Dai-Kang Yang

Dai-Kang Yang (Daikan Yoh) (陽岱鋼)
known as Chung-Shou Yang until 2009

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 192 lb.

• High School Fukuoka Daiichi High School

• Born January 17, 1987 in Taitung City Taiwan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Dai-Kang Yang played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 15 years. He is the brother of Yao-Hsun Yang, a cousin of Chih-Yuan Chen and a nephew of Tai-Shan Chang. He is also related more distantly to Chien-Fu Yang, Yi Chang, Cheng-Wei Chang and Sen Yang.

Yang went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts for Taiwan in the 2006 World Baseball Classic as the backup SS to Chin-Lung Hu. In the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, Yang batted .267/.371/.567 and scored 9 runs, tying Michel Enriquez and Yulieski Gourriel for the tournament lead. He won Gold in the 2006 Asian Games, the only Taiwanese baseball team to win an Asian Games gold through 2021. The Taiwanese high schooler was picked by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in the first round of the 2006 NPB draft. Yang hit .267/.371/.567 with 10 runs in 9 games as Taiwan's shortstop in the 2006 Intercontinental Cup.

The Taitung native was called up to the Fighters from ni-gun on April 19, 2007 when Andy Green was sidelined with a backache and began playing fairly regularly on the left side of the infield. He played 55 games with a .239/.259/.349 batting line that season. He was 1 for 1 for Taiwan in the 2007 Asian Championship, backing up Tai-Shan Chang at third base. Yang struggled in 2008 as his batting line fell to .144/.193/.216, and he only played 15 games with a .182/.250/.182 batting line in 2009. The Fighters then turned him into an outfielder, and he hit .245/.288/.340 in 109 games in 2010. Yang was named Nippon Ham's starting right fielder in 2011, and he played 141 games with a .274/.308/.365 batting line. Yang led the Pacific League with 134 strikeouts, and he tied Yuya Hasegawa and Tadahito Iguchi for 10th in doubles.

Yang then became a center fielder in 2012, and he was voted into the 2012 NPB All-Star Game. Yang was the starting center fielder for PL in Game 1, and he crushed a leadoff solo shot against Toshiya Sugiuchi. He was the second player in NPB history to hit a leadoff homer in his first career All-Star at-bat, following Art Lopez in 1968. Yang then went 3-for-4 with a 3-run shot off Daisuke Miura in Game 3, and he won the MVP. He ended up hitting .287/.337/.398 with 17 steals that season, and he won his first NPB Gold Glove as an outfielder. He was 4th in hits (behind Seiichi Uchikawa, Hiroyuki Nakajima and Yoshio Itoi), 6th in doubles (tied with Nobuhiro Matsuda and Saburo Omura), 5th in triples (tied with Katsuya Kakunaka), 4th in runs (between Itoi and Nakajima) and 9th in batting (between Takumi Kuriyama and Dae-ho Lee). He hit .167/.233/.321 in the 2012 Nippon Series with a solo shot against Dicky González in Game 1, and the Fighters lost to the Yomiuri Giants in 6 games. He won 3 points in the PL MVP voting, and he tied Masahiro Tanaka for 13th.

In the 2013 World Baseball Classic, Yang crushed a game-winning 2-run homer against Shairon Martis of the Netherlands, and he was named the MVP of Pool B. He hit .222/.286/.389 in the entire event. After returning to the league, Yang was still a solid starter for the Fighters in 2013. He attended the 2013 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 1-for-7 with a double against Tetsuya Yamamoto in Game 3. Yang collected 47 steals with a .282/.367/.430 batting line that season, and he led the league in runs and steals. He was the first Taiwanese player to win a batter's title since Tai-Feng Chen in 1994. Yang ranked 7th in hits (between Nobuhiro Matsuda and Lee) and 8th in doubles (tied with Lee). He also won his second straight Gold Glove.

Yang suffered from left knee injury in 2014, and he missed about a month. He still hit .293/.367/.495 with a career-high 25 homers, and he won his third straight Gold Glove. It was the third consecutive year that he gained most votes among outfielders in Gold Glove voting, and he tied the NPB record. Yang was 8th in batting (between Hasegawa and Kazuo Matsui), 5th in homers (between Sho Nakata and Takahiro Okada), 3rd in runs (tied with Takero Okajima) and 10th in steals. He also attended the 2014 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 3-for-5 in Game 1 then went 3-for-3 in Game 2 with a triple against Ryota Igarashi. Yang suffered from left hand injury, so he only played 86 games with a .259/.306/.358 batting line.

After the 2015 season, Yang made it onto Taiwan's roster for the 2015 Premier 12. He again played well against Netherlands, and he crushed a homer against Diegomar Markwell. He hit hit .235/.350/.412 with 2 steals in the entire event. Yang came back after his injury in 2016, and he hit .293/.359/.430 in 130 games. He was 8th in hits (between Kensuke Tanaka and Brandon Laird) and 8th in batting (between Shogo Akiyama and Akira Nakamura). Yang also won his 4th Gold Glove. In the 2016 Nippon Series, Yang struggled as he was hitless in 9 at-bats, and he still won his first title as the Fighters beat the Hiroshima Carp in 6 games. Yang then announced that he would become a free agent, and the Giants signed him with a 5-year 1.5 billion yen contract.

Yang played 87 games with a .264/.356/.406 batting line in 2017, and he represented Taiwan in the 2017 Asia Professional Baseball Championship. He was 1-for-4 with a single against Gi-yeong Im of South Korea, then he had a 1-for-3 record versus Japan with a single against Shota Imanaga. Taiwan won Bronze in the event. Yang had a .245/.297/.427 batting line in 2018, then he played 110 games with a .274/.346/.380 batting line in 2019. However, he slumped to .238/.351/.302 in 2020, and he was 1-for-7 in 2021 then the Giants released him.

After leaving Japan, Yang joined the Lake Country DockHounds in 2022, and he hit .260/.357/.432 with 9 homers in 79 games. He played 31 games with a .279/.365/.405 batting line for the Brisbane Bandits in 2022-2023 ABL, then he recorded a .271/.384/.409 batting line with the High Point Rockers in 2023. Yang returned to NPB in 2024 with the Oisix Niigata Albirex Baseball Club, and he hit .232/.353/.298 in the minors that season. His batting line fell to .196/.283/.286 in 2025.

Overall, Yang hit .270/.332/.399 with 1,164 hits and 105 homers in 15 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• Japan Baseball Daily.com by Gary Garland
• IBAF site
• World Baseball Classic website
• 2017 Asia Professional Baseball Championship