Hafner Out Of LineUp Again

[StringerBell]

Hafner isnt starting the day game in NY today after not starting last night. Aside from stinking it up lately, is there something else going on with him? I cant bench him. I can only play or waive---so how long can I realistically put up with this?

[Spectrum]

he's just busy being terrible right now.

supposedly he's made some adjustments to his swing, and been taking alot of bp working with the staff.

his ph appearance last night maybe didn't help his cause any... I have him and just can't straight up drop him. He's been benched on my teams for a while. Don't know what I would do w/o bench spots tho. He's looked terrible. recently he's hit the ball better, without anything to show for it.

I don't think there's a quick fix for Hafners problems. If you watch Baseball Tonight, Steve Phillips actually pointed out some things he's doing differently than 2005/2006, and could be the problem.

[bAsKeTcAsE86]

Hopefully he'll take this time off and make some adjustments...I saw that episode of Baseball Tonight as well. I'm praying that it's just his swing mechanics and not the overall decline in skills/bat speed that Baseball Prospectus has his struggles pegged as.

[damnitman]

Has Hafner spoken anything publicly about his struggles himself? I dont think many star players would be happy getting benched 2 games in a row and being dropped to 6th in the lineup.

[Spectrum]

He's said he's disappointed and feels like he's letting the team down. He's really understanding of the situation. More than anything, he puts so much pressure on himself to perform every night, and gets that the team is trying to get him to let up on that a bit, by giving him some days off recently to work on his swing, and moving him down in the order to try and take some pressure off.

They pinch hit him with the bases loaded last night, with the lead, to try and get him some cheap RBI or a hit because the pitcher would have to pitch to him. Hafner beat the ball into the dirt infront of home plate, resulting in a double play to end the inning, which pissed him off.

So yea, Hafner's said things publicly, but its all about him letting the team down and being disappointed with himself, etc. He's not the kind of guy who's going to get mad at the organization. He knows they're trying to do what's best for him. And he's going to work his butt off trying to get things fixed.

[TheIceman]

Yeah but how can they not drop him in the lineup? If he's not producing you can't just keep him in the prime spots to get an RBI and expect your ball club to win.

[Spectrum]

yea, they have dropped him to 6th. and he's going to stay down there, when he is in the lineup, until he gets things together. He's not OK with it because he puts it on himself. It's not as if he's pissed at Wedge and the staff. That's the point here.