I know that the Bisons aren’t having their best season. I know that you might be saving up your pennies for Wednesday night’s game where the Bisons will be handing out replicas of Offerman Stadium to the first 4,000 fans entering through the Swan street entrance. I know that maybe you just don’t like baseball. Either way, there is a reason to go to the ball park this Tuesday– and no, Birdzerk! is not coming back to Dunn Tire Park.
Former Bisons Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez will be donning the Bisons colors once again this week
while on rehab assignments with Buffalo. Hafner has been battling shoulder problems since at least this past May. “Pronk” was at one time one of the most feared hitters in all of the American League. In both 2005 and 2006 he finished in the top 10 in AL MVP voting with OPS+ of 168 and 179 respectively. In 2007 his counting numbers began to decline, to the tune of losing 262 points in OPS. It was much debated whether or not this was an aberration or if this was a downward trend in Hafner’s skills. Many in the Sabermatic community argued that Hafner had “old player skills” and was destined to have the bottom drop out on his numbers. It has been a long road in rehab for Hafner but it appears as if he is finally healthy. He will now have the chance to prove some people wrong if he is able to come back to the majors this year and contribute.
Martinez is coming off of arguably his best season in the bigs. Martinez finished 7th in MVP voting this past
season while having and OPS of .879. That number might now blow you away but it has to be taken into consideration that the number coming from a catcher is quite extraordinary. He was regarded in the same breath with such young catchers as Joe Mauer and Russell Martin before this injury made his once excellent numbers look pedestrian by comparison. This season though, granted with only a small sample size, Martinez has been quite the let down. In 54 games his on base percentage is a mere .331 down from a career .370 rate. If you would prefer an advanced metric like Runs Created Per Game, Martinez comes in with 3.7 RC/G which is a career low. In fact during his career he averaged 6.0 RC/G. That is a huge drop off. After battling elbow problems that the Indians are hoping caused these problems Martinez opted for surgery in June. This will be his second stop during his rehab assignment as he has been DH’ing in AA Akron this past week.
So come downtown this Tuesday, the Bisons will have some real major league talent in town. Who knows, you might not have this chance again until Vernon Wells or Carlos Delgado is on a rehab assignment next season.
Tags: Birdzerk!, brittany spears boobs, Buffalo Bisons, charlie parker, Cleveland Indians, go downtown, I love this team, Joe Mauer, Offerman Stadium give a way, Pronk, Russell Martin, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez
