MVN - Most Valuable Network

Is Travis Hafner finished as an American League superstar?

Thanks to all the Tribe Report readers who took part in our latest poll, asking if the Matt LaPorta trade was the right moves for the Indians. 48% of the readers said the move was right, while 47% of the readers said the move was wrong. 4% said that the Tribe should have kept CC Sabathia and not dealt him. I’m fairly certain that the results are truly indicative of most Indians’ fans, who seem to be split right down the middle on this deal. Let’s hope that Matt LaPorta proves to make this deal a steal for the Indians.

The Cleveland Indians are heading towards the trade deadline with many questions heading into next season. According to Mark Shapiro, the two glaring needs the Indians need to repair are a bullpen that resembles wet tissue when it takes the mound, and an offense that has lacked presence since DH Travis Hafner became ‘human’ after his injury ended his 2006 season.

With Hafner out, and seemingly far away from being 100% healthy, do you think that Hafner will ever find that power that made him one of the most feared bats in baseball? Or, are you one of the growing many that think that Hafner’s effectiveness is gone for good, and at best, he will only be an average DH in the near future. It’s not an easy question to answer, but one that is key to what happens to this offense in the future. Victor Martinez playing at 100%, and Hafner at 50-75% provided nearly enough for the Indians to get to the World Series. With VMart facing a climb back up the mountain himself, Hafner’s recovery become quintessential in an offense that needs the two middle-of-the-order batters to make things click.

You do have to wonder if guys like Ryan Garko and Franklin Gutierrez would have had different seasons with the two big bats in the line-up. Obviously the power drought forced these two to step up their games. As most here at Tribe Report have noted, both Garko and Gutz are complimentary players. It’s realistic to think that those complimentary players folded in the light of having to carry the workload.

With that said, let Mark Shapiro know what you think about Travis Hafner. Will he return to the Hafner of old, or will he continue down the path of mediocrity?

Make sure you vote in the latest Tribe Report poll, to let us know.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Matt LaPorta, VMart, Travis Hafner, James Pete, Cleveland Indians, Victor Martinez, Tribe Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.