Pirates prospect to pitch for Taiwan in 2013 World Baseball Classic.

On the 14th we learned Taiwan's (Chinese Taipei) team for the 2013 World Baseball Classic will feature Pittsburgh pitching prospect Wei-Chung Wang (王維中) as one of the 13 pitchers on the roster. Wang is twenty years old was one of two Taiwanese players signed by Pittsburgh in 2011. Like most Pirates signings, he was already injured, and underwent Tommy John surgery. Little has been written about Wang vis-a-vis the Pirates because he hasn't pitched recently, and it is impossible to speculate where he might project.

The second player signed in 2011 was catcher Chin-De Chang (張進德, written elsewhere as Jin-De Jhang), a 19-year-old who last week was ranked the #20 prospect by PiratesProspect.com. Because he is not a 34-year-old backup, it isn't clear where he figures into Pittsburgh's long-term plans. Pittsburgh's Major League roster has been relatively Asian-free, with three Japanese players and a Korean playing in the regular season, but this list from TaiwaneseBaseballPlayers.com shows five other Taiwanese players who have been in the system the last few years.