Cheng-Min Peng

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Peng batting in 2012.

Cheng-Min Peng (彭政閔) (Cha Cha)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 0", Weight 205 lb.

BR register page

Biographical information[edit]

Cheng-Min Peng has won five batting titles in the CPBL. An outfielder, Peng has starred for the Brother Elephants and formed the "Three Musketeers" with teammates Chih-Yuan Chen and Feng-An Tsai. His brother Cheng-Hsin Peng also played in the CPBL.

Peng first broke onto the international scene with the 1995 World Junior Championship, during which he hit .419 and slugged .710 for Taiwan, with 9 RBI. He was second in the tournament in average behind Davide Dallospedale and possibly led in home runs (3). He was named to the All-Tournament team at third base and Taiwan won Silver. Brad Wilkerson beat him out for tournament MVP honors. Peng went 4 for 15 with two walks in the 1997 World Port Tournament. He was a bench player for Taiwan in the 1998 Baseball World Cup, going 0 for 5 with two walks in four games, one at first base and three as a pinch-hitter.

The Elephants drafted Peng in the first round of the 2001 CPBL Draft. Peng debuted in the CPBL in 2001, hitting .316/.433/.478 for the Elephants. He was selected into the 2001 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Peng would never miss this event in his 20-year career. In the 2001 Taiwan Series, the rookie hit .464/.516/.821 with 2 homers, and the Brothers beat the Uni-President Lions in 7 games. He was named the Outstanding Player of the series, a step below MVP Tetsu Yofu.

The Kaohsiung native batted .310/.445/.588 with 18 home runs, 71 RBI and 16 steals in 88 games in 2002. He made the Best Ten team as the top DH in the CPBL. Peng led the league in runs with 66, ranked 6th in batting (.024 behind Chien-Wei Chen) and 3rd in homers (8 behind Wen-Bin Chen). He then was a postseason hero, winning MVP honors in the Taiwan Series. His batting line was .667/.692/1.083 with a homer. Peng played for Taiwan in the 2002 Intercontinental Cup, producing at a .167/.308/.400 clip as a 1B/DH; he had 11 strikeouts in 30 AB but also scored 8 runs and drove in 8 in 8 games. He led Taiwan in runs and was second to Tsai in RBI. He also played for Taiwan in the 2002 Asian Games.

Peng improved even further in 2003 when the 24-year-old hit .355/.455/.585 and led the CPBL in both doubles (25) and batting average. Peng attended the 2003 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-3. His 83 runs were one behind leader Chih-Yuan Chen. He was Player of the Month in May, July and September, and he made the Best Ten as an outfielder. In the 2003 Taiwan Series, Peng hit .333/.417/.524 with a homer, and he won his third Taiwan Series title in his third season. Peng also played for Taiwan in the 2003 Asian Championship.

In 2004, Peng won his second batting title, with an impressive .376 mark. He also had an OBP of .493 and slugged .595. Peng was 2-for-4 with a homer and 3 RBI in the 2004 CPBL All-Star Game, and he won the MVP. He led the league in runs (90) and hits (127) and was a two-time Player of the Month. The Elephants cleanup hitter won the batting title by 39 points over runner-up Tai-Shan Chang. He was over .400 for 70 games, a CPBL record, breaking the 66 set by Jay Kirkpatrick in 1998. He again was a Best Ten pick.

Peng was an obvious pick for Taiwan's team in the 2004 Olympics and he hit well, batting .286/.483/.524 with 3 steals in 4 tries. He led the Olympics in stolen bases that year and led the Taiwan entry in OBP. Peng remained sharp in 2005, hitting .339/.445/.544 for his third straight batting championship. He led in average by 15 points over Victor Rodriguez and made his 4th straight Best Ten, his third in a row as an outfielder. Unfortunately, his season was cut short by a wrist injury. He injured on August 6 because he was struck out by Ying-Chieh Lin. Peng was angry and he punched a transformer box in the club house, and he fractured his wrist.

Cha-Cha missed significant time due to injuries in 2006 and hit .351/.468/.532 when healthy (48 games). Healthy in 2007, the former Olympic player batted .364/.463/.594 and finally topped 20 home runs after having peaked at 18 three times before. He was third in the league in homers behind Tilson Brito and Chin-Feng Chen and was second in average, 20 points behind Chen. He shined in the 2007 CPBL All-Star Game, having a 2-for-5 record with 2 RBI.

In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, Peng hit .256/.383/.333 with 7 runs and 7 RBI in 10 games. He was error-free in right field and drew 7 walks. He scored one of Taiwan's runs and drove in another in their 6-3 quarterfinal loss to the Dutch national team. In the 2007 Asian Championship, he was 4 for 12 with a walk and four runs, the most on Taiwan and two behind tournament leader Young-min Ko. Peng batted .364/.400/.500 with 6 RBI in 7 games in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament as Taiwan earned a spot in the 2008 Olympics. Peng was Taiwan's first baseman for the event. Peng had a similar role in Beijing, hitting a solid .310/.394/.434 with 5 runs in 7 games. He scored the winning run against Canada that gave Taiwan 5th place in the Olympics.

Peng won the 2008 CPBL batting title at .391, .043 ahead of runner-up Kuan-Jen Chen. His 23 steals were one behind leader Sheng-Wei Wang. He set the all-time batting average record, breaking Jay Kirkpatrick's 10-year-old mark by .004. His record stood eight years before Po-Jung Wang broke it. He won his first CPBL Gold Glove as a first baseman, and he collected another Best Ten award. In the 2008 CPBL Playoff Series, Peng crushed 3 homers in Game 1 and helped the Elephants advance to the 2008 Taiwan Series. He was the first player to hit 3 homers in a CPBL postseason game, and his batting line was .583/.643/1.333 in the series. He hit .250/.357/.333 in the Taiwan Series, and the Elephants lost to the Lions in 7 games.

In the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Peng was 1 for 6 with a walk for Taiwan. He drove in their only run of the tourney, singling in Che-Hsuan Lin in the 6th inning of an upset loss to China. On Opening Day 2009, Peng hit the 6,000th home run in CPBL history, off Wei-Lun Pan, to help the Elephants avoid a shutout in a 5-1 loss. For the 2009 CPBL season, he hit .366/.481/.560, losing the batting title by .001 to Wu-Hsiung Pan, tied Tai-Shan Chang for 4th in home runs (17), led in OBP by a whopping .044 over Wu-Hsiung Pan and was 4th in slugging. He hit .359/.410/.710 with 2 homers in the 2009 Taiwan Series, and he won the Outstanding Player award. The Brothers were beaten by the Lions in 7 games again, through.

On August 18, 2010, Peng became the 10th player in CPBL annals to reach 1,000 hits and the fastest to do so, accomplishing the feat in his 844th game and 2,838 at-bat. The hit came off Chin-Chih Huang. The old records for the fastest to 1,000 hits were Chung-Yi Huang (876 games) and Min-Ching Lo (3,244 AB). Chih-Sheng Lin would reach 1,000 hits in 836 games. Peng surpassed Kuang-Huei Wang to become the all-time RBI leader for the Elephants on May 21. He set another franchise record on September 23, breaking Jui-Chen Chen's record for hits leader. Peng finished the 2010 CPBL season with a .357/.451/.481 to take his fifth batting title. He led in OBP by .071 (over Chih-Sheng Lin), was second in slugging (.034 behind Lin), led in average (by .027 over Yi-Chuan Lin), was 4th in steals (20), 4th in RBI (65) and tied with Chih-Sheng Lin for second with 138 hits. He won the Gold Glove, the Best Ten at 1B and finally took home his first CPBL MVP award. He also collected the Gold Glove and Best Ten awards. In the 2010 Taiwan Series, he was 2-for-13 and the Brothers swept the Sinon Bulls.

Peng then represented Taiwan in the 2010 Asian Games. He suffered from injuries in 2011, so he only played 80 games with a .314/.405/.422 batting line. In 2012, a healthy Peng recorded a .320/.416/.480 batting line with 14 homers. He was 8th in batting (.068 behind Wu-Hsiung Pan), 5th in homers (10 behind Chih-Sheng Lin) and 4th in RBI (8 behind Tai-Shan Chang). On June 18, he drew a walk against Wen-Yang Liao, and he broke Chung-Yi Huang's record and became the all-time walks leader in the CPBL. He broke four franchise records in this year, passing Kuang-Huei Wang with 176 doubles on May 6, breaking Jui-Chen Chen's record with 4,195 at-bats on July 7, passing Huai-Shan Chen on August 31 with 1,051 games played and becoming the sacrifice flies leader with 45 on August 5.

After the 2012 season, Peng played for Taiwan in the 2013 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, and he hit .375/.643/.375 with 5 runs. He was named the captain of Taiwan in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, and he hit .313/.450/.500, with a homer against Warwick Saupold of Australia. Peng recorded a .318/.419/.454 batting line with 10 homers in 2013, and he led the league in walks and OBP. He was 4th in homers (8 behind Yi-Chuan Lin), 5th in batting (.039 behind Lin), 3rd in RBI (16 behind Tai-Shan Chang) and 5th in hits (21 behind Lin). He was 1-for-5 with a double in the 2013 CPBL All-Star Game.

Peng collected his 200th steal on May 4, 2014, and he became the first player in CPBL history to have 1,000 hits, 100 homers and 200 steals. He hit his 1,500th career hit on September 6, and he broke Tai-Shan Chang's record as the fastest to do so. Peng ended up hitting .301/.415/.411 in 2014, and he led the league in walks again. He was 7th in batting (.049 behind Chin-Lung Hu), 7th in RBI (32 behind Yi-Chuan Lin) and 6th in hits (42 behind Hu). He only hit .211/.250/.211 in the 2014 Taiwan Series, and the Brothers were beaten by the Lamigo Monkeys in 5 games.

In 2015, the captain of the Brothers was still an on-base machine. He hit .320/.414/.394 and led the league in both walks and OBP for the third straight year. In the 2015 Taiwan Series, he hit the first inside-the-park home run in Series annals, against Yi-Cheng Wang in Game 1, and his batting line was .333/.400/.519 in the whole series. The Brothers still lost to the Monkeys in 7 games. Peng broke Tai-Shan Chang's record and became the CPBL all-time sacrifice flies leader on May 11, 2016. He was selected into the 2016 CPBL All-Star Game, and he had a 2-for-5 record with a double. He batted .341/.417/.466 with 8 homers in 2016, and he was 10th in batting (.073 behind Po-Jung Wang). In the 2016 Taiwan Series, he hit .368/.478/.684 with a homer, but the Brothers still lost again to the EDA Rhinos in 6 games; he was named the Outstanding Player of the series (Che-Hsuan Lin was MVP).

Peng continued setting CPBL records in 2017. He became the fastest to score 1,000 runs, reaching the mark on July 2, breaking Tai-Shan Chang's record (1,573 games, 86 less then the old mark). He also became the first player to have 1,000 career strikeouts on August 9, and he collected his 1,000th career RBI on August 15. His batting line was .299/.385/.359, and he was 10th in walks (25 behind Po-Jung Wang). In the 2017 Taiwan Series, Peng hit .500/.571/.500 but the Brothers were beaten by the Monkeys in 5 games.

Cha-Cha only hit .290/.357/.391 in 2018, and he announced that the 2019 season was his last season. He attended the 2019 CPBL All-Star Games, and he crushed a 2-run homer off Hsuan-Ta Liu in the 7th inning of Game 1 to win the MVP; he was 1-for-4 in Game 2. On July 7, Peng got his 2,000th career hit against Ping-Hsueh Chen of the Fubon Guardians, and he was the second player to reach that benchmark, following Tai-Shan Chang. He broke Chang's record to become the all-time runs leader on July 17. In his last season, Peng hit .302/.368/.385 with 2 homers. He batted .375/.444/.438 in the 2019 Taiwan Series, but the Brothers were beaten by the Monkeys in 5 games. Peng then coached the minor league team of the Brothers from 2020 to 2023. When Wei-Chu Lin was fired in the middle of the 2023 season, Peng was called up to succeed him. He only led them for half of a season, then Keiichi Hirano replaced him. He was moved back to the minor league in 2024 as their manager.

Overall, Peng hit .333/.425/.485 with 2,044 hits, 192 homers and 231 steals in 19 seasons in the CPBL. He was the CPBL all-time leader for runs, walks, sacrifice flies and on-base percentage. Peng was also 2nd in hits (90 behind Tai-Shan Chang), 4th in RBI (242 behind Chang), 6th in doubles (74 behind Yi-Chuan Lin), 5th in homers (111 behind Chih-Sheng Lin), 2nd in strikeouts (230 behind Chih-Sheng Lin), 4th in steals (64 behind Kan-Lin Huang) and 5th in batting (.012 behind Hu).

Sources[edit]

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