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Reason To Believe In Tsung-Che Cheng
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- Reason To Believe In Tsung-Che Cheng
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Tsung-Che Cheng isn't going to be a savior for the Boston Red Sox .
He's a 5-foot-8 infielder without a shining prospect pedigree, so he's not supposed to be one, either. But what he can be is a productive MLB player, and while it's early, there are good signs.
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The basic stats are pretty, well, basic.
Cheng is batting .273 (6-for-22) since being called up with one double and two times caught stealing.
His underlying metrics, while a small sample size, paint a slightly brighter picture than that.
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Is Tsung-Che Cheng good?
There are a few hitting statistics via MLB's Statcast system that provide reason for hope for Cheng.
One of them is his squared-up percentage -- that's at 27.3%, which is above average across all of MLB for this season.
His chase percentage is 25.6%, which is also a positive mark and one that allows him to square up baseballs as frequently as he does.
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Statcast also has an expected slugging percentage that's based off batted ball data, and Cheng's is .435. Considering that his actual slugging percentage so far is just .318, that suggests he could move in a positive direction.
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Cheng also brings one clear and obvious trait: speed. His 29.2 feet per second sprint speed ranks in the 94th-percentile in MLB.
It's still too early to make a huge determination on Cheng as an infielder, but the fact that he can play second base, third base or shortstop definitely helps his case from a versatility standpoint.
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He's relatively unfamiliar to Boston fans, but so far, Cheng has shown some traits that could help him stick around.
