Lin Yi-chuan ( zh, 林益全; born November 11, 1985) is a Taiwanese professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

for the

Uni-President Lions The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, stylized as Uni-President 7-ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇn Lions, also known as Uni-Lions (), are a professional baseball team playing in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). The Lions are based in Tainan City, Ta ...

of the

Chinese Professional Baseball League The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing Taiwan Major League in 20 ...

(CPBL). He has previously played in the CPBL for the

Fubon Guardians The Fubon Guardians () are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. The team is owned by Fubon Financial Holding Co. and play their home games at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City. ...

. He was the first position player to be named Rookie of the Year and MVP in the

the same year.

Career

Sinon Bulls/EDA Rhinos/Fubon Guardians

Lin debuted for the Taiwan national baseball team in the 2005 Asian Baseball Championship, which he led in home runs. He hit .250/.294/.313 as a part-time third sacker in the

2005 Baseball World Cup The 2005 Baseball World Cup (BWC) was the 36th international Men's amateur baseball tournament. The tournament was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, which titled it the Amateur World Series from the 1938 tournament through the ...

. In the

2006 Intercontinental Cup The 2006 IBAF Intercontinental Cup was held in Taichung, Taiwan from November 9 through the 19th. Eight countries contested the tournament, which was played at Taichung Baseball Field and the newly built Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium ...

, he hit .135/.158/.162 as the starting third baseman for Taiwan. He batted .306/.342/.500 in the

2007 World Port Tournament The 2007 World Port Tournament was an international baseball competition held at the DOOR Neptunus Familiestadion in Rotterdam, the Netherlands from August 2–12, 2007. It was the 11th edition of the tournament and featured teams from Chinese Ta ...

– he tied Sidney de Jong for fifth in the tournament in home runs (2), tied

Yosvani Peraza Yosvani Peraza Marín (Gordo) (born 2 february 1979 in Pinar del Río, Cuba) is a baseball catcher in the Cuban National Series and Cuba national baseball team. Peraza played for Cuba in the 1996 World Junior Baseball Championship, hitting .429 w ...

for 6th in runs (6) and was 6th in RBI (5). His offensive production was similar to the USA's third baseman, top prospect Pedro Alvarez. He helped Taiwan win a Silver Medal. In the

2007 Baseball World Cup The 2007 Baseball World Cup (BWC) was the 37th international Men's amateur baseball tournament. The tournament was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, which titled it the Amateur World Series from the 1938 tournament through th ...

, Lin went 0 for 1 as the backup third baseman to Tai-Shan Chang. Lin hit .130/.231/.174 for Taiwan in the

2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. Etymology English ''eight'', from Old English '', æhta'', Proto-Germanic ''*ahto'' is a direct continuation of Proto-Indo-European '' *oḱtṓ(w)-'', and as such cognate wi ...

as the starting third baseman. Despite his struggles, they won a spot in the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

. Lin had a couple defensive gaffes in a loss to the

South Korean national baseball team The South Korean national baseball team (), also known as the Blue Wave (), is the national baseball team of South Korea. It has participated in every edition of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), reaching the 2009 World Baseball Classic champions ...

. In the second inning, he did not get to a grounder by Dae-ho Lee that reporters said was within his range. Later in the inning, he again did not get to a ball in close range of third hit by

Jin-man Park Park Jin-man (born November 30, 1976) is a retired South Korean baseball shortstop. He batted and threw right-handed. He won the KBO League Golden Glove Award five times, and was also the 2006 Korean Series MVP. He competed for the South Korea ...

. The two plays, coupled with a Che-Hsuan Lin miscue, contributed to two Korean runs and the win. Lin was the top pick in the 2007 CPBL draft, taken by the

Sinon Bulls In Greek mythology, Sinon (Ancient Greek: Σίνων, from the verb "σίνομαι"—''sinomai'', "to harm, to hurt") or Sinopos was a Greek warrior during the Trojan War. He is not mentioned by Homer, but his story is given in the ''Aenei ...

. He had played for the amateur Fubon Bull previously. He did not play in 2008, as he was fulfilling his military commitment. In late 2008, he announced that he didn't want to play for Sinon when he came out of the military and that he wanted to remain an amateur. Lin changed his mind and signed with Sinon in March 2009, inking a deal with a signing bonus equivalent to $145,000. That was the second-largest bonus in CPBL history, behind Chung-Nan Tsai and even with Chang-Wei Tu, Chih-Yuan Chen and Yi-Cheng Tseng. Lin was 0 for 8 with two strikeouts as one of Taiwan's worst performers in the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an International Baseball Federation, international baseball competition. It began on March 5 and finished March 23. Unlike in 2006 World Baseball Classic, 2006, when the Round-robin tournament, round- ...

. Lin had a great pro debut. Manning first base and hitting 7th, he was 3 for 4 in Sinon's 2009 opener. He reached 100 hits in 249 AB and 62 games, the fastest player to that mark in CPBL history to that point. On August 13, he set new CPBL rookie records for RBI (77, surpassing Tai-Shan Chang) and hits (119, breaking the mark held by Chih-Wei Shih). He hit .348/.395/.543 for the 2009 CPBL campaign and drove in 113 runs, breaking

Tilson Brito Tilson Manuel Brito Jiménez (born May 28, 1972 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican former professional baseball third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics. He also pl ...

's CPBL record. He finished 4th in average (behind Wu-Hsiung Pan, Cheng-Min Peng and Wilton Veras), second in hits (169, behind Veras) and third in home runs (18, behind Chih-Sheng Lin and

Chin-Feng Chen Chen Chin-feng (; born 28 October 1977) is a Taiwanese aborigine of Siraya tribal ancestry, who is a former professional baseball outfielder. In 2002, he became the first player born in Taiwan to play in Major League Baseball. He currently se ...

). He won a Gold Glove at first base and made the Best Ten. He was named Rookie of the Year and MVP, the third player and first position player ever to accomplish that double honor; En-Yu Lin had been the last pitcher to pull off the feat (in 2005). He played in the

2013 World Baseball Classic The 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, held from March 2 to 19, 2013. This was the third iteration of the WBC, following the two previous tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009. Unlike the tw ...

. 2013 CPBL Home Run Derby

champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world champi ...

. Lin won the

Taiwan Series The Taiwan Series () is the final championship series of the Chinese Professional Baseball League The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989 a ...

with the then EDA Rhinos in 2016. Lin was in the Opening Day lineup for the

in 2021.

Uni-President Lions

On January 19, 2023, Lin signed with the

of the

. In 89 games for the Lions, he slashed .306/.357/.387 with three home runs and 54 RBI. On August 14, 2024, Lin recorded his 2,000th career hit, becoming the third CPBL player to achieve the milestone.

Career statistics

References

External links

IBAF siteHarry Weidemeijer's international tourney statsTaiwan Baseball BlogWorld Baseball Classic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lin, Yi-Chuan 1985 births 2005 Baseball World Cup players 2009 World Baseball Classic players 2013 World Baseball Classic players 2015 WBSC Premier12 players 2017 World Baseball Classic players Asian Games silver medalists in baseball Baseball players at the 2010 Asian Games Fubon Guardians players EDA Rhinos players Living people Baseball players from Tainan Sinon Bulls players Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for Chinese Taipei Asian Games baseball players for Chinese Taipei