I wouldn't put too much emphasis on that one game's lineup. Just out of curiosity I went through the boxscores of every Astros game this spring to scrutinize Bourn's place in the batting order. Michael Bourn had the second-most s/t ABs (behind Micah Hoffpauir).
I'm happy to report that Bourn was overwhelmingly used at either the #1 spot or the #2 spot in the order. In fact, I think Coop only started him in the eighth spot on three occasions this spring. Of Bourn's 92 ABs, he batted 32 times from the leadoff spot and 48 times from the two-hole. I am not at all convinced that Coop wants him to bat him eighth. The optimist in me thinks he and Wade might just be on the same page. We'll know soon enough.
Well I usually don't, but what managers will do towards the end of spring training is set the lineup, get guys used to where they're going to hit and then let the roles mesh with the days ending in spring training. The problem to me is Cooper is inconsistently consistent, meaning he may of decided to bat Bourn at the top of the lineup, used him there for the start of the spring to get him some reps, and then moved him around the last part of spring to get him into situations to work on some things without the pressure to have to actually bat leadoff.
Maybe.
Lance Berkman was asked by Brownie and JD on Saturday about Michael Bourn and how he saw his progress (or even lack thereof). Lance said "At the start of spring, I wasn't too impressed because I didn't see anything I would call improvement or anything I could say he was working on. The at the end of spring he just took off and it looked like he was developing a great approach at the plate. I told him, look, if you're going to hit the ball a little defensively, then hit to the left side where you have a better chance of beating it out. Hitting it to the right side is just futility for you. And he has been doing that now, and we need him, he could be a big part of this club's success if he's turning the corner".
What concerns me is Cooper's first part of spring hyperventilating act and of course what I saw happen with Bourn last year and then thinking "oh boy, this is not going to be good..." I'll be happy to be wrong and Cooper is on the same page as WadeSmith and Bourn is leadoff, Matsui is the #2 and Pudge is #6 (with Pence 7 and Blum 8 for now). If it works that the two guys up top are getting on-base, that lineup from 3-8 is powerful. That was the big IF last year and it could work if Matsui is using his contact skills by getting more fastballs because Lance is hitting behind him and thus hitting behind Bourn because what Bourn should be doing well is getting on base primarily. It never really got off the ground last year, mainly because Matsui was hurt early and by the time he got back to the lineup, Bourn was in Coop's doghouse for failure to be an igniter!
So one game, yes, you're right. One season? I think we have plenty of evidence to concern ourselves if we believe that Bourn can be useful if he is given the proper amount of time to find out if he is everything WadeSmith thinks he can be.
