Chih-Sheng Lin
From BR Bullpen
Chih-Sheng Lin (Big Brother)
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 0", Weight 210 lb.
Chih-Sheng Lin has been a top shortstop in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He is the cousin of Tai-Chi Kuo and Tai-Yong Kuo.
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.
Lin turned pro in 2004 and joined the La New Bears; he batted .318/.380/.527 with 56 RBI in 57 games. 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 title. 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 Gold Glove. 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.
Lin 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 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).
