[FuzzyRussianHat]

Chinese League Baseball presented a three-player Hall of Fame class in 2022, headlined by SP Zheng Zhang at 95.1%. He was joined by two returners who both very narrowly breached the 66% requirement. RP Boyang Cao made it at 69.3% on his third ballot and LF Seok-Hyeon So had 67.6% in his ninth attempt. The only other player above 50% was RF Minghui Ruan, finishing at 58.5% on his seventh try.



Zheng Zhang – Starting Pitcher – Shenzhen Spartans – 95.1% First Ballot

Zheng Zhang was a 6’5’’, 200 pound right-handed pitcher from Sanchazi, a town of 66,000 in northeastern China. Zhang was renowned for having incredible pinpoint control, allowing him to thrive despite having merely above average stuff and movement for much of his career. His fastball peaked in the 95-97 mph range and was mixed in with a curveball, forkball, and changeup.

Also helping Zhang thrive was solid stamina and durability for much of his run. He was excellent at holding runners, but weak defensively otherwise. Zhang wasn’t a malcontent, but he was outspoken and could rub management the wrong way. While he may have lacked tact, any grievance Zhang had tended to be legitimate. But speaking out about internal politics did speed up his departure from CLB.

Zhang was signed to a developmental deal by Shenzhen in May 2002 and spent a bit more than four years in their academy. He debuted in 2006 at age 20 with 24.1 unremarkable innings. Zhang also allowed one run in 1.2 innings in his lone playoff appearance. Shenzhen wouldn’t be back into the playoffs until 2011. Zhang was split between the bullpen and starting in 2007 with respectable results, becoming a more regular rotation fixture after that.

From 2009-14, Zhang had 7.5+ WAR in each season. His control made him the K/BB league leader from 2009-12 and gave him the best WHIP thrice with Shenzhen. Zhang got attention with third place finishes in 2009 and 2010’s Pitcher of the Year voting. On July 23, 2009, Zhang tossed his lone no-hitter with 11 strikeouts against Wuhan.

2011 marked the start of a seven year playoff streak for Shenzhen, who finished atop the Southern League standings from 2011-13. Despite that, the Spartans had little playoff luck and fell in the Round Robin five times in that run. They got to the 2012 semifinal as the #1 seed, but were upset by Guangzhou. Shenzhen also made the 2015 semifinal, but fell to Nanning.

You certainly couldn’t blame Zhang for Shenzhen’s postseason failings. In 98 playoff innings, he had a 1.29 ERA, 6-4 record, 112 strikeouts, 9 walks, 185 ERA+, and 3.0 WAR. From 2012-14, Zhang won three consecutive Pitcher of the Year awards with ERA titles each year and the most wins in 2012 and 2013. Zhang posted a staggering 0.89 ERA in 2013, the second-lowest qualifying season in CLB history. As of 2037, this is the sixth-lowest qualifying ERA in any season in any world league.

By WAR, Zhang’s 2014 was significantly better with career bests in innings (274), strikeouts (318), quality starts (31), shutouts (8), and FIP- (40). The 11.89 WAR effort ranks as the 16^th-best by a CLB pitcher as of 2037. His numbers dropped noticeably from those lofty peaks in 2015, but he was still good for third in POTY voting. This would ultimately be Zhang’s final season playing in China.

He had been outspoken about the team’s playoff struggles and entered free agency at age 30. Despite his talent, some CLB teams were leery about Zhang possibly disrupting their accepted order. He ended up leaving CLB and moving north to Russia, signing a six-year, $65,200,000 deal with Yekaterinburg of Eurasian Professional Baseball.

With Shenzhen, Zhang had a 139-84 record, 1.68 ERA, 2173.2 innings, 2518 strikeouts, 241 walks, 108 complete games, 45 shutouts, 143 ERA+, and 66.8 WAR. He would later reconcile with the Spartans and see his #16 uniform retired. Leaving for his 30s did lower Zhang’s spots on leaderboards, although as of 2037 he does still notably rank 27^th in WAR among pitchers, 58^th in wins, and 55^th in strikeouts.

In terms of efficiency, Zhang ranks very highly still. Among all CLB pitchers with 1000+ innings, his ERA ranks 11^th, his 0.75 WHIP is 5^th, and his .481 opponent’s OPS ranks 9^th. Zhang’s 1.00 BB/9 is 11^th, his 5.73 H/9 in 23^rd, and his triple slash ranks 19^th/8^th/16^th at .181/.211/.270. It is hard to guess exactly where Zhang might have figured in with the inner circle greats had he stayed in China. Still, his one decade of dominance was plenty to receive 95.1% to headline CLB’s 2022 Hall of Fame class.

Zhang’s time in Russia started well, leading the Asian League in wins, innings, WHIP, and complete games for a second in Pitcher of the Year voting in his 2016 debut. He regressed surprisingly fast unfortunately, looking merely okay in the next two seasons and outright bad by 2019. Zhang bounced back somewhat in 2020, but saw his season ended in late August with a ruptured ulnar collateral ligament.

Yekaterinburg struggled despite Zhang’s efforts, as this was their rebuilding era at the bottom following their dynasty run a decade prior. They voided the team option year after the 2020 season, leaving Zhang a 35-year old free agent with a major injury. With the Yaks, Zhang had a 67-66 record, 3.13 ERA, 1177.1 innings, 1022 strikeouts, 157 walks, 103 ERA+, and 16.3 WAR. The injury unsurprisingly tanked Zhang’s stuff, although he did hope to make a comeback. Krasnoyarsk would sign him in July 2021, but he ultimately never saw the field for the Cossacks. He retired in the winter at age 36.

Zhang’s combined tallies had a 206-150 record, 2.19 ERA, 3351 innings, 3540 strikeouts, 398 walks, 189 complete games, 55 shutouts, 126 ERA+, and 83.2 WAR. While he didn’t age well enough to be an inner-circle type guy, Zhang was undoubtedly a force for a decade. It was more than enough to secure his plaque among China’s other top aces.