Posts tagged TravisHafner at FanHouse

Obviously the fantasy season is past the halfway point, but you gotta work with me here. There aren't any games that count for the next few days, so it's the perfect time to formulate these teams. Unlike the actual All-Star game, there are different parameters for judging who makes the fantasy All-Star team. Value matters. For example, Hanley Ramirez is obviously the best fantasy player in baseball. He was a high first round pick in every draft, though, so he's not really exceeding expectations.

There's a reason you make the fantasy All-Star team this way ... owners don't win leagues by drafting Hanley Ramirez first overall. You do, however, win your league by loading up on value picks like Josh Hamilton and Geovany Soto ... while you lose your league by taking some of the big names I'm going to list on the "bad" team.

I've named each team after their backstop. Why? I felt like it.

Let's have fun.

TEAM GEO (these are the fantasy All-Stars)

C - Geovany Soto -- You can convince me that you thought Geo was a top ten catcher and that he'd hit 20 home runs coming into the season. You can't convince me that you had him top three and on pace for almost 30.

While there have been problems aplenty in Cleveland with the Indians this season, a lot of the team's offensive struggles can be attributed to the fact they've gotten absolutely nothing out of Travis Hafner this year. After having an MVP-caliber season in 2006 (.308 42 HR 117 RBI 1.098 OPS), Hafner struggled last season hitting only .266. Of course, even though he was struggling, he still managed to hit 24 homers and drive in 100 runs.

The Indians probably wish he could struggle so much this season, but Pronk's been battling a bad shoulder injury since May and hasn't played a game since being placed on the DL back on May 25th. Still, despite the fact his shoulder is healing incredibly slowly, Pronk still thinks he'll be back in time this season to help get the Tribe up to fourth place in the division.

"It's been a really slow process," said Hafner, who has four home runs in 157 at-bats this season. "Seems there were three or four weeks that I just wasn't making a whole lot of progress. Here in the last couple of weeks, it's really come around and I'm starting to make a lot more gains."

Hafner, who signed a four-year contract extension worth $52 million around this time a year ago, claims to have more than 50 percent strength in his right shoulder (compared to his left shoulder). That might not sound impressive, but consider Hafner said he was close to zero percent when he went on the DL.

Speaking of Hafner's contract extension, the Indians really haven't gotten much of a return on their investment. Since Pronk signed the deal one year ago today, he's managed to hit .235 with 14 homers and 65 runs driven in. Of course, they gave Cliff Lee an extension in 2006 only to watch him suck in 07, and now he's starting for the American League in this year's All-Star Game. So, logically, that means Hafner will hit .415 with 79 dingers and 248 steaks next season. Hooray!

So now that the Cleveland Indians have shipped C.C. Sabathia off to Milwaukee, we can officially say that the Indians are done trying to win in 2008. The focus has now been moved to preparing this team for the 2009 season and trying to figure out which pieces fit into that picture, and which ones don't.

While none of us can see the future, there is something about this Indians team that most of us have known for quite a while, and that is the fact that Grady Sizemore will not be a lead-off hitter his entire career. When Grady first came up with the Indians, everybody knew he was destined to be a middle of the order type guy, but with the Indians monster lineup the last few seasons, there was no need to do it.

Well, it's time now. Grady has grown up and he's ready to be the guy the Indians build their lineup around. Travis Hafner's power and ability to make contact with the ball have magically* disappeared and there's no guarantee they'll ever come back, so there is an opening.

Eric Wedge is currently batting Ben Francisco third, and Jhonny Peralta in the clean-up spot (where Jhonny's been raking). Meanwhile, Sizemore has an OPS of .914 and leads the American League with 22 home runs, yet he only has 50 RBI. How can that be? Well, since Grady hits lead-off, 16 of his 22 taters have come with nobody on base.

The Cleveland Indians are struggling, and things keep getting worse. Players are going down to injuries left and right, the White Sox are at the top of the division, and if they don't pay attention they could end up behind Detroit AND Kansas City. So what's the cause? Who is to blame?

Well, Yankees Chick blames Kyle Farnsworth. Matt Snyder (Dugout SN: AlongCameASnyder) has his own ideas. But once again it is The Dugout who cuts through the melodrama and bias of sports writing on the Internet to bring you the true story; a story of intrigue that could only have been birthed in the depths of the most deductive scientific minds.

Join us for part 1 of 10 Little Indians, after the jump.

Apparently the ghosts of deceased Native Americans finally decided to take matters into their own hands in regards to team names like "Braves" and "Indians" this baseball season. I'm not going to get into the whole discussion on the insensitivity of these names because that's neither my inclination nor my job.

Still, it's quite eerie they way these two franchises in particular have been plagued this year.

Both were expected to be contenders for the World Series, chock full of fantasy gems. Instead the disappointments and injuries are plentiful, and sometimes hand-in-hand.

The most recent casualty is Victor Martinez, and he already fit the bill as a bust. He's normally picked in the first five rounds (earlier many times). His owners have been treated with pathetic numbers this year relative to expectations (.277, 0 HR). And now he's on the DL with a bum wing (inflamed right elbow, if you must know ... but "bum wing" is so much more fun). The catcher could be out until the All-Star break, so this is a big blow to both the Tribe and your fantasy squad. Unfortunately, I believe you have to sit on him in fantasy, because he's liable to get hot when he does come back and no one will give you anything valuable for an injured bust in a trade.

More haunted individuals ...

As always, the hype machine owns everyone. Two youngsters -- one in Los Angeles and one in a somehow bigger circus scene that is Cincinnati.

Clayton Kershaw, SP, LAD (18,458 Adds) -- Hey, I'm just as guilty as everyone else. A keeper league team I own is sinking quickly, and instead of grabbing someone to shore up this season, I've got a death grip on Kershaw. Joe Torre called him Sandy Koufax. Basically. And if the bullpen doesn't cough up his start, we'd be even hotter on the guy right now. Seasonal leagues should use their first waiver claim to grab him and then sell high. Keeper leagues want to hold if the price is right.

Jay Bruce, OF, CIN (13,017 Adds) -- It seems inevitable that he will stick, right? Well, because Dusty Baker is a fool, there is actually a question. Bruce is a legitimate threat to dominate this season, so he is a moderate buy. He's probably already too hyped (and owned) in your league, so it is tough to get a reasonable price. But if he begins to struggle, pounce on him in a trade offer.

Doug Davis, SP, ARI (3,840 Adds) -- Obviously, Davis returning from cancer was at best a risky proposition for fantasy owners. A great story, sure, but a risky bet. Sadly, he is still a sell high. The return is great, but history tells us he is not going to maintain a decent ERA. I'd use him in matchups for a back of the rotation guy, but don't be fooled by the fascinating nature of his cancer battle. (Heartless, I know.)

In 2006, Travis Hafner absolutely mashed. In only 129 games, Pronk dropped 42 bombs, drove in 117, and led the majors with an obscene 1.097 OPS (registering a 179 OPS+). This was the continuation in a three year surge which placed him among the most imposing power hitters in the game.

Last year, he took a few steps backwards, but -- eventually -- his numbers weren't awful. Hitting 24 home runs and driving in 100 is quality, and he still scraped out a 118 OPS+. The problem, though, is that fantasy owners were relying on Pronk for elite power numbers in fantasy lineups, and these hardly qualified.

His draft status slipped a bit, but most people still considered last season an outlier and predicted a solid bounce-back for Pronk. He's not old yet -- of course, at 31 he's not exactly young either -- and there isn't really any evidence that can be used to justify such a drastic slip in performance between '07 and '08. Plus, he has my favorite nickname of all-time (Pronk = Project + Donkey -- "donkey" is what you call an atrocious defensive player).

So Hafner as a comeback candidate made sense. Only he's awful right now.

While coming into the 2008 season, the lineup in the AL Central that everybody seemed to be falling in love with was the Detroit Tigers, and it was hard to blame anybody for doing so. I mean, Magglio Ordonez, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen, Gary Sheffield, and they added Miguel Cabrera? Damn. While I was interested in seeing what kind of astronomical numbers Detroit's lineup could produce, I was also pretty interested to see what the Cleveland Indians could do.

After all, this was a lineup that scored 811 runs last season, and did so without any real help from their big masher, Travis Hafner. I figured that Pronk had just had a down year in 2007, and that this year he would return to the form that saw him get MVP consideration in 2006.

That's not the case so far. After Cleveland's extra-inning victory over the Mariners on Thursday night, Hafner finds himself hitting .221/.314/.365. Those numbers are well below his career averages of .287/.394/.544. He's still driving in runs, as he does have 17 RBI already, but his lack of hitting has caused manager Eric Wedge to drop Pronk from the third spot in the order to the sixth.

"I feel like this young man is going to get back to where he needs to get to," Wedge said. "It's going to take a little bit of time and a lot of work. [Hitting coach] Derek Shelton and I have spent a lot of time together, and Derek has spent a lot of time with Travis talking about this. We're going to get him there and he's going to get himself there. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."

The start of the 2008 season has not been kind to C.C. Sabathia. After getting knocked around for 12 hits and 9 earned runs in 3.1 innings against the Athletics on Friday, Sabathia's numbers now sit at 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA after his first three starts. C.C. hasn't even seen the 7th inning of a ballgame yet, as his longest performance thus far has been 5.1 IP in his first two starts, and he's only pitched 14 innings total.

Not exactly the kind of production you would expect from the reigning American League Cy Young winner. So what's the deal?

The obvious answer to that question would be Sabathia's contract situation. Since the beginning of last season, C.C. has seen the Indians give contract extensions to Jake Westbrook, Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, and Travis Hafner. All the while he's been sitting there twisting in the wind. None of us can ever really be sure of how it feels to be in C.C.'s situation, but I'm pretty sure if I didn't know FanHouse wanted me back next year, it would probably affect my writing a bit. (I'd be writing posts about how Pablo Ozuna is the best player in baseball. Bar none. I know Ozzie Guillen would agree with me.)

Now it's not all the Indians' fault, because C.C. broke off contract talks with the team once the season started because he didn't want it to become a distraction. In spite of such sound logic, I think it's safe to say it's become a distraction.

The Indians have had a pretty simple philosophy for years now: Acquire young talent, watch it blossom, and then sign it to a long-term contract. I can't be sure, but I'm guessing this philosophy is a direct result of seeing the best players from their dominant teams of the 90's leave via free agency after blowing up in Cleveland. Guys like Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle, and Jim Thome (those teams had the best lineup from top to bottom that I have ever seen).

It all started when the team wrapped up Grady Sizemore to a contract extension after only one season in Cleveland, and has been followed up with contracts for Travis Hafner, Jake Westbrook, and Cliff Lee over the last year. (Okay, so the Cliff Lee deal looks like a mistake at the moment, but you can't win them all!) Today it's Fausto Carmona's turn.

The Indians have signed Carmona to a historic long-term contract that has the potential to be seven years long. The first four years of the pact are guaranteed, with three individual club options for 2012, '13 and '14 tacked on. The deal will be announced at a press conference at Progressive Field on Thursday afternoon.

The value of the four-year guarantee was not immediately known. But it is known that if the deal goes the distance, Carmona will earn $43 million over the seven years, with escalators pushing its potential value to $48 million.

It's a historic deal, too, as it's the most money ever guaranteed to a pre-arbitration eligible player, and it's also the most guaranteed money ever given to a pitcher with only one full year of service time. Time will tell whether or not the Indians regret making this move, but I get the feeling they won't be sorry they did, at least not as far as Carmona is concerned.

What I'm really wondering is how much this is bothering C.C. Sabathia. He can't be happy watching all of his teammates get long-term deals from the Indians, while he sits and waits for the team to get serious with him. I can't help but feel that this is just another sign that there's no way Sabathia will be back in Cleveland next season.