Da-Hung Cheng

Da-Hung Cheng (鄭達鴻)
formerly as Chih-Hsiung Cheng, also transliterated as Ta-Hung Cheng

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 170 lb.
• School Chinese Culture University
• High School Kao-Yuan Technical High School

• Born January 12, 1981 in Taitung County Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Da-Hung Cheng played in the Chinese Professional Baseball League for 13 years. His cousin Chih-Chiang Cheng also pitched in the CPBL.

Cheng played in the 1996 World Youth Championship, 1999 World Junior Championship and 2001 World Port Tournament. In the 2002 World University Championship, he and Kuo-Ching Kao split the DH role for Taiwan; Cheng was 3 for 11 with a double and a steal .He was drafted by the Sinon Bulls in the fifth round of the 2005 CPBL Draft, and he went 3 for 38 with a double in 2005. He hit .260/.255/.340 in 2006, then .315/.385/.424 in 2007. He was 9th in the league in average. In 2008, he fell to .277/.333/.351. Da-hung batted .355/.406/.503 the next year. Had he qualified, he would have been 4th in the 2009 CPBL in average (behind Wu-Hsiung Pan, Cheng-Min Peng and Wilton Veras), 4th in OBP and 6th in slugging. He won the CPBL Most Improved Player Award.

In 2010, Cheng's batting line dropped to .278/.336/.357 but he stole 31 bases, tying Fu-Hao Liu for the league lead. He shattered the old CPBL record of 15 swipes by a catcher, set back in 1993. He was also thrown out trying to steal a league-high 15 times. He was the first catcher ever to lead the CPBL in swipes; no catcher had ever done so in Major League Baseball, Nippon Pro Baseball or the Korea Baseball Organization. He won his first Best Ten as a catcher. In the 2010 Taiwan Series, Cheng hit .333/.308/.333 but the Bulls were swept by the Brother Elephants.Cheng attended the 2011 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-4 with a run scored. He ended up hitting .319/.391/.423 with 13 steals, ranked 7th in batting (.032 behind Cheng-Wei Chang), 7th in RBI (35 behind Hung-Yu Lin) and 7th in hits (32 behind Chang). Cheng slumped to .283/.367/.353 in 2012, and he was 0-for-2 in the 2012 CPBL All-Star Game.

Cheng represented Taiwan in the 2013 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, and he was 0-for-2. He also played for Taiwan in the 2012 Asian Championship, and he recorded a .214/.313/.214 batting line as they won Silver. Cheng made it onto Taiwan's roster for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, but he didn't have any appearances. He hit .289/.353/.368 with 17 steals in 2013, and he ranked 6th in steals (12 behind Sheng-Wei Wang). He collected his 100th career steal on October 2, and he was the first catcher to reach this benchmark. Cheng was also selected into the 2013 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-2 with 2 RBI. In the 2013 Taiwan Series, Cheng hit .471/.471/.529 but the EDA Rhinos (the Bulls had changed their name) were swept by the Uni-President Lions.

The Taitung native had a .298/.372/.359 batting line with 20 steals in 2014, and he ranked 6th in steals (11 behind Chih-Ping Lin). Cheng attended the 2014 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-2 with a double. He improved to .334/.396/.426 in 2015, and he won his second Best Ten as a catcher. Cheng announced that he would became a free agent after the 2015 season, and the CTBC Brothers signed him. Cheng hit .271/.342/.331 for the Brothers in 2016, and he had a 0-for-2 record in the 2016 CPBL All-Star Game. He hit .143/.200/.214 in the 2016 Taiwan Series, and the Brothers were beaten by the Rhinos in 6 games. He represented Taiwan in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, and he was 1-for-3 with a run scored. Cheng slumped to .186/.288/.247 in 2017, and the Brothers released him to end his professional career. He became a coach of Trung-Yi High School after retiring.

Overall, Cheng hit .297/.363/.383 with 1,044 hits, 167 doubles and 132 steals in 13 seasons in the CPBL.

Sources

• Chinese Wiki Baseball
• CPBL.com Bio
• Defunct IBAF site