Kuan-Jen Chen

Kuan-Jen Chen (陳冠任) (The Little Airplane)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 198 lb.

• School Taipei Physical Education College
• High School Qiang Shu High School

• Born April 15, 1982 in Yunlin County Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kuan-Jen Chen played in the CPBL for 10 years.

Chen was drafted by the Brother Elephants in the third round of the 2006 CPBL Draft after having completed his military service. He hit .349/.392/.516 to take home Rookie of the Year honors and edged out Tai-Shan Chang for the batting title. Chen was also selected into the 2006 CPBL All-Star Game as a rookie, and he was 1-for-2 with a RBI. In the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, Chen hit .211/.250/.263 as a RF/DH/PH for Taiwan.

The Yunlin native batted .358/.408/.466 in 2007; had he qualified, he would have tied Kuo-Ching Kao for third in the league in average. He hit .348/.396/.423 for the 2008 Elephants and led the circuit with 139 hits. He was second to Cheng-Min Peng in batting average and second to Tilson Brito with 77 RBI. In the 2008 CPBL All-Star Game, Chen hit .296/.387/.370 with 4 RBI, but the Elephants were beaten by the Uni-President Lions in 7 games.

Chen was injured on Opening Day the next year when he collided with a teammate in the outfield, so he only played 54 games with a .341/.398/.449 batting line in 2009. In the 2009 Taiwan Series, Chen hit .323/.382/.484 but the Brothers weres beaten by the Lions again in 7 games. He came back in 2010, and he played all 120 games with a .279/.330/.367 batting line. He ranked 7th in hits (15 behind Tai-Shan Chang]]) and 6th in doubles (7 behind Ssu-Chi Chou). In the 2010 Taiwan Series, Chen was 4-for-17 and he won his first Taiwan Series title as the Elephants swept the Sinon Bulls.

The little airplane improved to .333/.373/.435 in 2011, and he won his only Best Ten award as a designated hitter. Chen ranked 3rd in batting (.018 behind Cheng-Wei Chang) and 4th in RBI (32 behind Hung-Yu Lin). He was selected into the 2011 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-3 with 2 RBI. The Brothers then traded him to the Lamigo Monkeys for Chu-Kuan Lee.

After changing teams, Chen hit .369/.431/.466 in 82 games in 2012, and he attended the 2012 CPBL All-Star Game; he was 0-for-2. He hit .333/.364/.619 with a triple and a homer in the 2012 Taiwan Series, and he won another title as the Monkeys beat the Lions in 5 games. Due to a knee injury, Chen only played 34 games with a .317/.413/.413 batting line in 2013. He recovered in 2014, and he hit .290/.332/.367 with 16 doubles. He had injuries in 2015 so he only played 46 games, and the Monkeys released him. He went to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League, and he hit .248/.290/.307 in 40 games there. After playing 2 years in the Australian Baseball League, Chen announced his retirement after the 2018 season. He hit .319/.372/.583 with five homers and 17 RBI in 17 games for the Adelaide Bite in the 2017-2018 ABL, then fell to .265/.367/.306 in 2018-2019.

Overall, Chen hit .331/.382/.435 with 923 hits, 152 doubles and 33 homers in 10 seasons in the CPBL.

Sources

• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• CPBL player page
• Taiwan Baseball Blog