Hello Tribe fans everywhere!

Because so many Indians hitters are mired in horrible slumps, it doesn't seem fair to single out one player and blame him for Cleveland's offensive woes. But Travis Hafner was such a splendid hitter in 2005 and '06, and he appeared to be so locked in, that you automatically assumed he would remain one of the league's top sluggers for the next 5-6 seasons. Now it looks as if it will never happen.

Today, in his live chat for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Indians beat writer Paul Hoynes compared Hafner to Carlos Baerga, another Indian favorite who suddenly lost it. Baerga, one of the best hitters in baseball, batted no lower than .312 for four straight seasons. Then, in the fifth year, in 1996, he mysteriously stopped hitting. He was only 28, but, amazingly, he was finished. Traded to the Mets on July 29, 1996, he was only a mediocre player for the rest of his career, which lasted just three more years.

Baerga was the heart and soul of those great Indians teams, just as Hafner is today. But, as Hoynes pointed out, what Hafner is going through could no longer be called a slump. Since last May, he's been a less-than-mediocre DH. This season, he's hitting .210 and looks like the same old shlub. Hafner fouls off fat pitches he used to cream, and he appears to have lost his confidence.

Nobody knows if it was the hand he broke when hit by a pitch late in 2006, or the shifts teams began throwing at him. But Hafner is not the player he was. Now, it's probably too soon to panic. We're only a month into the season, after all. But to Cleveland fans, the current Travis Hafner bears no resemblance at all to the Pronk we came to love in 2004-2006.

Worst of all, the Indians really need him. Their offense is already shaky, and if Hafner's skills have vanished, as it appears they have, the club will be forced to make some hard decisions. Because of his long-term contract, he probably wouldn't be easy to trade. I don't know what the Indians can do for him, frankly, but he's killing the team -- as bad as Jason Michaels and some of the other shlubs.

Pronk's a good guy who graciously give of his time to the community, but, as a baseball slugger, I think Hoynes might be right. Hafner looks like the Carlos Baerga of 1996, and that's not a good thing at all.

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The answer to yesterday's quickie quiz is: Vern Fuller never served as a broadcaster for the Indians.

Today's quiz: Name the Tribe first baseman of the 1960's, who was known as "The Yankee Killer."

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-- Kevin Cuneo