Hsu Chi-hung Promoted to First Team; Keiichi Hirano Talks Adversity: Hard to Balance Winning and Development
CPBL's CTBC Brothers promoted infielder Hsu Chi-hung to the first team. Manager Keiichi Hirano addressed the team's early-season slump, expressing the difficulty of balancing player development with winning.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 17, 2026 at 19:29
- 🔍 Collected: April 17, 2026 at 20:02 (32 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 18, 2026 at 22:12 (26h 10m after Collected)
(Central News Agency Reporter Su Chih-shih, Taipei, 17th) The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) CTBC Brothers promoted infielder Hsu Chi-hung to the first team today. When discussing the team's early-season slump, Manager Keiichi Hirano said this was an expected situation: "It is very difficult to balance player development while still trying to win games."
The Brothers are currently 2 wins and 10 losses since the start of the season, sitting at the bottom of the 6 teams. Hirano stated, "If I had to talk about it, I could talk for two or three hours." However, whether it was winning the championship or last season, he had always considered that the team would encounter such situations, and balancing development and winning is difficult. "For the past two years, I have been trying to figure out countermeasures," he said. He wants the players not to overthink this, but simply focus on how to become better.
The Brothers sent infielder Tseng Sung-en down to the farm team (second team) yesterday, and the vacated spot was filled by Hsu Chi-hung. Hsu suffered an injury during spring training this year and missed the season opener, but returned to the first team after undergoing rehab games in the second team.
Hirano stated that Hsu Chi-hung was originally part of the team's strategic plan, but "deciding who to send down is a very difficult choice."
He said that while performance is important, he first considers attitude towards baseball, influence on the team, and so on, and in this regard, Tseng Sung-en is still lacking. Although Tseng cannot immediately become a superstar, he needs to show more passion and work hard to the point where others feel "even if he doesn't hit well, we can't blame him." Currently, he is still lacking in this aspect. (Editor: Li Ming-tsung) 1150417
The Brothers are currently 2 wins and 10 losses since the start of the season, sitting at the bottom of the 6 teams. Hirano stated, "If I had to talk about it, I could talk for two or three hours." However, whether it was winning the championship or last season, he had always considered that the team would encounter such situations, and balancing development and winning is difficult. "For the past two years, I have been trying to figure out countermeasures," he said. He wants the players not to overthink this, but simply focus on how to become better.
The Brothers sent infielder Tseng Sung-en down to the farm team (second team) yesterday, and the vacated spot was filled by Hsu Chi-hung. Hsu suffered an injury during spring training this year and missed the season opener, but returned to the first team after undergoing rehab games in the second team.
Hirano stated that Hsu Chi-hung was originally part of the team's strategic plan, but "deciding who to send down is a very difficult choice."
He said that while performance is important, he first considers attitude towards baseball, influence on the team, and so on, and in this regard, Tseng Sung-en is still lacking. Although Tseng cannot immediately become a superstar, he needs to show more passion and work hard to the point where others feel "even if he doesn't hit well, we can't blame him." Currently, he is still lacking in this aspect. (Editor: Li Ming-tsung) 1150417