A Failed Project?
Travis Hafner might be shown the door this season.
AP - Cleveland, OH - As baseball turns it's calender into May. A lot of teams start to determine what are the key pieces to the puzzle? The puzzle being the team, and the goal being to put together a line-up that is worthy of a World Series ring. One such ring that has avoided the city of Cleveland, for the past fifty plus years. No we're not the Cubs, we don't deserve to whine as much as they have. No we're not the Yankees who miss out on rings after spending more money than Bernie Madoff on vacation.
We're the Cleveland Indians, and we've had our shot. Twice. Blown both of them too, so what makes this year any different? Are we contenders? Or are we pretenders? Do we have the pieces of a puzzle that it takes to win a World Series ring? Or do we have just enough puzzle pieces put in place to go make the playoffs? One giant piece to the puzzle who used to fit, is Travis Hafner.
Nicknamed Project Donkey, Hafner was a threat in the Indians line-up. A long ball master, and we all know, chicks dig the long ball. However, recently with injuries to his shoulder Travis has been robbed of his power, rather quickly he declined. And now, pitchers are throwing him meat balls that he used to take 400 feet, and he's barely reaching the warning track. As May ball continues one thing is for certain, now is the meat of the season. Not a lot of time left to put together a roster.
So we begged to asked the question, what if Project Donkey is a failure. By no means is it his fault, but rather the result of an injury in baseball. His value on this team has steadily dropped. He doesn't play the infield anymore, Garko takes care of first base. As Kelly Shoppach begins to return he could take the place of Victor Martinez at the plate and V-Mart becomes our DH. Really, more and more, it's looking like Hafner, is just out of place. He's been doing good things for this team no doubt, but not the things that's needed from a guy in his position.
The Indians need a threat, and the first wave of rumors are circulating in non other than Cleveland. Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge have not talked about moving Pronk anywhere, or that he's even on the market. It could be very soon though that he becomes available as teams start to assess their position and see what needs to be done in order to get deep into October.
The hunt hasn't started, yet. When it does will Hafner be a member of the pack? Or the lone wolf exiled from the dogs? Only time will tell for Hafner and the Tribe.