Wen-Chung Chang

Wen-Chung Chang (張文宗)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11 1/2", Weight 187 lb.

• School Fu Jen Catholic University
• High School Chung-Hua High School

• Born April 17, 1968 in Tainan City Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Wen-Chung Chang was an Olympic Silver Medalist and won two Gold Gloves in the CPBL.

Amateur Career

Chang was with Taiwan for the 1985 World Junior Championship and 1986 World Junior Championship. He next played in the 1987 World Port Tournament and 1989 Intercontinental Cup. was a pitcher for the Chinese Taipei national team that won the 1989 Asian Championship. He played in the 1990 Goodwill Games. He had moved to first base by the 1990 Baseball World Cup, backing up Kuang-Shih Wang there and also being Taiwan's most-used DH; he hit .158/.333/.211 in 8 games. He was with Taiwan when they won the 1990 Asian Games, but baseball was not yet a medal event there.

The Tainan native played in the 1991 Asian Championship, when Taiwan won the Silver and a spot in the 1992 Olympics. He started at 1B in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, hitting .310/.405/.448 with 7 RBI in 11 games and going 3-for-3 in steals, while fielding .973 at first. Only Wei-Chen Chen had more RBI for Taiwan. In the 1992 Olympics, he was mostly in RF for Taiwan with Wang back at 1B. He produced at a .429/.556/.780 clip with 8 walks, 7 runs and 13 RBI in 9 games while playing error-free defense. Chang also hit for a cycle against Spain. He led Taiwan's regulars in average, OBP and slugging and led the team in RBI. He was among the Barcelona Games leaders in RBI (tied Koji Tokunaga for 2nd, one behind Víctor Mesa), walks (tied with Lázaro Vargas for 3rd, one behind co-leaders Jason Giambi and Roberto Bianchi), OBP (3rd, after Mesa and Vargas), slugging (4th, after Mesa, Orestes Kindelan and Tokunaga) and average (5th, behind Mesa, Omar Linares, Vargas and Jeffrey Hammonds). He started the Gold Medal Game in right, hitting 6th, and moved to first base later in the contest. He was 1 for 4 and drove in Shih-Hsien Wu with Taiwan's only run in a 11-1 loss to Cuba as they won the Silver Medal.

Professional Career

Chang turned pro in the 1993 CPBL when the Jungo Bears joined as an expansion team. He hit .262/.327/.401, fielding .993 while splitting time between first and the outfield. He stole 12 bases in 15 tries and went deep 10 times in 90 games. He was 3rd in the league with 57 RBI, behind Ming-Hsiung Liao and Milt Harper. In the 1994 CPBL, he was steady at .267/.335/.399 with 55 RBI while rapping 20 doubles. He tied Kuang-Huei Wang and Leo Garcia for 7th in RBI. He slumped to .227/.285/.338 in 1995, but was still 9th in the loop with 21 two-baggers.

Sinon bought the Bears, who were the Sinon Bears for half of 1996 before becoming the Sinon Bulls. Chang was bullish about the change, hitting .308/.376/.443 with 20 doubles and fielding .989 at 1B. He won a Gold Glove. He fielded .996 in 1997 (.995 at 1B) and batted .268/.370/.376 but lost the Gold Glove to Tsung-Hui Tong. He moved to the Uni-President Lions but did not appear for them in 1998-1999. He returned in 2000 to hit .232/.334/.364 and fielded .990. He was MVP of Game 4 of the 2000 Taiwan Series, as the Lions won in seven games. In 2001, he batted only .226/.330/.300 but fielded .995 and won his second Gold Glove.

Chang's offense continued to fall in 2002 (.219/.308/.270) though he again fielded .995. In 2003, he batted .259/.333/.333 in a backup role to end his playing career. In 718 CPBL games, he had hit .255/.333/.375 with 306 RBI and 111 doubles. He fielded .990.

Coaching Career

He coached for Sinon in 2005-2006 and 2010-2012. He replaced Rong-Hua Liu as manager of Sinon late in 2012 and went 11-22-1, pretty much the same winning percentage as his predecessor.