Wen-Bin Chen

Wen-Bin Chen (陳文賓)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 211 lb.

• High School Shin Min High School

• Born October 5, 1973 in Pingtung County Taiwan

BR NPB page

Biographical Information

Wen-Bin Chen played catcher, pitcher, infield and outfield in his 11 year pro career in the CPBL and the NPB.

Chen was 1 for 4 for the Taiwan national team in the 1994 Baseball World Cup, backing up Hung-Yuan Lin at DH. He debuted in the 1996 Chinese Professional Baseball League with the Uni-President Lions, hitting .186/.231/.289. In 1997, he batted .240/.277/.385 in 34 games for the Lions then was sent to the Sinon Bulls, for whom he hit .278/.313/.435 over the next 39 games. In 1998, Chen batted .264/.309/.399 for Sinon. In '99, he hit .268/.341/.436 with the Bulls. He made the Best Ten as the top first baseman in the CPBL. During 2000, he hit .261/.317/.437. He split 2001 between the Bulls and China Trust Whales and hit only .188/.250/.356. He pitched 15 games that year, going 3-5 with a 4.42 ERA. His fastball peaked at 93 mph.

The Pingtung native hit .290/.381/.622 in 2002 and smashed 26 home runs, setting a new CPBL record for a native player; Chung-Chiu Lin had set the mark with 24 back in 1992. Chen's record lasted only one year before Tai-Shan Chang broke it. He failed to make the Best Ten as Kan-Lin Huang, Sung-Hsien Yang and Chih-Yuan Chen were picked as outfielders. Chen led the league in homers. He was part of the first Taiwan-Japanese trade, being sent to the Daiei Hawks in the off-season for Takashi Sasagawa. He only played two games for Daiei in 2003, going 0 for 4 at the plate. Chen returned to the Whales in 2004 and hit .270/.319/.431. He fell to .229/.275/.349 in 2005 and was only hitting .191/.309/.298 after 17 games in '06, earning him his release. He then became a college coach, and he coached Chiayi University from 2011 to 2014. He became the coach for Pingtung High School in 2022.

For his career, Chen hit .254/.314/.433 with 84 homers in 674 games in 11 seasons.

Sources

• Chinese Wiki Baseball
• CPBL player page
• Defunct IBAF site