I noticed Bonifacio batting 7th and at first I was stunned. Dude 's got almost twice the steals of anyone in baseball, and he's batting 7th? The guy batting first is Reyes, no slouch on the bases himself. When Heyward got picked off stealing in front of Pastornicky, it occurred to me that we also have our two runners (Bourn and Heyward) batting first and seventh. I started wondering why a manager might put speed at the seventh spot in the order and realized some interesting implications.

If the guy batting eighth gets on first, the pitcher will bunt for him every time there aren't two outs, even if he has speed (see Pastornicky). If a guy is batting seventh who can really steal though, you get some interesting scenarios. Without sprawling my logic out too much, I'll just ask if any of yall see value in batting a guy with speed seventh?

I'll add that I think it's really great to have guys batting 7th and 8th who can score from second, score on a tag and steal a base when they need to. It's like our 7, 8, 9 ,1, 2 hitters are aligned to maximize our small ball opportunities while still putting Bourn's speed and Prado's bat in front of our heavy hitters (including Heyward in the 7th spot).

I'm just saying, I might start thinking this lineup is genius in the way it transitions between small ball and big hits with Heyward and Prado.