Former Brave of the Fortnight: Jordan Schafer

 

Ah, the eternal promise of youth.  Baseball’s dichotic foundation is its ageless history and the inevitable replenishment of the talent pool.  Sports strive for meaning in their tradition, but scour the horizon relentlessly for future torchbearers.

            In 2007, former third-round pick Jordan Schafer strove to answer that call.  He came pre-loaded for sportswriters.  A third round pick in 2005, he had been no wunderkind originally.  Yet soon he developed into a five-tool centerfield prospect.  By 2008, Schafer was the top prospect in the Braves system, rocking through Class A Rome and “high” A Myrtle with a .312 average and leading the minors in hits, just a year after an unassuming .240 season in Rome.

            Schafer’s rise was fueled by more than just grit and determination, allegedly.  In early April of 2008, Schafer was handed a 50-game suspension by major league baseball for the use of HGH.  The significant chunk of time marked not just a setback in Schafer’s development but in the ongoing battle with steroid use at the major league level.  The 21-year-old was the sad face of the state of the game; of the wrongs yet to be righted.

Schafer denied the allegations but took the suspension, and a year later the 22-year old played his way past Triple-A altogether and onto the big club’s Opening Day roster – as it happens, in a year the Braves opened the entire MLB season at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

            Schafer took his first career at-bat in the top of the second inning.  He worked a 3-1 count against Phillies ace Brett Meyers (hard to believe this was a real sentence, just two years ago).  He saw a fastball, and he sent it over Shane Victorino’s head into the center field seats.  He later singled and walked, becoming bigger than the win itself in the process.  Braves fans struggled to temper expectations – Schafer’s potential was never limitless, but he did have five-tool talent before the suspension.  He did earn his spot on the roster in spring training.

            Schafer bought himself a lot of goodwill in his debut; it could be argued he bought too much for his own good.  Schafer struggled, then disintegrated.  His early successes delayed a necessary trip to the minor leagues to readjust his approach and reaffirm his confidence.  He was on pace to break the single-season strikeout record after 50 games when he (and his .204 average) was sent down to Gwinnett.  The minor league stint turned into a lengthy sojourn, as Schafer struggled with injuries and production over the next year and a half.

            In May of 2011, Atlanta, with its entire starting outfield ineffective and injured, gave the still-just-24 prospect another go at it.  Schafer, who apparently became inexplicably faster in his sabbatical, again worked his way into fans’ good graces by showing glimpses of lightning-rod lead-off ability.  He was a menace on the bases, and covered great ground in center-field.  In addition, he retained the overdeveloped batting eye that kept his on-base percentage much more respectable than his batting average in both big-league stints.  As a welcome relief from Nate McLouth (whose struggles remain one of the great mysteries of baseball), Schafer again found himself overrated in the minds of Braves fans.

            His cause was aided by the team’s coincidental resurgence.  In the 40 games Schafer played, Atlanta went 27-13 to pull within 3 games of the division leading Phillies.  Schafer seemed to be part of the team’s sudden hot streak, though it was a statistical improbability; he was on base less than his predecessor, Martin Prado, and his overall OBP was much lower than McLouth, the other centerfield/leadoff option.  Schafer’s intangibles and walk-rate could only cover for his inability to hit baseballs for so long, and after three months and a .240 batting average, the Braves again realized he was not the short-term answer.  The trading deadline came and the Braves found a gem on the market in Houston Astros centerfielder Michael Bourn.  While he sat on the DL with a chip fracture in his left middle finger, Schafer and a package of lower-tier young pitching prospects were sent to Houston for Bourn.

            The sad truth about Jordan Schafer is that he has been terrible in every season in which he has not been linked to human growth hormones.  Yet each chance he got, he delivered moments that enlivened a fan base and skills resembling that of a very solid major league player.  Whether that potential actually exists or not, much less whether he taps it, Schafer will be remembered for consistently providing us with promise.  In baseball, hope always springs eternal.  When Jordan Schafer shone, he beckoned; “Join me, won’t you, for a decade-long dalliance in the green grass of the Ted?”  Though he let us down three times, though he is likely little more than a commercial for the effectiveness of HGH, Schafer will be remembered for much longer than his statistics warrant.  Don’t stop the Chop.