Major Chords: Bonifacio has Speed to Burn
One-time Diamondbacks prospect Emilio Bonifacio has always had wheels. In a minor league career spanning 656 games (2841 plate appearances), Bonifacio swiped a total of 233 bags. On a per-game basis, that would translate to more than 50 SB over a full ML season. His 77.7% success rate suggests Bonifacio was picking his spots well, too.
But speed on the base paths is only valuable if a runner can in fact get on base. And in that department, Bonifacio was found lacking. As a farmhand, he posted a combined line of .285 / .341 / .362 with 212 BB against 532 K. Considering that much of Bonifacio's time was spent in the hitter-happy environments at A+ Lancaster and AAA Tucson, the numbers are pretty underwhelming.
Here are the raw and adjusted statistics (source: Baseball Prospectus) from his last three stops in the Arizona system.
| YEAR | LVL | TEAM | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | EqAV | EqOBP | EqSLG |
| 2006 | A+ | LNC | 608 | .321 | .375 | .449 | .219 | .266 | .320 |
| 2007 | AA | MOB | 596 | .285 | .333 | .352 | .242 | .283 | .305 |
| 2008 | AAA | TUC | 402 | .302 | .348 | .387 | .249 | .293 | .322 |
Those are not the kind of numbers an organization likes to see from a player it would hope to develop as a lead-off hitter. No surprise, then, that the Diamondbacks were willing to ship Bonifacio to Washington as part of the deal for reliever Jon Rauch. After the July trade, the Nats billed Bonifacio as "the future" at 2B, a prediction that came true (briefly) when the club released unhappy incumbent Felipe Lopez just nine days later.
In the second half, Bonifacio started 37 games at the keystone for DC. Nationals' brass must not have been impressed with his .248 / .305 / .344 performance, for Bonifacio was hurried along to Florida in a November trade.
The Marlins evidently see something in Bonifacio that his last two clubs did not. Who are we to doubt? It would not be the first time that the Fish made a successful reclamation project of an Arizona infielder. Florida's starting 2B is the slugging Dan Uggla, a player left unprotected by the Snakes and plucked away by the Marlins in the 2005 Rule 5 draft. Uggla's three full seasons in Miami have seen him produce 90 HR, 270 RBI and an .831 OPS. Diamondbacks Nation weeps.
With Uggla entrenched at 2B, Florida has elected to deploy Bonifacio as its starting third baseman to open the 2009 season. The alignment is unconventional, since their respective offensive and defensive profiles would suggest the players should swap positions. Bonifacio has nowhere near the power one would expect from a corner infielder, but that does not much matter when the team's middle infielders (Hanley Ramirez and Uggla) combined for 65 HR in 2008.
Hey, maybe Bonifacio has more pop than Diamondbacks Nation realizes. Batting lead-off against the Nationals on Opening Day, Bonifacio hit his first ML home run, a three-run shot that highlighted Florida's 12-6 victory. Fittingly, Bonifacio's big knock never left the park. Rather, he took advantage of a Lastings Milledge misplay to wheel around the bases for an inside-the-park job.
Speed like that burns.
1 responses to this Post, with 1 unique participants
Bonifacio - fluke
I know that Jon Rauch has been horrible, but I hope fellow D-backs fans don't look at Bonifacio's early season success and think that this was a bad trade. Bonifacio is having flukish early season success. According to scouting reports, Bonifacio is able to turn on the ball pretty well on pitches thrown inside or over the plate, but struggles greatly against pitches thrown to the outer part of the plate and after his early hot streak in the first five games, he's 3 for 20 with 9 k's.