Musings on Mr. Hafner...

Continuing my little musing session about four key players on the Indians...

Ever since the '06 season when Travis Hafner hit .308 with 42 home runs and 117 RBI (in only 129 games! He missed the month of September after being hit on the hand by a bitch against the Rangers), he's been on a nosedive into irrelevancy. Some thought '07 was a year where he started off in a bad way because his contract wasn't settled, but signing the 4-year $57 million extension didn't really help either as he ended the season with a .266 average 24 home runs and 100 RBI. Then his shoulder quit on him and 2 years of that 4 year contract extension went right down the drain.

There are a few theories as to why Hafner's body suddenly started to quit on him, one being that after the '06 season he quit taking steroids because MLB started to really crack down on the players. I don't want to say that I believe he was taking them...but I have a pretty strong inclination that Hafner was shooting up something. I mean, come on, it's not like he just went from 42 to 24 home runs, he also dropped his doubles production down to 25! That's terrible for someone who from '04-'06 hit 41, 42, and 31 doubles (and remember, that 31 was in a season shortened by a month). It's common knowledge that steroids can lead to muscle deterioration, and I guess I think that's why his shoulder gave him enough issues to take him out for basically two seasons.

So now that Hafner has sort of taken the Indians to the cleaners with that huge ass contract the past couple years, he seems to be back in the saddle and riding the Mustang. According to a bunch of reports that I've read, there are no more restrictions on how many days in a row Hafner can play as there were last year, and he was hitting the ball in spring training like he hasn't in years. I remember reading from either Anthony Castrovince of mlb.com or Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer something to the tune of, "He may not be hitting Pronkville like he used to, but Hafner appears to be back in form."

I certainly hope that's true. If not, then hopefully Russel Branyan can get over his bad back and hit another 30 home runs like he did last year. Although I sort of doubt we'll be seeing much of Branyan and his strikeouts this year. But that's a $2 million down the tube for another post...

~MAS