How does one obtain a Marlins Fan bona fides? First you have to fan invest [explained here] in the team. Ideally, you would take a seemingly indefensible situation and attempt a reasonable defense. For example, defending a manager’s [Fredi Gonzalez] handling of a non-pitching change which resulted in a grand slam. I also fan invested in Emilio Bonifacio last year, see here. [No I don’t see a pattern]. Do any readers have equivalent defenses?

My Marlins fan bona fides established, let me tell you about why you should care about a player who has zero power, a career .306 OBP coming into the 2011 season, much speed, and no real success as a base stealer.

Speed, defensive versatility and maturity. The unfortunate recent minor [Stanton and D. Murphy] and major [Dominguez] injuries have one possible bright spot. A great opportunity for Bonifacio to prove himself. He got his season off to a great start in last night’s loss with productive at-bats and a key defensive play. Bonifacio had a great start to the 2009 season as well, but that start involved an inside-the-park grand slam. By having success in an area he could not expect to repeat, his grand slam turned out to be the Marlins worst success since Chuck Carr’s grand slam in 1993. I swear, but won’t look it up, that Carr’s next 42 outs were fly balls.

Carr went on to infamously talk himself out of MLB in 1997. After popping out to third base on a two balls, no strike count, Carr was questioned by manager Phil Garner [Brewers]. Carr replied to Garner in third person: “That ain’t Chuckie’s game. Chuckie hacks on 2-0.” Carr and ‘Chuckie’ were both released shortly thereafter.

Bonifacio did not hack last night. But Bonifacio’s versatility was on display, as he played RF-3B-CF, made good defensive plays in both the outfield and infield, had 2 hits and a sacrifice. Using up my ‘season-extrapolation-after-only-one-game-allowance,’ earned here, for Gaby Sanchez in 2010, I think [OK hope] that 2011 will be a very good year for him. Then again I may just be 2 months away from badgering 790’s Jonathan Zaslow on why the Marlins released Bonifacio on his radio post-game shows.