Ngayaw Ake

From BR Bullpen

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Ngayaw Ake (林智勝) (Big Brother)
Also known as Chih-Sheng Lin

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 0", Weight 210 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Ngayaw Ake (formerly known as Chih-Sheng Lin before switching to his aboriginal name rather than his Chinese one) has been a top infielder and record-setter in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He is the cousin of Tai-Chi Kuo and Tai-Yong Kuo. He has won four home run titles, one RBI title, one stolen base title and one MVP.

Lin played for Taiwan in the 1997 World Youth Championship, 1998 World Youth Championship and 1999 World Junior Championship; Taiwan won Silver in all three events. In the 2001 World Port Tournament, he hit .320/.370/.360. He also played for the senior national team in the 2001 Asian Championship, being named the tourney's All-Star third baseman. Lin batted .263/.391/.316 in the 2002 Haarlem Baseball Week and .257/.257/.429 in the 2003 World Port Tournament, in which he tied Evert-Jan 't Hoen and Sidney de Jong for the most triples (2). In the 2003 Baseball World Cup, Lin hit .273/.294/.424 as Taiwan's starting first baseman and delivered a key home run in the quarterfinals to beat Team USA.

The La New Bears drafted Lin in the first round of the 2003 CPBL Draft. He batted .318/.380/.527 with 56 RBI in 57 games in his rookie year, but he lost the CPBL Rookie of the Year award to his teammate Chih-Wei Shih. Lin attended the 2004 CPBL All-Star Game, and he would never missed this event as of 2023; he was 1-for-2 with a RBI. He broke Shin-Sheng Cheng's rookie record with a 24-game hitting streak. In 2005, his batting line was .285/.348/.479. Lin played for Taiwan in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, getting one hit (a double) in 8 at-bats, walking twice and scoring twice. He hit .291/.364/.447 with 14 steals in 17 tries for the 2006 Bears and helped them to a CPBL pennant. In the 2006 Taiwan Series, Lin hit .316/..316/.684 with a homer to help the Bears swept the Uni-President Lions. He was named to the CPBL's Best Ten as the shortstop and participated in the 2006 Konami Cup. In the 2006 Asian Games, Lin hit a game-winning come-from-behind two-run bottom-of-the-9th single in the Gold Medal game for a 8-7 triumph over Japan. It was Taiwan's first Gold ever in the Asian Games.

Lin produced at a .311/.394/.550 rate in 2007 with 16 home runs. He again won Best Ten honors and also took home a CPBL Gold Glove as a shortstop. He attended the 2007 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-2. Lin record an elite .500/.581/.769 batting line with 2 homers in the 2007 Taiwan Series, but the Monkeys still lost to the Lions in 7 games. In the 2007 Asian Championship, he went 3 for 11 while manning second base and shortstop. In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, Lin batted .263/.333/.474 with 8 runs in 9 games as Taiwan's starting shortstop. He was involved in a controversial 1-0 win over Italy. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th and two on, Lin got a 2-2 count from Chris Di Roma. He then got the benefit of a call on a check swing that drew much criticism from Italian fans. With a second chance, Lin singled home Chun-Chang Yeh with the game-winner. It was his second walk-off hit in a major international event in a two-year period.

The Taitung native hit .217/.308/.304 in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament as Taiwan's shortstop. He had a big hit in a 2-0 win over the German national team. With a 0-0 tie in the 7th, he doubled off of André Hughes and came home on a 2-out Kuo-Hui Lo double with the winning run. Lin was at the center of a major brawl on April 4. After he and a teammate were both called out by the first-base umpire during close plays, Lin charged the umpire Chun-Wei Chiang to hit him and promptly got ejected. After another dispute, a bench-clearing brawl broke out. Lin was suspended indefinitely and fined 100,000 National Taiwan Dollars. He was back in action a month later.

Lin batted .273/.407/.636 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs and 6 runs in 7 games in the 2008 Olympics to lead Taiwan's offense. He scored both Taiwan runs in their loss to the US, including a solo homer off of Brandon Knight. He went deep off of Mike Johnson in Taiwan's one-run win over Team Canada. Prior to the Medal round, he was 7th in the Olympics in slugging, tied for third in runs (even with Nate Schierholtz, Brian Barden and Michel Enríquez‎ and trailing Frederich Cepeda and Alexei Bell) and tied for second in homers (even with Bryan Engelhardt, Nick Weglarz, Alfredo Despaigne and Mike Saunders and one behind Dae-ho Lee).

For the 2008 CPBL campaign, he hit .318/.395/.495 with 65 RBI in 79 games. He was 9th in the league in average, tied for 5th in RBI (with Tai-Shan Chang and Lien-Hung Chen) and tied for 7th in home runs. He was named Best Ten again at short. In 2009, he was better yet at .332/.385/.633 with 29 doubles, 32 home runs, 111 RBI and 87 runs in 108 games. He nearly set records for homers (one behind Tilson Brito's mark) and RBI (two shy of Yi-Chuan Lin's 2009 total). He did set a new record for home runs by a Taiwan native. He was second in the league in RBI (2 behind Yi-Chuan Lin), second in runs (87, 5 behind Yi-Chuan Lin), 5th in doubles, first in homers (4 ahead of Chin-Feng Chen), first in total bases (273, 9 more than Yi-Chuan Lin), 5th in average, 9th in OBP, first in slugging (68 ahead of runner-up Wu-Hsiung Pan) and third in OPS (behind Cheng-Min Peng and Wu-Hsiung Pan). He was the Best Ten pick at short for the fourth time, breaking Epy Guerrero Jr.'s record. Lin was also selected into the 2009 CPBL All-Star Game, and he won the MVP with a 3-run homer against Ko-Chien Lin.

On April 1, 2010, Lin hit his 100th CPBL homer, to become the quickest CPBL player to that mark. Moving to first base that year, he had another great campaign at .312/.380/.515 with 21 homers and 79 RBI in 117 games. He led the league in RBI (one more than Tai-Shan Chang), home runs (5 more than Chang), total bases (128, 15 more than Chang) and slugging (34 points over Cheng-Min Peng). He was also second in runs (71, 2 behind Chang), OBP (.071 behind Peng), OPS (behind Peng), fourth in average (behind Peng, Yi-Chuan Lin and Chang) and tied for fourth in doubles (with Chang). He did set a new league strikeout record, finishing with 102, 19 more than runner-up Fu-Hao Liu. He broke Kai-Fa Chen's record. Despite winning two-thirds of the Triple Crown, he failed to make the Best Ten this year as Peng was picked at 1B.

Lin hit .343/.378/.543 for Taiwan in the 2010 Intercontinental Cup, with 5 runs and 6 RBI in 8 games. In the Bronze Medal game, he hit cleanup and played DH for Taiwan and started 4 for 4. Down 3-2 to Italy in the bottom of the 9th, he came up with one on and one out but struck out on three pitches from Alessandro Maestri. He helped Taiwan win a Silver Medal in the 2010 Asian Games, including a homer off Japan's Manabu Mima in the semifinal win.

The veteran slugger kept on rolling with a .336/.383/.557 batting line in 2011, with his club having changed names to the Lamigo Monkeys in the off-season. Lin broke a CPBL record on August 21 as he got a hit in 9 consecutive at-bats. He had 27 doubles, 18 home runs and 72 runs in 9 2 games and finished among the CPBL leaders in average (second to Cheng-Wei Chang), home runs (3rd, behind Kuo-Ching Kao and Hung-Yu Lin), slugging (1st by 6 points over Kao) and OPS (2nd, 5 points behind Kao). He again did not win Best Ten at 1B, losing to Kao. He struggled in the 2011 Taiwan Series (3 for 21, HR) as Lamigo lost to the Uni-President Lions.

In 2012, the Taitung County native returned to shortstop and batted .317/.413/.579 with 87 runs, 82 RBI and 24 dingers in 99 games. He became the fastest CPBL player to 150 career home runs, taking 771 games, 104 fewer than Tai-Shan Chang had; the 150th came off Yuya Kamada. For the season, he was among the league leaders in RBI (tied for 5th with Kuo-Ching Kao), runs (2nd, 4 behind Cheng-Wei Chang), home runs (1st by 3 over Ssu-Chi Chou), walks (4th, 62), OBP (5th), slugging (3rd behind Wu-Hsiung Pan and Chou) and OPS (3rd behind Pan and Chou). In a reversal of a year prior, though, he was superb in the 2012 Taiwan Series, winning Taiwan Series MVP honors as Lamigo beat the Lions. He won game MVP in game one (3 for 4, a homer off Jon Leicester) and in game 4 (2 for 3, 2 R, 2 RBI) while going 2 for 3 with a homer in Lamigo's lone loss (game 3). Lin finished the series with a .471/.545/1.118 batting line. He became the first batter to be named Taiwan Series MVP since Chin-Feng Chen back in 2006.

Lin was Taiwan's starting shortstop in the 2013 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, going 5 for 11 with two doubles, two walks, two steals, five runs and four RBI. He tied Peng and Yung-Chi Chen for the team lead in runs and was second in average and hits to Chien-Ming Chang. In the finale against New Zealand, he got Taiwan's first two runs in a win against future major leaguer John Holdzkom. In the 2013 World Baseball Classic itself, in which he was 4 for 18 with two doubles, two walks, two runs and two RBI as Taiwan fell in the second round.

He started the 2013 CPBL on his usual high note (.341/.430/.537 in 48 G) but was in a car accident in mid-July and injured his left knee, sidelining him the remainder of the season. He did become the fastest CPBL player to 1,000 hits, taking 837 games; he got hit #1,000 off Ching-Lung Lo. Peng had the old mark of 844 games. On July 5, he became the fifth CPBL player to reach 100 career steals. Lin slumped to .279/.348/.442 in 2014, with 11 home runs, tying his low mark for a full season. He tied Liu and Chih-Wei Teng for 4th in the league in home runs still, was second with 73 RBI (15 behind Yi-Chuan Lin), tied Chin-Lung Hu for second with 27 doubles, tied Yung-Chi Chen for 4th in slugging and tied for fourth with 40 walks. In the 2014 Taiwan Series, he helped the Monkeys to victory.

At age 33, Lin surged in 2015, producing at a .380/.469/.689 clip with 30 doubles, 31 home runs, 30 steals (more than double his prior high of 14), 106 runs and 124 RBI. He topped Yi-Chuan Lin's old RBI record but Yi-Chuan Lin had 126 in 2015. Chih-Sheng Lin became the first 30-30 player in CPBL history. He collected his 200th career home run on September 12, and he celebrated it with his first 3 home run game against the Lions. On October 11, Lin broke the CPBL record with a 60-game on-base streak. Lin also attended the 2015 CPBL All-Star Game, and he blasted a solo home run off Yu-Chieh Shen to drive in the only score of his team. He was second in runs (3 behind Kuo-Hui Kao (formerly Kuo-Hui Lo, listed above), was 4th in hits (156, between Kuo-Hui Kao and Chien-Ming Chang), was second in doubles (one shy of Chun-Hsiu Chen), was third in home runs (8 behind Kuo-Hui Kao), was second in steals (two behind Chih-Ping Lin), led in OBP (.023 ahead of Hung-Yu Lin), led in slugging (.060 ahead of home run king Kuo-Hui Kao), was second in average (.003 shy of Hu) and tied Peng for the walk lead (65). In game 5 of the 2015 Taiwan Series, he took Mike McClendon deep for his 10th career Taiwan Series home run, breaking Min-Ching Lo's record. He finished the Series with 14 hits, 7 runs, 3 home runs and 11 RBI as Lamigo rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Chinatrust Brothers for their third title in four years. Lin won his second Taiwan Series MVP, beating out game 7 no-hit ace Pat Misch. He was the third player to win the award twice, following Min-Ching Lo and Luther Hackman. He won his sixth Best Ten pick at short, as many as the next two players in CPBL history combined (Epy Guerrero Jr. and Chao-Hang Cheng each having won it three times). He also won the CPBL MVP award.

He was on Taiwan's roster for the 2015 Premier 12. Starting at second base, he hit .348/.375/.913 with four homers, six runs and six RBI in five games while handling 22 chances error-free. He went deep off Italy's Luca Panerati, Canada's Kyle Lotzkar and Andres Santiago (Puerto Rico) but his biggest blow came against Cuba; with a 1-1 tie in the 8th, he hit a three-run blast off Danny Betancourt to win it. He led the first Premier 12 in home runs (one ahead of Tyler O'Neill) and was second in slugging to Juan Apodaca even though Taiwan was eliminated in the first round and thus wound up with fewer games than some of the teams. He lost out the All-Star spot at 2B to the US's Adam Frazier. He then announced that he would become a free agent after this season, and the CTBC Brothers signed him with a 3-year 36 million NT dollars contract.

Lin hit .337/.420/.648 in a high-offense 2016 CPBL campaign. He ended his 109-game on-base streak on July 16, and that was still the CPBL record as of 2023. He missed the top 10 in average but tied Kuo-Hui Kao for the home run lead, was second in RBI (one behind Hung-Yi Lin), tied Kuo-Long Lo for third in runs, was 4th in walks (53) and was 4th in slugging (between Hung-Yu Lin and Kuo-Hui Kao). His steal total dropped back towards his older levels at 8. He fielded .948 in 88 games at 2B and .974 in 16 at 1B. He made the Best Ten at second base, his 7th total best Ten pick. In game 3 of the 2016 Taiwan Series, he hit three homers, a three-run shot off Scott Richmond, a solo dinger off Ming-Jin Tsai and a two-run blast off Fu-Te Ni but it was not enough in a 9-8 loss. It was the first three-homer game in Series history. The Brothers lost the Series. He was with Taiwan for the 2017 World Baseball Classic, going 2-for-12 with a walk, double and three RBI; only Chih-Hao Chang drove in more runs for Taiwan.

In 2017, he became the 2nd CPBL player to 250 career homers and later 1,000 RBI, following Tai-Shan Chang in both categories. He hit .288/.389/.522 with 12 homers in 205 AB. He played for the Brisbane Bandits when they won the 2017-2018 Australian Baseball League, hitting .310/.370/.593 with 11 homers, 35 runs and 42 RBI in 39 games in the regular season and had a two-homer game in the finals. He tied Rodrigo Ayarza for 9th in the league in runs, tied Darryl George for 7th in home runs and was third in RBI (two behind Chih-Hsien Chiang and David Kandilas). He hit .266/.333/.437 in reduced action in 2018 while feuding with manager Cory Snyder. Setting more records, he became the first CPBL player to have double-digit grand slams when he took Radhames Liz for his 10th in July 2019. He had a bounceback season at .291/.359/.537 with 26 HR and 78 RBI at age 37. He tied Tzu-Hsien Chan, Chih-Hao Chang and Hung-Yu Lin for 4th in dingers, tied Chan for 8th in RBI and was 7th in slugging (between Chih-Chieh Su and Yen-Wen Kuo). He did not make the Best Ten, as Chun-Hsiu Chen got the nod at 1B. In the 2019 Taiwan Series, Lin hit .400/.455/.450 but the Brothers lost to the Monkeys in 5 games.

Lin fell to .261/.397/.400 in a reduced role in 2020 and .185/.290/.369 in 2021. At age 40, he signed with the Wei Chuan Dragons. He showed he still had something left to prove in early 2022 when he took Ching-Ming Wang deep in his first game for the team, his 290th career homer to break Tai-Shan Chang's CPBL record. Lin batted .300/.392/.432 with 10 homers and a league-leading 94 strikeouts in 2022 for a fine comeback season. He tied Tzu-Hao Chen for fifth in the league in homers and tied Wen-Chieh Chen for third in RBI (62). He was 5th in OPS, between Kungkuan Giljegiljaw and Chen-Wei Chen. On April 16 2023, Lin blasted the 300th career home run, a pinch-hit shot, off Bradin Hagens of the Rakuten Monkeys; he became the first CPBL player to reach this benchmark.

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