Olympic Silver Medallist Kuo Lee Chien Fu to manage Chinese Taipei at WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup

The hero from the Barcelona Summer Olympics Kuo Lee Chien Fu will step on to the stage of the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup for the third time in the history of the tournament after leading Chinese Taipei to the champion's title at the WBSC U-21 Baseball World Cup in 2014, and participating in the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup in 2016.

Chinese Taipei, the bronze medalist from the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2022 will field a team with seven college players, six industrial league players and eleven young professional players.

Out of the eleven young professional players, Tzu-Chen Sha of the Oakland Athletic minor league club is the only player who currently plays abroad. Sha signed with the Oakland organization in 2023, and went 2-6 with an ERA of 6.33 whlie was with the Stocken Ports (Oakland’s A affiliation) in 2024 season.

From the CPBL, the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions sent a pitcher, (Yin Po-Huai), an infielder (Ho Heng-Yu), and an outfielder (Lin Chia-Wei) to the national team. Among the three Lions, Lin is having a productive rookie season and is considered one of the most watched players on the lineup.

Rakuten Monkeys also sent one pitcher to the national team. Tseng Chia-Hui made his career starting debut in June, in which he pitched two and 1/2 innings before being taken out of the game. Tseng’s teammate Chiu Shin, who was selected to represent Chinese Taipei in the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2023, also made it to the team.

In addition to the Monkeys, both CTBC Brothers and Weichuan Dragons sent two players to the team. The Brothers sent a pair of catchers, Chen Chiu-Teng and Hu Meng-Chih, and the Dragons sent an infielder Liu Chun-Wei, and an outfielder Wang Shun-Ho  to represent the team.

Infielder Wang Nian-Hao is the sole representative of the Fubon Guardians in this year’s U-23 Baseball World Cup.

Chinese Taipei went through three-month long training by traveling to the USA for games with NCAA team before heading to Europe to participate in the Czechia Baseball Week and Honkbalweek in Haarleem.

“We need to cut down the flaws on baserunning,” said manager Kuo Lee after Chinese Taipei’s practice game in Taipei before heading to China. “We will also rely on our scouting to prepare the games."

World No. 3 Chinese Taipei will compete in Group B and face No. 5 Venezuela, No. 6 Korea, No. 7 Netherlands, No. 17 Nicaragua and No. 31 South Africa.

Group A will include No. 1 Japan, No. 10 Puerto Rico, No. 11 Colombia, No. 15 Australia, No. 18 Great Britain and No. 24 China.