Travis Hafner
From BR Bullpen
Travis Lee Hafner (Pronk)
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 6' 3", Weight 240 lb.
- School Cowley County Community College
- High School Sykeston High School
- Debut August 6, 2002
- Born June 3, 1977 in Jamestown, ND USA
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[edit] Biographical Information
"He's got better numbers than probably anybody in the home run derby... He probably should have been an All-Star three years in a row." - C.C. Sabathia, talking about Travis Hafner
"I’m not very smart, but I can lift heavy things." - a T-shirt sometimes worn by Travis Hafner, who was good-natured about being called 'Pronk', according to one site
Travis Hafner was, at one point, quite possibly the most underrated player in major league baseball. He led the American League in Adjusted OPS+ (an overall measure of how good a hitter is) in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In spite of that, he got no first place votes as MVP in any of the three years. His career Adjusted OPS+ through 2006 was 159, the same number that Stan Musial had in his career.
Hafner was born in North Dakota, and graduated in a class of eight people in high school. He attended Sykeston High School. Drafted in the 31st round of the 1996 amateur draft, he attended junior college in 1997 at Cowley County Community College, and was MVP of the NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series. Teammates were Junior Spivey and Travis Hughes. He signed in June, 1997 and languished in the minors for six years, in spite of generally good performances from 1999-2002. He finally got a shot at the bigs with Texas for 23 games in 2002.
When Travis Hafner was acquired by the Cleveland Indians from the Texas Rangers after the 2002 season, he was considered by many scouts to be a project player. His new Cleveland teammates compared him to a donkey. After many different combinations of the words project and donkey, the players finally decided to call him Pronk. He lent his nickname to a chocolate candy bar that bears the name "Pronk". His cheering section at Jacobs Field is called "Pronkville".
He led the league in being hit-by-pitch in 2004, finished 5th in the 2005 AL MVP vote, and then in 2006, he set a record by hitting five grand slams before the All-Star Game. He ended the season with a .308 batting average, close to his previous best, a .439 on-base percentage, his personal best, and a .659 slugging percentage, also a personal best. He was 3rd in the American League in home runs, 6th in RBI, tied for first in on-base percentage, and first in slugging percentage. Even though David Ortiz got the lion's share of the attention with his 54 home runs, Hafner's slugging was 23 points better. However, his season ended prematurely on September 1 with a broken right hand which limited him to 129 games.
2007 was the worst of his full major league seasons, although he was a key player on the first division-winning Indians team since 2001. Since then he has struggled with injuries and missed a lot of games.
He has never appeared in an All Star game, something his fans find outrageous and is partly a result of his playing most of his games as a designated hitter.
He is a big pro wrestling fan.
According to similarity scores, the most similar player through age 28 is slugger Dick Stuart, but while Stuart hit lots of home runs he was never anywhere near first in the league in Adjusted OPS. Hall of Famer Bill Terry is also on the list of the ten most similar players.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- AL Slugging Percentage Leader (2006)
- AL OPS Leader (2006)
- 20-Home Run Seasons: 4 (2004-2007)
- 30-Home Run Seasons: 2 (2005 & 2006)
- 40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2006)
- 100 RBI Seasons: 4 (2004-2007)
- 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (2006)
[edit] Records Held
- Grand slams, season, 6, 2006 (tied)
- Grand slams, Before All-Star Break
