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While coming into the 2008 season, the lineup in the AL Central that everybody seemed to be falling in love with was the Detroit Tigers, and it was hard to blame anybody for doing so. I mean, Magglio Ordonez, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen, Gary Sheffield, and they added Miguel Cabrera? Damn. While I was interested in seeing what kind of astronomical numbers Detroit's lineup could produce, I was also pretty interested to see what the Cleveland Indians could do.

After all, this was a lineup that scored 811 runs last season, and did so without any real help from their big masher, Travis Hafner. I figured that Pronk had just had a down year in 2007, and that this year he would return to the form that saw him get MVP consideration in 2006.

That's not the case so far. After Cleveland's extra-inning victory over the Mariners on Thursday night, Hafner finds himself hitting .221/.314/.365. Those numbers are well below his career averages of .287/.394/.544. He's still driving in runs, as he does have 17 RBI already, but his lack of hitting has caused manager Eric Wedge to drop Pronk from the third spot in the order to the sixth.

"I feel like this young man is going to get back to where he needs to get to," Wedge said. "It's going to take a little bit of time and a lot of work. [Hitting coach] Derek Shelton and I have spent a lot of time together, and Derek has spent a lot of time with Travis talking about this. We're going to get him there and he's going to get himself there. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."

Wedge said Hafner will hit sixth for a while.

"I don't think it's the right thing to do to leave him in the No. 3 hole while he's making these adjustments," Wedge said. "We'll give him a little bit of break -- get him going and get him back up there where he likes to be and where we need him to be."

As for what else the team and Hafner is doing to try and break out of what's now become a year-long slump, nobody is saying, but I'm guessing it's got something to do with the mechanics of his swing. While Hafner shouldn't carry the brunt of the blame for the Indians slow start to 2008, as the only regular in the lineup hitting over .300 is Victor Martinez, he does play a very large role in the team's production.

Especially when he's in that three spot in the lineup. I don't know if moving Hafner down in the lineup is going to help him hit better, but if nothing else it will probably help the Indians lineup as a whole.