The Pittsburgh Pirates announced today that it had promoted 23-year-old baseball player Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) to its Major League Baseball (MLB) squad, making Cheng the 18th Taiwanese player to play in the MLB league.
Hailing from southern Pingtung Country, Cheng is 173cm tall, very fast and has major league-level defensive skills as a shortstop, according to the MLB’s official website.
Photo: Screengrab from Pittsburgh Pirates’ Instagram account
The Pirates began a three-game home series against the St. Louis Cardinals today, with the first game being played at 6:40am Taiwan time today.
Cheng was on the bench for the game, which the Pirates won 8-4.
"I [was] really excited when I got the call. It's kind of like a dream come true," said Cheng, who is better known within the Pirates system as "Z," in an introductory video released by the franchise.
It will be the first trip to the major leagues for the Pirates' No. 17 prospect, nearly five years after he made his professional debut in the Rookie Leagues in July 2021.
Cheng was called up to the club's MLB squad early due to a series of injuries on the team at the start of the season.
MLB reporter Alex Stumpf said that although Cheng was promoted earlier than planned, he has strong development potential and can take on a versatile role.
According to MLB’s report on its official website, Cheng has major league-level defensive skills and speed.
His hitting style suits a leadoff role, as he is a left-handed hitter who can get on base and create scoring opportunities, the report said.
Cheng bats left and throws right.
In 17 at-bats over 14 spring training games, he tallied six hits, including one homer and two doubles, and hit .353.
His ability to play multiple infield positions effectively also set him apart from other potential call-up candidates, the report said.
In addition, he shows good plate discipline, pressures opponents with his speed and is skilled at hitting line drives to both left and right field, it said.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) were ordered on Tuesday by a French labor court to pay their former forward Kylian Mbappe up to 61 million euros (US$71.6 million) in unpaid wages and bonuses. France captain Mbappe, who left PSG in June last year to join Real Madrid, had been claiming more than 260 million euros in total from his former club. PSG in turn had demanded Mbappe pay them 440 million euros. Mbappe, 26, also claimed the Qatari-owned reigning European champions had applied the wrong French legal classification to his contract, but that was rejected by the court. The labor court said
RSS