Chi-Hung Hsu

Chi-Hung Hsu (許基宏)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 207 lb.

• School National Taiwan University of Sport
• High School Kao-Yuan Technical High School

• Born June 22, 1992 in Kaohsiung County Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Chi-Hung Hsu has been an infielder in the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

Hsu played in the 2004 Little League World Series. He was 3 for 4 for the Brother Elephants farm team in 2011. He hit .211 for Taiwan in the 2013 World Port Tournament and helped them win the Bronze at the 2013 East Asian Games. Hsu was picked by the Elephants in the second round of the 2014 CPBL Draft. His first hit in the CPBL came off Yi-Chieh Hsiao as a pinch-hitter on September 3, 2014 and his first home run was two days later off Tzu-Kai Chiu. He hit .290/.429/.565 with 14 RBI in 21 games for the team in 2014, making an immediate impact. Hsu hit .286/.412/.571 in the 2014 Taiwan Series, but the Brothers were beaten by the Lamigo Monkeys in 5 games.

The Kaohsiung native was hospitalized early in 2015 after being hit by a David Purcey pitch but suffered no lasting injuries from it. Hsu was selected into the 2015 CPBL All-Star Game, but he was 0-for-2. On June 11, he crushed a homer off Gaby Hernandez but he forgot to step on home plate, and the homer was cancelled. That was the first time it happened in CPBL. He produced at a .319/.432/.535 clip for the year with 13 homers, 54 runs and 56 RBI in 87 games. He played 36 games at 3B (fielding .859) and 14 at 1B (78 chances, no errors), presumably seeing significant action at DH as well. He was named CPBL Rookie of the Year. In the 2015 Taiwan Series, he hit .320/.433/.560 with 2 dingers, but the Brothers lost to the Monkeys again in 7 games.

Hsu extended his solid batting, recording a .356/.457/.603 batting line with 15 homers in 2016. Had he qualified, he would ranked 6th in batting, .58 behind Po-Jung Wang. Hsu recorded a .368/.458/.526 batting line with 3 doubles in the 2016 Taiwan Series, but the Brothers lost to the EDA Rhinos in 6 games. He then represented Taiwan in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, and he was 0-for-3. Hsu suffered from a right elbow injury in 2017, so he only hit .188/.262/.500 with 11 homers.

The young slugger struggled again in 2018 as his batting line was .191/.387/.340, and he mainly stayed in the minors. He hit .347/.479/.774 with 15 homers there, and led the minor league in homers and RBI. Hsu dominated the CPBL minor league in 2019, hitting .360/.450/.747 with 18 homers and broke the minor league record for most homers in a season. However, his batting line was .152/.300/.212 with the big club. Hsu finally rediscovered his hitting at the top level in 2020, and his batting line was .322/.389/.566 with 19 homers. He ranked 7th in batting (.058 behind Chieh-Hsien Chen) and 10th in homers (13 behind An-Ko Lin). He won his first Best Ten and CPBL Gold Glove as a first baseman. In the 2020 Taiwan Series, Hsu hit .185/.267/.333 and the Brothers lost to the Lions in 7 games.

Hsu recorded a .290/.368/.468 batting line with 14 homers in 2021, and he won the Gold Glove again. He led the league in doubles, ranked 3rd in homers (8 behind Yu-Hsien Chu), 9th in batting (.062 behind Chun-Hsiu Chen), 3rd in hits (29 behind Wei-Chen Wang) and 2nd in RBI (13 behind Chu). He had a .286/.375/.714 batting line with 2 homers in the 2021 Taiwan Series, and he won his first Taiwan Series title as the Brothers swept the Lions. Hsu was selected into the 2022 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-7. He ended up hitting .287/.399/.407 and led the league in OBP and walks. He was 3-for15 in the 2022 Taiwan Series, and the Brothers swept the Monkeys. Hsu suffered from a left foot injury in 2023, so he only played 63 games with a .247/.349/.354 batting line.

Sources

• CPBL player page
• Taiwan baseball Wiki