1997 but hit for the cycle, the first Taiwanese native to do so in the CPBL. He had the 4th cycle in CPBL history, following Milt Harper, Angel Gonzalez and Hector Roa. [7] He belted 16 homers for the Tigers in 1998 and hit .260/.313/.452, stealing 11 bases in 15 tries and fielding .984. He tied Lien-Hung Chen for 4th in the league in homers (tied for the most by a Taiwan native).

During 1999, he produced at a .316/.401/.490 clip with 7 triples. He was 7th in average (between Kan-Lin Huang and Chen-Hao Wang), tied Ted Wood for 9th in runs (51), tied Alex Cabrera for 6th in hits (98), tied Franklin Parra and Lien-Hung Chen for the most three-baggers, was 4th in OBP (between Chi-Feng Hung and Randy Kapano) and was 6th in OPS (between Tai-Shan Chang and Parra). He did not make the Best Ten as one of the top three outfielders; Lien-Hung Chen, Wood and Kan-Lin Huang were picked instead. He hit .172/.200/.241 in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup, handling 12 putouts error-free in center; he had only one run and one RBI in seven games. [8]

Moving to the rival Taiwan Major League in 2000, he hit .323/.366/.514 for the Chiayi Luka with 7 triples and 73 RBI in 80 games. He easily won the RBI title (18 ahead of Kun-Han Lin), was 7th in average (between Yi-Pao Lee and Kun-Han Lin), was third in hits (behind Tsung-Hui Tong and Tim Howard), tied Cheng-Han Wu for the triple lead and tied Chang-Jung Chiu for the home run lead (10). [9] One presumes he was among the OBP and slugging leaders as well. He made the Best Nine, joining Wu and Shinji Ando as the league's top three outfielders. [10]

He hit for the first cycle in the TML in 2001, thus becoming the first Taiwanese native to hit for two cycles in the country's pro leagues. [11] Through 2022, he remains the only player with two cycles in Taiwanese pro ball. His numbers were down overall, though, to .295/.352/.420. He won another Best Nine nod, joining Chia-Hsien Hsieh and Long-Yi Huang as the outfielders chosen. He also won his second Gold Glove. [12] In 2002, he bounced back a bit to .303/.362/.407. Had he qualified, he would have been 5th in the TML in average. [13] He joined Kao-Chun Huang and Kuo-Liang Chen on the Best Nine squad's outfield. [14] He tied Corey Powell and Kun-Han Lin for the second-most Best Nine nods in the TML's history (tying Powell for the most by an outfielder), one behind I-Chung Hong.

With the TML folding, he played for the First Financial Holdings Agan in the 2003 CPBL but slumped to .230/.279/.327 at age 34. He hit only .216/.250/.281 for the La New Bears in 2004 to end his playing career. He had batted .275/.331/.418 in nine seasons as a pro.

Chen then became a coach, for La New (2005 and 2009-2010, coaching in their minor leagues in between). He scouted for the Lamigo Monkeys from 2011-2013 and also coached for them from 2012-2015. He then coached for the EDA Rhinos in 2016 and Fubon Guardians (2017-2019). [15]

Sources[edit]

  1. ↑ Taiwan Baseball Wiki
  2. ↑ Defunct IBAF site
  3. ↑ Taiwan Baseball Wiki
  4. ↑ ibid.
  5. ↑ Defunct IBAF site
  6. ↑ CPBL player page, Taiwan Baseball Wiki
  7. ↑ Taiwan Baseball Wiki
  8. ↑ Defunct IBAF site
  9. ↑ 2001 Baseball Almanac, pg. 343; KT Choi's CPBL/TML database
  10. ↑ Taiwan Baseball Wiki
  11. ↑ ibid.
  12. ↑ ibid.
  13. ↑ 2003 Baseball Almanac, pg. 378
  14. ↑ Taiwan Baseball Wiki
  15. ↑ Taiwan Baseball Wiki
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