[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 2002 Austronesia Professional Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was a weak one with the best debuting player getting only 22.0%. It very nearly was an empty ballot, but closer Ting-Wei Ping managed to just barely reach the 66% requirement. Ping earned 67.7% on his sixth ballot to be the class’s lone inductee. Fellow reliever Hong Quinonez was the only other player above 50% with 59.7% on his sixth try. There were no players dropped after ten ballots.



Ting-Wei Ping – Relief Pitcher – Taoyuan Tsunami – 67.7% Sixth Ballot

Ting-Wei Ping was a 5’11’’, 175 pound left-handed relief pitcher from Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. Although Ping wasn’t a big guy, he delivered heat with a one-two combo of a 98-100 mph fastball and a strong splitter. His stuff graded as 11/10 in his prime. Ping also had strong control and above average to good movement. He had good stamina for a reliever, strong durability, and was a solid defender. The main knock on Ping is that he was a loner, considered a mercenary by many who cared about his paycheck more than the team.

Ping attended Wufeng University of Science and Technology in Chiayi. Relievers didn’t often get picked high, but Taoyuan made an exception, using the ninth overall pick of the 1974 APB Draft on Ping. He was primarily middle relief in his rookie season, but earned the closer role for part of year two. Ping was the Tsunami closer then firmly from 1977-83.

During that run, both he and Taoyuan were dominant. The Tsunami won the Taiwan League in 1978, 80, 82, and 83. In 1978, 82, and 83; Taoyuan was the Austronesia Champion. Ping won his first Reliever of the Year in 1977. He then won four straight from 1980-83, becoming the first (and as of 2037, the only) APB pitcher to win the award five times. Ping also was second in 1980 Pitcher of the Year voting and third in 1983.

In the playoffs, Ping played a big role in the three titles. He had 36 innings over 19 appearances in the postseason for Taoyuan with 11 saves, a 1.00 ERA, 57 strikeouts, a 0.47 WHIP, 283 ERA+, and 1.8 WAR. Ping also pitched for Taiwan in the World Baseball Championship from 1978-88, splitting duty with 20 starts and 18 relief appearances. He excelled on that state too with a 13-6 record, 7 saves, 1.79 ERA, 181.1 innings, 333 strikeouts, 210 ERA+, and 10.0 WAR. Ping was second in 1980’s WBC Best Pitcher voting.

Ping only led the Taiwan-Philippine Association in saves once with 41 in 1983. However, he had six seasons of 5+ WAR with Taoyuan, a very impressive mark for a reliever. 1982 was his best ERA at 0.88, while 1980 was his peak in strikeouts at 180 and WAR at 6.4.

After the 1983 season, Ping was a free agent at age 31. He was unable to come to terms with Taoyuan, as teams were loath to give relievers long-term, big money deals. Ping felt he deserved a major raise from his arbitration peak of $316,000. With that, he left Taiwan and sought MLB money. Taoyuan would later retire his #3 uniform for his brief dominance and role in their three titles.

Ping found a two-year, $2,160,000 deal with MLB’s Montreal. He would never get a full-time closer role in his MLB run, but he performed respectably in his more reduced role. After one season with the Maples, he was traded for 1985 to Nashville. He only had 14.1 innings with the Knights, but gave up zero earned runs in that stretch. Montreal brought him back with a three-year, $3,720,000 deal. He played two of those years with the Maples and finished with 4.9 WAR and a 2.11 ERA between the Montreal stints.

Ping at age 35 was cut by the Maples in spring training 1988. He signed a one-year, $1,540,000 deal for that season Ottawa. Next was a two-year, $3,360,000 deal with Tampa. Ping was cut midway through the second year, finishing the campaign with Los Angeles. 1991 started with Philadelphia, but he was cut in spring training. Milwaukee grabbed him, but Ping was again released in the summer.

He would return to Taiwan for the final two months of 1991, taking the closer role with Taipei. Ping still looked good with 15 saves and a 1.42 ERA for the Tigercats. Most importantly to him, that gave the 39-year old a bump to get noticed again by MLB teams. He signed a two-year, $3,760,000 contract with Kansas City.

1992 saw the highest workload of his MLB stints with 77 innings. He started 1993 as the Cougars closer, but posted very average numbers in that role. KC traded him at the deadline to Cleveland, where he struggled in 24.2 innings, That marked the end of his MLB stints, which saw 21 saves and 98 shutdowns, a 2.51 ERA, 498 innings, 557 strikeouts, a 145 ERA+, and 12.5 WAR.

Ping wasn’t ready to retire yet and ended up in Croatia, signing a two-year, $3,120,000 deal with EBF’s Zagreb. Although his ERA wasn’t amazing, he led the conference in saves and appearances at age 41, taking second in Reliever of the Year voting. Ping also had a 0.90 ERA in 10 playoff innings for the Gulls, who fell in the conference final. He was still under contact in 1995, but oddly Zagreb chose not to use Ping. He was happy to earn another $1,560,000 for sitting on his couch. Ping would retire that winter at age 42.

For his entire pro career, Ping had 357 saves and 516 shutdowns, a 1.91 ERA, 1002 games, 1375.1 innings, 1931 strikeouts, 329 walks, a 172 ERA+, 46 FIP-, and 59.0 WAR. Not many relievers can say they had that high of a WAR total for their career. The trouble for Ping Is that his APB career was limited to roughly half his career. He had 298 saves and 379 shutdowns, a 1.36 ERA, 781.1 innings, 1263 strikeouts, 179 walks, 206 ERA+, 32 FIP-, and 43.2 WAR.

The rate stats were excellent, he had more Reliever of the Year awards than anyone in APB, and he won three rings. Still, many voters were turned off by Ping leaving when he did and held that against him. There were also a bunch of relievers who were on the ballot at the same time that took voters from each other. The relative fewer innings hurt him with some voters, keeping Ping in the 50s for five straight ballots. Finally in 2002 with an unremarkable group and some of the other relievers inducted the prior year, Ping just made it across the line at 67.7% for a sixth ballot induction.