Pronk and PEDS: “I’ve Never Done Steroids”
Written By: TD | Category: Cleveland Indians | Comments: 34
Steroid use in Major League Baseball has come back to the forefront thanks to Alex Rodriguez’s admission to taking performance enhancers as a member of the Texas Rangers between 2001-2003. Our own Travis Hafner was a teammate for a brief time in 2002 with A-Rod and other alleged juicers Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez, along with busted slugger Rafael Palmeiro. That fact can be seen as a true coincidence.
What can’t be are the whispers about Pronk’s career crash over the last two years. The muscle-bound Hafner was an RBI machine between 2004-2006, averaging .310 BA/34 HR/111 RBI. After the 2005 season, Major League Baseball adopted the more stringent steroid testing rules. Hafner’s game sunk in 2007, capped off by his gigantic disappearing act against Boston in the ALCS. 2008 was a lost season thanks to a major shoulder injury. The “was Hafner on ‘roids?” whispers have grown to shouts from not just Indians fans, but some in the media. We’ve been hearing the “when Pronk regains his form” bit since the beginning of Spring Training last year. Now he goes to Goodyear with a ton to prove, not just physically, but mentally as well.
So what is the first thing Travis does? He addresses the rumors with the press directly. “I’ve never used steroids,” Hafner said Saturday in his first chat with the media.
“By the time I was in Triple-A, I was weighing 250 pounds. There was never any temptation to do it because I wasn’t at the point where I wanted to get any bigger. Certainly with everything going on, it’s nice to know you haven’t done anything and don’t have to worry about anything.”
Here is where we climb that slippery slope. Barry Bonds has publicly denied the use of PEDS for years, and he is this close to being found guilty of perjury. A-Rod told 60 Minutes that he never took any sort of performance enhancers and was never even tempted to do so. Less than two years later, he has been outed and disgraced. Palmeiro faced congress and told them under oath “I have never taken steroids, period.” Within the year, he was nailed.
Doesn’t it seem as though anytime someone comes out with a harsh denial, they end up as a lying fraud?
I’m not sitting here telling you that Travis Hafner did steroids. But to me, where there is smoke, there is fire. Wouldn’t it all make sense? This was a guy who was on top of his game before the testing became extremely harsh. Then his numbers dropped, his body let him down, and his mind wasn’t right.
Look at 2006. His season was cut short due to the freak broken hand. He only played in 129 games, yet clubbed 42 HR’s, drove in 117 RBI, and hit .308. A year later, in 91 more at bats and 23 more games than his previous season, Hafner’s Home Run total dropped from 42 to 24, while his batting average dipped .42 points. 2008 was mired by the shoulder injury, but when he tried to play through it, he hit a paltry .197 and flat out couldn’t drive the ball.
Pronk claims he never could have taken PEDS for two reasons:
“The first thing, I was scared what it would do to my body health-wise,” he said. “You see lots of guys with heart problems, different things like that. That was probably the main thing. You don’t want to hurt your body for down the road. And it was illegal.”
If Hafner returns to his 2004-2006 form or even comes somewhere close, he can tell me and everyone else who has doubted him to shut up, but until he produces to the level that earned him that four year, $47 million extension (which starts this year by the way), the whispers are always going to follow him.
My opinion? Travis may have not taken steroids, but nowhere in his quotes did he deny taken any type of performance enhancer, including HGH, which still to this day is undetectable by any test MLB gives their players. No matter how strict the tests are, someone is developing a new PED and can stay one step ahead of the game. The game is forever tainted, and until Hafner shows he is past his two year slump, I have no choice but to cast my suspicions upon him.
I hope I am wrong, because Hafner is a class act on and off the field.
Author: TD
TD is a born and bred Clevelander who agrees with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt when he says ""Ranch Dressing makes everything better except for cereal and ice cream."TD has written 253 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
I’m more curious if that back-stabber Thome used…look at that 95 series pictures and pictures of him now…that ain’t all meat and potatoes. Let’s home Pronk can return to form.
As a barely, casual fan of Indians baseball I think I have a pretty objectionable view on this. I’m 99.9% sure that Pronk was on something. It’s not so much that he put up ridiculous numbers at one point in his career it’s dropoff in his numbers a result of MLB’s enhanced drug testing policy. Very Giambi-esque.
Well, I am content at pointing out other people who whisper. I think you have probably gone a little further than I feel comfortable with in suspecting Hafner.
The one thing that separates Travis Hafner from the others you mention is that he had a suspected problem with that shoulder since his days in Texas. That shoulder was always known as a real risk to his career and is one of the reasons that Texas was willing to trade him here.
That being said, I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibility that his shoulder just started to break down like the Rangers thought it would when they traded him to Cleveland. Again, the whispers will always be there, but he isn’t exactly Sammy Sosa who disappeared off the landscape with no real injury to tie his drop in production to.
“And it was illegal” – nice second reason not to do it.
I think HGH. Not for its growth benefits per-se, but for it’s healing tendencies. If he’s long had shoulder issues I could see that being something that he’s used to try and battle injuries.
Craig – I know about his shoulder prob, but one thing PEDS supposedly do is help heal things faster, but in the end, your body breaks down. The best case of a guy who hasnt been outed but has had a ton of speculation about is Nomar Garciaparra. Dude went from one fo the most clutch players in the game to a guy who couldn’t stay healthy. His career dropped like a stone starting with the time around the new testing policy
TD-well put; sorry Mr. Pronk but denials in this age mean nothing. Unfortunately the game and many of it’s particpants are tainted.
Soper-Jim Thome is no backstabber. Don’t want to start controversy here but Thome was faced with a 4 year/option offer from Dolan at $60M or a 6 year $90 plus million GUARANTEE from the Phillies. The plain fact was the Dolan’s wouldn’t go the extra year to meet in the middle where Thome would have taken less money; the Dolan’s didnt’ want that contract. Be real-are you going to honestly say you would have taken $60M instead of $90M? Thome is no backstabber…….he’s one of the classiest individuals in the game today and ever to wear a tribe uniform.
Baseball started testing for PED’s in 2004 – the same year that Hafner broke out to be one of the top hitters in the game for a 3-year stretch. Think about it. He had his best years after testing began.
You never really know if someone used unless its proven. The game is tainted now, and its seems that anytime a good player has an off year, the witch trials start up. Sure some of the guys being pointed at are guilty, but that doesn’t mean they all are. I’ve met Pronk in person before, and yeah he is a monster, but alot of it is just his frame. Like he said, he was 250 in triple A. He’s just naturally a big guy. Its when you look at guys like Bonds and Giambi where you become suspicious. They were average sized guys in the beginning of their careers, and then they got freakishly huge. Pronk’s just always been big. I haven’t seen much change in his physical appearance over the years. I really think his shoulder just kept getting worse and worse, and so his production suffered as the pain increased. But people won’t be satisfied until he produces again. But don’t go nuts when it takes him more than a season to get all the way back. My prediction is that he’ll have a much better year this year. He likely won’t be 100%, but he’ll start producing on a more regular basis.
at this point Hafner better be on PEDs since his return to form is so important to this team.
Next Question: “Mr. Hafner, if you cannot perform at the level that you were expected to when you inked this contract, would you be willing to accept some sort of buyout so your rather ample paycheck would not cripple this team for the next 4 years?”
No? Ok, thanks.
It’s never to late to start, Travis!
Randy, the Tribe eventually offered Thome 5 years at 60 million with a sixth year option and then Jimbo IMMEDIATELY went back to the Phils and got the 6th year guaranteed. He might not be a villian, but her certainly played the Indians to get the Phils to ante up more moolah.
Oh yeah, the blah, blah, blah, have to rip off my Indians uniform, blah, blah, blah, my wife is my rock, blah, blah didn’t help either. Here’s a link from LGT with a bit of a discussion:
http://www.letsgotribe.com/2006/5/2/235217/7253
TD: I think you have crossed the line here in attacking Hafner’s reputation without anything more solid than a production drop off. Did his body mass obviously change, like Pudge? Did his name come up on a dentist’s prescription, a supplier’s manifest or even by a former teammate? I understand that writing for a blog gives you more leeway, but I wish this entry was edited out. You have veered into territory here that can tarnish both Hafner’s reputation and yours. Better to wait for somethig more solid, even if you aren’t involuntarily reigned in by the constraints of the main stream media.
Nowhere in this entry does Todd attempt to state any of his opinion as fact.
Thank you Scott – Harv – I only offer my opinion, and I never call Hafner out as being a liar. I even put that I hope that my speculation is indeed wrong, which I indeed describe as my speculation only. The comparisons to the busted guys was just to say that the guys who came out to deny everything up front, turned out to be liars. That doesn’t mean Pronk is a liar. He came out to defiantly defend himself. If he doesn’t do that, I don’t write this piece. I love Pronk and I want him to succeed, I am just pointing out that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Understood it’s presented “only” as opinion, just think an opinion that slanders should be reserved for when there is something more tangible than “smoke = fire,” especially when there’s no real smoke. My statements here are coming out sounding harsher to TD than I intend, and I have no idea if it’s true, I’m just thinking that this conjecture is not what I’ve come to expect at this site.
Kevin…….you can play it anyway you want. The Tribe (Dolan’s) would NOT go the sixth year, end of story. Had they gone the sixth year (and look who’s still bashing homers yet today) even at the midpoint…..say $75M it would have been a done deal. To suggest Thome manipulated the system by negotiating with another team to keep the Indians honest is naive at best.
Believe what you want…….the truth is that Thome is not here because the Dolan’s didn’t want to pay him, parce it anyway you want you’ll never get around that.
TD-please keep offering up your opinions, conjectures, etc., they are well written and with merit. This is a blog/discussion forum-if we can’t offer up thoughts, opinions, topics, et al what have we here?
Here’s some opinion:
Have no idea whether Pronk used roids or not. However, the louder one protests the more likely is that he did. It’s also hard to fathom that someone sat in the dugout for a month amongst JuanGone, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Canseco, et al and claims not to have seen nor participated in anything. Odds are he knows more than he claims.
It’s also weak to claim that HGH used by many athletes is nothing more than “injury recovery”. Even if that were the case, it’s still unfair and unnatural advantage. Fact is that all of the drugs are all used for performance enhancement (whether it’s to get back onto the field quicker or hit the ball longer or throw the ball faster….). It all ends up in grotesquely manipulating the records, and stats are at the heart of Major League Baseball.
In the end, history will look at this era and it’s records as totally tainted. ARod can pile up all the meaningless stats he can, it just won’t matter.
I don’t think he used at all. He was ALWAYS a really big dude, and he loves lifting and knows A LOT about the proper ways to lift and keep his body in top shape for his sport. I have no doubt that it is a real possibility, but I don’t think just cause he spent a month in Texas that old Vets like Canseco and Raffy talked to him, especially about that.
Side Note: What were they doing juicing in Texas? I mean the ball FLIES out of that ballpark as it is. But I digress.
I wish Travis the best, and I’m glad to hear he came out and spoke about the issue. Hopefully he silences the critics.
Who knows if he did or didn’t use PEDs? It’s the same suspicion that surrounds the entire era, and I’ve come to accept that for what it is. What I do know is that Hafner would have to be real dense to lie like the rest of them knowing that one day the other hundred or so guys that tested positive with A-Rod will be revealed.
I still think its his wifes fault. Pronk fell apart when the season started right after he got married.
Actually, Hafner’s career path is pretty much normal for a player of his type. It’s useful to remember that Pronk didn’t play a full season in the majors until he was already 27. His biggest years came at ages 28-29, which is normal. Some tailing off at age 30 is not at all unusual and last year he was hurt. Furthermore, there is plenty of precedent for players of Hafner’s type: power and walks guys, guys with what some refer to as old-player skills, to lose it all at once. (Brunansky, McReynolds, Dale Murphy, etc) Indeed, there was plenty of talk before Hafner’s extension that it would be a bad idea for exactly that reason.
he has done ‘roids…i sold them to him…sustanon 250, deca-durabolin, and d-bol.
@ryan
And you didn’t sell him any Nolvadex to go along with that?
Then it’s probably YOUR fault Hafner has been sucking it up lately…lol
“Where there is smoke there is fire” is a fine notion, but not when the smoke is mere speculation or, worse, slander that is passed off as having the weight of evidence. Not all smoke is equal, TD.
Clarification: I am not charging that you slandered Hafner. I am not even commenting on the conceivable use of steroids by that one player. The comment goes to the abusive use of that phrase, “where there is smoke there is fire.” In your piece, the use of the phrase did nothing to advance your perspective.
Randy, sorry to get back so late.
Appreciate your insight. I guess you and I will have to agree to disagree on this one.
I still feel that if Dolan offered up that sixth year, Jim would have signed with Philly for seven and said the same BS.
Haf may or may not have used…we may never know for sure. One thing that I am sure about though, is that for the last couple of seasons, he NEVER goes after the first pitch–NEVER. Probably coached that way, especially with runners on base, and that makes sense. Problem is, every AL pitcher knows he’s not going on first pitch so they go down broadway every time. Result, every AB starts out 0-1. That may by OK for a contact hitter, but not for a free-swinger like Haf.
I feel that WFNY HAD to write about this. It’s generally accepted amongst my group of tribe fans that Hafner was at least on HGH. To call what is written here as slander is ridiculous, I’d expect the publications I read to be writing about what all the talk is in Cleveland… good or bad.
To cite what Wedge said in the Q&A press conference last month …
Wedge also commented on Hafner’s notable weight loss since season’s end.
“He looks the way he’s supposed to look,” Wedge said. “When he’s sleek, he’s still strong, but he’s loose. His chest isn’t getting in the way. Worst-case scenario, he’s a championship middle-of-the-order bat.”
He’s lost weight? Must be on Human Weight-loss Hormone.
If that counts as smoke, you might as well accuse the entire 2008 Indians roster of PED use. An injury or down year counts as evidence or induces suspicion? Clearly Victor Martinez is using too, right? Let’s at least wait and see how he does this year before casting stones, huh?
My guess is that he hasn’t used, but I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if he did.
There’s a lot of “smoke” to say he’s clean by the way: (1) he’s always been big; (2) he spent most of his 20s in the minors, where testing is far more stringent; (3) his decline has been linked to an injury — an injury that would NOT be helped by HGH or steroids (my understanding is that it’s a cartilage-labrum-impingement issue, not tendinitis); (4) his career isn’t over yet.
I guess I’m just surprised that so many Tribe fans have already convicted the guy. Maybe I’m being duped, but I tend to believe him.
The Indians didn’t want Thome back. They knew they were about to enter a rebuilding period and the last thing they needed was to muck that up with an expensive long-term deal to an over-30 DH with a history of back trouble. You don’t put gold-plated, spinning rims on a car you’re about to trade in. And they were right. Given where the Indians were in the talent cycle at that point, signing Thome was a horrible idea.
But Thome was a popular player, home-grown, fan-friendly, white. They couldn’t appear to just shove him out the door. So they played a PR game of making it appear that they were doing their best to re-sign Thome, while simultaneously praying he didn’t call their bluff by actually accepting their offer. Because Mark Shapiro is very good at his job and because player agents are quite predictable, it worked.
We can tell it worked because there are still lots of people who think that Jim Thome is a greedy turncoat creep.
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