Hello world dictator,

This is just my opinion, but I’m not convinced the shoulder is what has been causing him to be less productive in 2007 and 2008 than he was from 2004-2006.

To me, it seems his plate discipline has become weaker for whatever reason. Ever since teams started working around him, he seems to swing at more pitches out of the zone and too often taking pitches within the zone. It also seems to me that when he does swing at pitches in the zone, he’s not making solid contact with them like he often did from 2004-2006.

Could the shoulder have something to do with that? It’s possible, but how do we explain his decline in 2007? He supposedly did not have a shoulder problem in 2007 – he just fell off after April, which is why I’m not convinced that even if his shoulder is repaired and 100% again that we are going to see the Hafner of old at the plate. Unless his plate discipline, pitch recognition, and ability to produce line drives that he exhibited from 2004-2006 comes back to him, I’m not confident this shoulder surgery is going to make him much more productive than he was in 2007, which I think most people here would agree was a down year for Hafner. I think most people are hoping that we can the 2006 version back, or even the 2004-2005 version – I’m just not sure this shoulder surgery, even if successful, is going to bring Hafner back to that level.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not convinced it’s all physical with Hafner; I think it’s more his approach and mental discipline at the plate that is the main reason for his decline, not the problems with the shoulder he had in 2008.

Just my 2 cents.

They have made a strategic decision to lie about injuries as an organization. Not just cover up or play down, but actually lie.

I’m not quite sure why they did it, but it is obviously true.

Hafner finished 2007 strong. There was no real hint of a problem with his shoulder a year ago.

We have nowhere to go but up here. We committed resources to Haf and if the surgery makes him productive, it means we get a return on our original investment.

/Rim shot.

Also! Learn-to-love-the-pain rec.

Gross.

Point taken, but Hafner’s period of success was 1) sustained over a longer period of time and 2) just more dominant.

And even if “all” the Indians get from Hafner are some .250/.375/.475 seasons, that’ll do just fine. It’s still hard to find a hitter to put up that line—while it’s not dominant, it is exactly what (roughly speaking) Jose Guillen, Jermaine Dye, and Jim Thome get paid $10M-$15M annually to do.

It’s not superstar level, but it’s not Todd Hollandsworth.

Which leads to the question, do we have an insurance policy on Hafner? I remember reading that insurance is covering part of Westbrook’s pay as he recovers from surgery, I would imagine we get some sort of insurance for a Hafner surgery should he miss time

…Benfran or LaPorta…

echoing peter, i think it’s pretty clear they have no idea what’s wrong with him. i’m guessing they are just hoping when they open up his shoulder they find something to fix.

As far as I’m aware, they didn’t think he needed surgery.

It worked for Pujols. They waited, and he proved strong enough (obviously) to play through it instead of surgery.

Everyone seems to be overreacting perhaps a bit. There has been and will be a lot of “why didn’t they just do this when they knew the season was over??” Well, if they’re right and surgery won’t prevent him from being ready by spring training, why not just wait it out during a lost 2008 and see if surgery isn’t necessary? Things can go wrong in a surgery even if there’s only a small possibility. I don’t see there being any harm done— unless, of course, the added time he played at the end of the year actually worsened his condition past a point where surgery won’t help. Since I don’t think anyone’s really sure what the problem is I don’t think they can determine that.