Bonifacio Key to Marlins Turnaround

[lou]

I think it's cool how all of the sudden, he's a base stealing dynamo. That is fun.

Well he was 12-0 last year in very limited opportunities. I think his 2010-2011 split is fun.

487 AB, .281/.354/.359, 55 BB, 111 K, 33/4 SB/CS, and according to fangraphs, he has a cumulative 5.6 UZR in the field and a positive 4.9 (wow) on the base paths. His WAR during this split is 3.7. Projecting over 650 PA, that moves to a 4.3 WAR and I have to remind he is hitting a meager .711 OPS with those numbers. In 2010, the 15th best 2B WAR was 2.4 (F. Sanchez). In 2009, it was Uggla (2.8).

The strikeouts are way high, and he's probably walking over his head right now, but if he can maintain something like that level of defense at 2B (I find likely), and hit say .265/.335/.340, this is probably a median performance 2B and one that will be drastically underpaid during arbitration years for lack of premium 'counting' stats.

I'm into this.