Power Outage

The Indians have been able to string together five wins over the past six games. For the Tribe to sustain any type of consistency, they will need DH Travis Hafner to figure out his hitting woes. It seems that Hafner has not been the same since being hit in the wrist by a pitch that ended his 2006 season. Pronk's vision of the strike zone has not been anywhere close to his pre-2007 years, and most times he makes an out it is ground balls to the right side of the infield. Unfortunately the Indians do not have any other real option to plug into the 3 hole while Hafner attempts to figure himself out.

Whether Hafner has been pressing or may have just lost his plate discipline are up for debate. Through 25 games, he is batting .226 with 3 homeruns and 13 rbi. While watching Saturday's game my friends and I observed that Pronk was let off the hook a bit by the wild pitch and subsequent intentional walk. Most fans would agree that they would rather have Victor Martinez batting in that pressure situation anyways, and he subsequently delivered. The real disturbing stat is Hafner's on base percentage of .324, showing he has been less selective at the plate. I also believe he has taken far too many called third strikes, proving he has been fooled on pitch selection and location.

What does this all mean? The 2007 Cleveland Indians were able to win despite an All-Star season from their Designated Hitter, but I feel this will be hard to duplicate. The lineup has far too many inconsistent holes (left field, right field, 2nd base, 3rd base) for the 3rd spot in the order to be struggling all year. Hafner may still have a sore shoulder since the club seems to hide other injuries lately (see Joe Borowski). Let's hope Travis can get his mojo back and be that feared hitter we depended upon years prior.