Lamigo Monkeys

Lamigo Monkeys
League Chinese Professional Baseball League
Ballpark Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium
Year founded 2003 (2003)
Taiwan Series championships
Former name(s)
  • First Financial Holdings Agan (2003)
  • La New Bears (2004–2010)
Playoff berths
Ownership La New Corporation
Manager Hung Yi-chung
General Manager Su Ching-hsuan

The Lamigo Monkeys (Chinese: Lamigo 桃猿; pinyin: Lamigo Táoyúan), formerly First Financial Holdings Agan (第一金控金剛, abbreviated 第一金剛) and then the La New Bears (La New 熊), are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. Owned and administered by the Kaohsiung-based shoe-producing La New Corporation, the Bears qualified for the playoffs in 2006 for the first time in team history, and by finishing with the best record for the whole season, gained an automatic berth in the Taiwan Series.

The Bears played their home games at Chengcing Lake Baseball Field in Kaohsiung County (now part of Kaohsiung City) from 2004 to 2010. In the 2011 season, their home stadium was moved to Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium. Accordingly, the team's name was changed to the Lamigo Monkeys.

History

First Financial Holdings Agan

First known as the First Securities Agan, the team was owned by the First Financial Holding Corporation, a government-funded financial holding service institute. Its then-chairman Chen Chien-lung (陳建隆) was a keen political supporter of President Chen Shui-bian, and, upon the president's request, immediately agreed to take over one of the two former TML teams after TML was merged into CPBL in January 2003. Since Macoto Bank had already decided to take-over the Macoto Gida, Chen Chien-lung took over the Agan as promised. Interestingly, the bulk of Agan's player came from Taipei Gida and Kaohsiung-Pingtung Fala, and not the Taichung Agan which carried the same mascot and the champion of the final season of TML. Agan played its home games at Chengcing Lake Baseball Field.

Without a strong roster plus the management's inexperience and unprofessionalism in running a professional sports club, the Agan performed poorly right from the start of the 2003 season. After Chen Chien-lung's sudden resignation due to allegation of insider trading in August 2003, the First Financial Holding Corporation no longer showed willingness in running the team. The Agan finished the 2003 season placing fifth overall, and did not win any of the 20 games against Brother Elephants, the Taiwan Series champion of that season.

La New Bears

Just before the 2004 season, Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing invited the La New Corporation, a footwear manufacturer to sponsor the then-vacant Chengcing Lake Baseball Field, which was under the management of Kaohsiung County after the disbandment of Taiwan Major League. La New Corporation eventually agreed and, in addition, offered to buy the First Financial Holdings Agan, whose management had been struggling in the past season. On December 16, 2003, La New completed the process with First Financial Holdings and renamed the team La New Bears. In the first two years of their existence, the Bears did not perform well. But after several additions to the roster through drafts and the minor league, the Bears turned the team around, eventually winning the 2006 Taiwan Series title.

Lamigo Monkeys

After several years of futile effort to manage the Kaohsiung market, the team relocated to Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City) and changed its name to Lamigo Monkeys in January 2011. Lamigo is a subsidiary of La New Corporation that operates a wellness center, restaurants as well as a travel agency in northern Taiwan. Since Lamigo is based in northern Taiwan, the team was moved to Taoyuan County and play their home games at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium. Their new name in Chinese, taoyuan (桃猿), is a homophone to their new home county. Despite the name change, La New Corporation retained its direct ownership of the team.[1] In 2012, the Monkeys won their first seasonal title after the name change when they defeated Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions four games to one in Taiwan Series.

Records

Qualified for playoffs Taiwan Series Championship Asia Series Championship

Regular seasons

Season Wins Losses Ties Pct. Place
First Financial Holdings Agan
2003 20 (9/11) 71 (37/34) 9 (4/5) .220 (.196/.244) 5 (6/5)
La New Bears
2004 40 (18/22) 56 (30/26) 4 (2/2) .417 (.375/.458) 6 (6/5)
2005 42 (16/26) 55 (32/23) 3 (2/1) .433 (.333/.531) 6 (6/2)
2006 62 (30/32) 34 (19/15) 4 (2/2) .646 (.612/.681) 1 (1/1)
2007 58 (26/32) 42 (24/18) 0 (0/0) .580 (.520/.640) 2 (2/1)
2008 61 (28/33) 35 (19/16) 4 (3/1) .610 (.596/.673) 2 (2/1)
2009 61 (33/28) 58 (26/32) 1 (1/0) .513 (.559/.467) 2 (2/4)
2010 55 (31/24) 62 (27/35) 3 (2/1) .470 (.534/.407) 3 (2/4)
Lamigo Monkeys
2011 66 (33/33) 52 (26/26) 2 (1/1) .559 (.559/.559) 1 (2/1)
2012 66 (28/38) 52 (30/22) 2 (2/0) .559 (.483/.633) 2 (2/1)
2013 58 (28/30) 60 (32/28) 2 (0/2) .492 (.467/.517) 3 (3/2)
2014 66 (39/27) 51 (19/32) 3 (2/1) .564 (.672/.458) 1 (1/3)
2015 68 (37/31) 52 (23/29) 0 (0/0) .567 (.617/.517) 1 (1/2)
Total 723 680 37 .515 --

Playoffs

Season First Round Taiwan Series
Opponent Wins Losses Opponent Wins Losses
La New Bears
2006 Seeded first Uni-President Lions 4 0
2007 Seeded first Uni-President Lions 3 4
2008 Brother Elephants 0 3 Eliminated
Lamigo Monkeys
2011 No first round. Uni-President Lions 1 4
2012 No first round. Uni-President Lions 4 1
2014 No first round. Chinatrust Brother 4 1
2015 No first round. Chinatrust Brother 4 3
Total 20 13

Asia Series

Year Round Robin Championship Round
Wins Losses Standing Opponent Result
La New Bears
2006 2 1 2 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 0 - 1 (L)
Lamigo Monkeys
2012 2 0 1 Yomiuri Giants 3 - 6 (L)
Total 4 1 -- 0W - 2L

Roster

Lamigo Monkeys roster
Active Roster Coaches/Others

Pitchers

  • 12 Taiwan Lai Da-Guan (賴達官)
  • 17 Taiwan Cheng Cheng-Hao (鄭承浩)
  • 18 Taiwan Wang Feng-Hsin (王豐鑫)
  • 19 Taiwan Wang Jia-Cheng (王嘉誠)
  • 23 Taiwan Wu Chun-Yi (吳俊逸)
  • 32 Taiwan Wang Yi-Cheng (王溢正)
  • 34 Taiwan Tseng Cong-Syuan (曾琮萱)
  • 35 Taiwan Kuo Chun-Jie (郭駿傑)
  • 41 Taiwan Wang Ying-Shan (王英山)
  • 39 Taiwan Treng Chou-Hau (曾兆豪)
  • 40 Taiwan Huang Chong-Chen (黃中辰)
  • 42 Taiwan Chen Cheng-Da (陳正達)
  • 46 Taiwan Chu Chun-Siang (朱俊祥)
  • 47 Taiwan Wang Chia-Chen (王嘉誠)
  • 68 Taiwan Kuo Wen-Kai (郭文凱)
  • 81 Taiwan Lin Po-You (林柏佑)
  • 85 Taiwan Chen Bing-Tsun (陳秉村)
  • 88 United States Rommie Lewis (雷弋士)
  • 91 Taiwan Hsieh Chang-Rong (謝長融)
  • 92 Taiwan Hsu Ming-chieh (許銘倢)
  • - Taiwan Tsai Ching-Hao (蔡璟豪)


Roster updated 2013-12-14

Catchers

  • 11 Taiwan Lin Hong-Yu (林泓育)
  • 22 Taiwan Liu Chia-Hao (劉家豪)
  • 27 Taiwan Huang Hao-Lan (黃浩然)
  • 60 Taiwan Liu Shih-Hao (劉時豪)
  • 70 Taiwan Hsu Yao-Teng (許躍騰)
  • - Taiwan Hsu Yu-Hao (許禹壕)

Infielders

  • 00 Taiwan Weng Ke-Yao (翁克堯)
  •  1 Taiwan Yeh Chu-Hsuan (葉竹軒)
  •  6 Taiwan Shih Chih-Wei (石志偉)
  •  7 Taiwan Kuo Yong-Wei (郭永維)
  • 21 Taiwan Kuo Yen-Wen (郭嚴文)
  • 24 Taiwan Kuo Chiu-Yen (郭修延)
  • 31 Taiwan Lin Chih-sheng (林智勝)
  • 44 Dominican Republic Sandy Madera (猛德拉)
  • 48 Taiwan Hung Chen-Yu (洪臣宇)
  • 54 Taiwan Chen Yen-Feng (陳雁風)
  • 62 Taiwan Yu De-Long (余德龍)
  • 79 Taiwan Lin Chih-Ping (林智平)
  • 97 Taiwan Liang Chia-Jung (梁家榮)

Outfielders

  •  8 Taiwan Chan Zhi-Yao (詹智堯)
  • 33 Taiwan Hsieh Hsuan-Ren (謝炫任)
  • 36 Taiwan Tsai Chien-Wei (蔡建偉)
  • 52 Taiwan Chen Chin-Feng (陳金鋒)
  • 55 Taiwan Chen Kuan-Ren (陳冠任)
  • 57 Taiwan Chung Cheng-yu (鍾承佑)
  • 66 Taiwan Tseng Hao-Ju (曾豪駒)
  • 99 Taiwan Lin Cheng-yi (林政億)
  • - Taiwan Lee Kuo-Sheng (李國生)
  • - Taiwan Lan Yin-Lun (藍寅倫)

Manager

  •  2 Taiwan Hong I-Chung (洪一中)

Coaches

  •  3 Taiwan Wu Chun-Liang (吳俊良) (pitching)
  •  9 Taiwan Chen Kai-Fa (陳該發) (hitting)
  • 15 Taiwan Chuang Shen-Hsiung (莊勝雄) (pitching)
  • 56 Taiwan Lin Chen-Hsieng (林振賢) (outfield)
  • 58 Taiwan Du Chen-Wen (杜正文) (fitness)
  • 63 Taiwan Tsai Yu-hsiang (蔡昱詳) (pitching)

Minor league manager

  • 93 Taiwan Liao Kang-Chih (郭建霖)

Minor league coaches

  • 60 Taiwan Liu Ping-Chen (劉品辰)
                   (Strength and Conditioning)
  • 83 Taiwan Tseng Yi-Cheng (曾翊誠) (pitching)

Trainees

  • 29 Taiwan Hsiao Ming-Chih (蕭明治)
  • 36 Taiwan Pan Chen-Wei (潘振瑋)
  • 45 Taiwan Lin Hong-Chih (林鴻志)

Notable former players

Retired number

See also

References

  1. Huang, Paul (January 7, 2011). "La New Bears become the Lamigo Monkeys". Taipei Times. Retrieved January 7, 2011.

External links

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