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in Taiwan... and Chien-Ming Wang hasn't even thrown a pitch yet. Hopefully, he still has some skill left! If he can manage a modicum of success, it'll lead to huge exposure for the Jays. If he can channel his old self and hold on to a spot at the back end of the rotation, Rogers is going to be reeling in the money.

Just to show you what I mean, here's an article in Chinese from the front page of the Yahoo Taiwan sports section that discusses the Jays recent draft selections:

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/mlb-%E8%97%8D% ... 26553.html

... If he can win a few games and spark this team back into contention, it'll be like 'linsanity' once more.

Not quite.

Lin was a trailblazer that put up incredible numbers from the end of the bench. He was an Asian American that fought racial stereotypes to be in the league.

Asian pitchers are a dime a dozen in the MLB. Perhaps if Chien-Ming Wang was Asian American it would be an event. The only extra pub would be from Taiwanese Canadians.

I didn't explain myself clearly, I guess. Wang Chien-Ming is a cultural icon in Taiwan... kind of like a Taiwanese Wayne Gretzky. Yeah, he's no hall of famer, but he was the ace of the Yankees for a couple of years. Maybe he has the talent of a 'dime a dozen' pitcher', but his signing by the Blue Jays has garnered front page articles in Taiwan! If he can be something more than a 'dime a dozen' pitcher, it will lead to huge publicity in Taiwan and generate a tidy sum of cash for Rogers. It would be like a redemption story for the guy. If he is pitching well in the rotation and the Jays are contending, it'll mean a huge Taiwanese media presence at the Roger's Centre and the Jays will get the viewership and fan support of Taiwanese baseball fans!

Taiwanese media are known for being manipulative and exaggerate facts to attract attentions. That being said though, Taiwan is the leader in multimedia communication of the entire Chinese speaking world, its pop icons are probably more influential to the Chinese market in China than celebs in China.

Therefore, when events like this (Wang joining the Jays) happens, Taiwanese media as usual are generating some serious hype/buzz around this topic. This is going to last for at least the next month or so, and during this period, the name Toronto Blue Jays will be mentioned and exposed on all of the most watched TV shows in the world by the 1.3 billion people of China.

Unfortunately, unlike other East Asian nations, baseball is not a popular sport in China, so the effect of this will never be close to what happened with Linsanity and Yao Ming of the NBA.

If he does have some success though, like the OP said, he is a Gretzky, MJ, David Beckham, Ichiro type of icon in Taiwan, and with baseball regaining popularity due to the WBC success and Manny effect, I can see this being an opportunity for this organization to attract not only fans from the far east but also more young Asian players to want to play here in the future.

AA has to really understand this and handle this with care, I'm sure he doesn't want us to become the evil team the uses Wang for one spot start and then release him without giving him a second chances and become the last straw the pushes him out of the big leagues.

If the Blue Jays weren't interested in the Japanese market with their weak bid on Darvish, then why would they care about a washed up Taiwanese pitching hero?

FrankGrimes wrote:If the Blue Jays weren't interested in the Japanese market with their weak bid on Darvish, then why would they care about a washed up Taiwanese pitching hero?

Post of the month.

Frank Grimes wrote:If the Blue Jays weren't interested in the Japanese market with their weak bid on Darvish, then why would they care about a washed up Taiwanese pitching hero?

Isn't this kind of a non sequitur? I think I know what you are trying to say. You're just leaving those holes in the logic of your statement for the reader to fill in, right? Gee, thanks.
'Post of the month!'... LOL! are you being facetious?

Well to be fair, the Blue Jays were never a big player in the East Asian players market. Our scouting strategy focused mainly in the Caribbean players for a few decades now. But I hope with the popularity of Kawasaki and now possibly Wang, our management can realized that these Asian stars can potentially make them huge bucks in return.