Quote:
Originally Posted by xnbomb
On an Indians/roids note from that period, anyone remember the crash that was travis hafner?
Ah yes, Hafner. I think everybody associates him as a Cleveland lifer, save for the quick, forgettable stint with NYY at the end, but he was acutally drafted and debuted with the Rangers. 110 games in AAA, batted .342/.463/.559, 21 HR and more walks than K's.
Thing is, Hafner was 25 in AAA, but Texas already had Rafael Palmeiro at 1B and Mark Teixeira tearing up the minors. Teixeira skipped AAA entirely and made the big team out of spring training in 03, moving Palmeiro to DH. Hafner played a few games in 2002 for Texas, but it was clear that there wasn't much room for him, so they traded him and Aaron Myette to Cleveland for Einar Diaz and Ryan Drese.
Hafner went on to give CLE 25 WAR, the bulk of which coming from 2004-2007. Cleveland let him walk after 2012.
Myette, good ole Canadian boy, somehow managed to throw 154 innings in his big league career, spread over 5 seasons, despite having a career ERA of 8.16. This guy was ****ing bad. No business being in the bigs, clearly, but still managed to carve out 27 starts over 2 years. 2001 was especially bad. 48 IP, 11HRs, 54 ER. 41bb, plus 6 HBP, vs. 48 k's. WHIP of 2.172!! Averaged MORE THAN 2 baserunners an inning. This guy sucked, almost at a historical level. As bad as he was, he got traded for someone! Lyle Mouton, who was 34 years old and hadn't played in the majors for 2 years, and definitely didn't play for Cleveland at any point.
Diaz was pretty much just a glove, save for one season where he hit well too, but he was traded to Montreal for Chris Young, who was a piece in the Adrian Gonzalez trade to San Diego.
Drese had a 2004 season that just straight up blows my mind. First, he pitched 207 innings, striking out 98 batters (4.2/9ip). He walked 58, for a 1.69:1 ratio. Also beaned 11. 4.20 ERA. Yet somehow, 5.0 WAR. FIVE. (3.6 fWAR) Just goes to show how crazy the offense was in the early 00's. 4.20 is a 85 ERA-, fwiw.
Thing is, fangraphs' batted ball data doesn't look ridiculous to me, unless I'm missing something. 54% groundball rate is nice, but back then not everybody was trying to lift the ball in the air, and that number is probably a bit expected for a low strikeout guy. typical luck stuff like LOB%, babip, etc. FIP suggests he was a touch unlucky, even. According to B-Ref, he was never above replacement level after that year.
I was hoping that he was traded in some elaborate deal, but he ended up actually getting claimed by the Nats on waivers, eventually released, and never made it back.