Asia Winter Baseball League

The Asia Winter Baseball League is a professional baseball league hosted in Taiwan[1] with 2012 as its inaugural season. Making use of the warm and dry winter climate in West Taiwan, the short term league aims to offer young baseball players additional training experience and continued exposure in off-season games. It is the de facto successor to the now defunct Asia Series.

Asia Winter Baseball League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2024 Asia Winter Baseball League
SportBaseball
Founded2012
No. of teams4~6
Country Dominican Republic
 Japan
 South Korea
 Taiwan
 European Union
 United States
ContinentAsia
Most recent
champion(s)
Taiwan (TSG Hawks in 2023)
Most titlesJapan (5 titles)
Tournament formatShort-League
Official websitehttps://awb.cpbl.com.tw/en

Seasons

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2012

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Season 2012 was played between Japan, Taiwan Red, Taiwan White, and the Dominican Republic, with Japan winning the championship.

2013

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Season 2013 was played between the teams of Nippon Professional Baseball League, Korea Baseball Organization, Chinese Professional Baseball League of Taiwan, and the Dominican Republic.[2] Japan won the league phase but lost the playoff final to South Korea.

2015

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Season 2015 was played between the teams of Nippon Professional Baseball League, Korea Baseball Organization, Chinese Professional Baseball League of Taiwan, the Chinese Taipei National Training Team, and the Team Europe. This was the first time since the Asia Winter Baseball League was founded that Team Europe was invited. Team Europe consisted of total 30 players from different countries (12 Italians, 8 Dutch, 3 German, 2 French, 1 Czech, 1 Belgian, 1 Croat, 1 Hispanic and 1 Romanian). The Chinese Taipei National Training Team won the championship with team Japan as runner-up.

2016

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Season 2016 was played between the 2 teams of Nippon Professional Baseball League (East Japan/West Japan), Korea Baseball Organization Team, Chinese Professional Baseball League Team of Taiwan, Chinese Taipei National Training Team, and the Team Europe. The final was played between the 2 Japanese teams. The West Japan team consisting of players from Nippon Professional Baseball League teams from West Japan won the championship.

2017

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Season 2017 was played between the 2 teams of Nippon Professional Baseball League (East Japan/West Japan), Korea Baseball Organization Team, Chinese Professional Baseball League Team of Taiwan, the Japan Amateur Baseball Association All Star Team, and the WBSC All Star team managed by WBSC consisting of Team Europe players augmented with additional U.S. players. Experiencing player shortages due to injuries and early departures of team members, WBSC team took on amateur baseball players from Japan and Taiwan as replacements. The East Japan team consisting of players from Nippon Professional Baseball League teams from East Japan won the championship.

2018

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Season 2018 was played by 5 teams, 2 teams of Nippon Professional Baseball League (East Japan/West Japan), one Korea Baseball Organization Team, one Chinese Professional Baseball League of Taiwan team, the Japan Amateur Baseball Association All Star Team. 40 regular season games were played November 24 - December 13, 2018. Each team was playing 16 games, top four teams played three more games in playoffs December 14–16, 2018. All games were played at either Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium or Douliu Baseball Stadium

NPB West missed the Playoffs. KBO finished in fourth place, JABA team in third place, CPBL in second place, NPB East winners.

2019

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The CPBL Expansion team Wei Chuan Dragons have expressed their willingness to send a team. source: CPBL Stats

Previous Results

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Edition Year Host City Champions Score Runners-up Third place Fourth place No. of Teams
1 2012  
Taichung
 
NPB
5-2  
CPBL White
 
CPBL Red
 
Dominican Republic NT
4
2 2013  
Taichung
 
KBO
6-2  
NPB
 
CPBL
 
Dominican Republic NT
4
3 2015  
Taichung
 
Chinese Taipei NT
4-2  
NPB
 
KBO
 
CPBL
5
4 2016  
Taichung
 
NPB West
6-1  
NPB East
 
Chinese Taipei NT
 
KBO
6
5 2017  
Taichung
 
NPB East
4-1  
KBO
 
Japanese Amateur Baseball Association
 
CPBL
6
6 2018  
Douliu
 
NPB East
1-0  
CPBL
 
Japanese Amateur Baseball Association
 
KBO
5
7 2019  
Taichung
 
Japanese Amateur Baseball Association
4-2  
NPB Red
 
Wei Chuan Dragons
 
CPBL
6
8 2023  
Douliu
 
TSG Hawks
7-1  
NPB Red
 
CPBL
 
Japanese Amateur Baseball Association
6

All-time Table (Excluding playoffs)

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Pos. Team P W L T F A Diff Win% NPB% Best finish
1   Japan 233 133 79 21 1286 912 +374 .571 .627
  NPB 57 43 11 3 378 189 +189 .754 .796 Champions (2012)
  NPB Red 15 9 3 3 91 60 +31 .600 .750 Runners up (2019)
  Japan Amateur Baseball Association 48 27 14 7 266 158 +108 .562 .659 Champions (2019)
  NPB East 49 27 19 3 227 197 +30 .551 .587 Champions (2017, 2018)
  NPB West 49 22 23 4 246 227 +19 .449 .489 Champions (2016)
  NPB White 15 5 9 1 78 81 -3 .333 .357 Fifth place (2019)
2   South Korea 100 45 42 13 488 532 -44 .450 .517
  KBO 100 45 42 13 488 532 -44 .450 .517 Champions (2013)
3   Taiwan 186 83 89 14 952 944 +8 .446 .483
  CPBL Red 21 12 9 0 100 93 +7 .571 .571 Third place (2012)
  Wei Chuan Dragons 15 7 6 2 77 76 +1 .467 .538 Third place (2019)
  Chinese Taipei NT 31 14 12 5 169 160 +9 .452 .538 Champions (2015)
  CPBL White 19 8 11 0 87 84 +3 .421 .421 Runners Up (2012)
  CPBL 199 42 51 7 519 531 -12 .420 .452 Runners Up (2018)
4 Rest of World 48 9 33 6 214 404 -190 .188 .214
     WBSC All Stars 17 4 11 2 62 127 -65 .235 .267 Sixth place (2017)
  Team Europe 31 5 22 4 152 277 -125 .161 .185 Fifth place (2015)
5   Dominican Republic 41 7 34 0 138 286 -148 .171 .171
  Dominican Republic NT 41 7 34 0 138 286 -148 .171 .171 Fourth place (2012, 2013)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Winter baseball league a fine start, but more can be done". China Post. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  2. ^ "Team Info". CPBL. Archived from the original on 29 November 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.

3. 2018 Schedule and info from CPBL in Chinese Retrieved October 20, 2018 4. Roster of the AWB 2018 NPB teams by Yakyu Database Retrieved October 20, 2018 5. 2018 AWB Rosters Retrieved November 20, 2018 6. Day One of 2018 at CPBL website Retrieved November 24, 2018