Ming-Shan Kang

Ming-Shan Kang (康明杉)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 189 lb.

• High School Ming-Der Senior High School

• Born January 3, 1964 in Puzi, Chiayi Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ming-Shan Kang pitched for the Taiwanese national team then was active in the first 11 seasons of pro baseball on the island.

Kang was 2-1 with a 0.35 ERA in the 1986 Amateur World Series, helping Taiwan win Bronze. He led the Series in ERA, .32 ahead of teammate Ping-Yang Huang. He was named the event's top right-handed pitcher; other righties in the event included Gil Heredia, Rogelio García, Yukihiro Nishizaki, Dong-hee Park and René Arocha. He was on the Taiwanese team that won the 1987 Asian Championship and remained with them for the 1987 Intercontinental Cup.

When the Chinese Professional Baseball League formed in 1990, he was one of the initial players on the Mercuries Tigers. He was 9-5 with 7 saves and a 2.27 ERA that year, 5th in the loop in ERA (between Huang and Hung-Chin Tu). He was also third in games pitched (35, behind Tony Metoyer and Huang), tied Enrique Burgos for seventh in wins, tied Wu-Hsiung Huang for second in saves (two behind Metoyer), fourth with 60 walks and 6th with 87 K (between Metoyer and Longo Garcia). He shut out the Wei Chuan Dragons to beat Garcia in Game 2 of the 1990 Taiwan Series but lost the finale to Ping-Yang Huang as he allowed 2 runs in 3 1/3 innings.

The Puzi native fell to 7-10, 3.41 with four saves in 1991. He tied Yi-Hsin Chen for second in appearances (36, 11 behind Metoyer), tied Burgos and Garcia for 10th in wins, tied Joe Strong for 5th in losses, tied for 3rd with two shutouts, tied Ping-Yang Huang for 4th in saves, tied Garcia for 7th in IP (145 1/3), was 5th in walks (62, between Strong and Ping-Yang Huang) and was 7th in K (110, between Ping-Yang Huang and Chin-Hsing Kuo). His strikeouts fell by 50% in 1992 and his record was 8-10, 4.47. He made the leaderboards in wins (tied for 6th), losses (3rd, after Fu-Ming Tu and Strong), games pitched (tied for 3rd), innings (155, 5th), runs allowed (88, 2nd, one behind Strong), earned runs allowed (77, the most) and walks (63, 4th, between Ravelo Manzanillo and Wu-Hsiung Huang).

In 1993, he rebounded to 9-10, 3.54 with a save and this time cut his walks by a significant amount rather than his Ks. He also played right field one game, going 0 for 2, his only at-bats of his career. He tied Chien-Cheng Kuo for 10th in wins, tied for 5th in losses and tied Chao-Huang Lin for 8th in complete games (7). He had a 10-16, 3.86 record and handled 52 chances error-free in the 1994 CPBL. He won the CPBL's second Gold Glove at pitcher (Yi-Hsin Chen had taken the initial Gold Glove the prior year). He tied for 8th in wins, led in losses (one more than Lin), was third in starts (25, 3 behind Will Flynt and Yi-Hsin Chen), tied for 6th in complete games (9), tied Chris Bennett and Yi-Hsin Chen for third in shutouts (3), was 5th in IP (188 2/3, between Balvino Galvez and Chang-Heng Hsieh) and 9th in strikeouts (95).

Kang was one of the founding directors of Taiwan's player's union in 1995. He was 10-9 with a 3.48 ERA in the 1995 CPBL, tying for 7th in wins. He walked only 30 in 152 2/3 IP, a far cry from his early-career wildness. He was 9-6 with a 5.97 ERA in 1996. He had gone 62-66 with 12 saves and a 3.80 ERA in 200 CPBL games (135 starts). His seven All-Star pitching appearances for the Tigers were a team record. The Taiwan Major League formed in 1997 and he jumped to the Taichung Agan. He was 10-9 with a 3.83 ERA and won the first TML Gold Glove at pitcher. He fell to 2-11, 5.49 in 1998, 4-5, 5.78 in 1999 and 1-4, 7.31 in 2000. His fastball hit 90 mph and he threw a curveball, slider and change-up.

He later coached for Chiayi University, the Chinatrust Whales (2002), Taipei City University women's baseball team and Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science (2005-2020). He coached for Taiwan in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament, 2014 U-12 Baseball World Cup, 2015 Universiade, 2015 World Port Tournament, 2015 Asian Championship (Silver Medal), 2016 Haarlem Baseball Week, 2016 U-23 Baseball World Cup, 2016 Asia Winter Baseball League and 2017 Universiade.

Overall, Kang was 79-95 with a 4.18 ERA, struck out 722 and pitched 1,437 1/3 innings in 11 seasons in the CPBL and the TML. As of 2023, he ranked 14th in wins (86 behind Wei-Lun Pan), 8th in losses (37 behind Pan), 9th in complete games (32, 52 behind Yi-Hsin Chen), 10th in shutouts (6, 9 behind Chen), 15th in innings (1,059 behind Pan) and 30th in strikeouts (764 behind Osvaldo Martínez).