This week in Where Are They Now? sluggers edition: Travis Hafner

Photo Credit: ESPN

Once upon a time in MLB, there was a tremendous slugger named Travis Hafner.  Remember him?  He's the guy who averaged .296/.410/.567 with 32 HR and 108 RBI from 2004-2007 with the Cleveland Indians.  In those four years, he finished in the top-10 in MVP voting twice (2005 and 2006), WAR once (6.2 in 2006), ISO twice (2005 and 2006, when he lead the league with .350), and OPS thrice (.993 in 2004, 1.003 in 2005, 1.097 in 2006).

So Hafner could hit, hit for power, and get on base.  A bona fide superstar.  Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?

Hafner, who was nicknamed Pronk (a portmanteau of Project, which he was in the minor leagues, and Donkey, which is what he ran like), had his own cheering section in Jacobs Field named Pronkville.  He also had his own candy bar and beef jerky.  Meanwhile, on the field, in 2006 he became the only player in MLB history to hit 5 grand slams before the All Star Break.  He later tied Don Mattingly's record of 6 grand slams in one season.  The question is...what happened to him?  Why has he only played in 246 games over the past three seasons?  And why is this former superstar hitting .279/.378/.448 in 2010??

The company answer is injuries.  In 2008, when Hafner played in only 57 games, he posted a career-low .628 OPS.  At least one blog has posited that he was never quite the same after breaking his hand on a C.J. Wilson beanball.  The same blog offered other theories: Hafner was distracted by family illness and slowed by lingering shoulder soreness.  (That shoulder soreness is still bothering him -- Hafner was placed on the DL on 8/3/10 for the same exact problem.)

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