There have been more studies than I care to count about lineup construction. They've pretty much all found that conventional lineup construction wasn't optimal. Gone are the days of a speed guy first, a contact hitter next to move him over, and then power guys.
The general consensus now is just that you want your best hitters to have the most plate appearances.
There's still some tweaks to be made -- it can always make sense to break up lefties if they're vulnerable to lefty relievers. And we're thinking that speed now makes a bigger difference near the bottom of the lineup -- where getting yourself into scoring position matters more because those hitters are less likely to drive you in by hitting home runs. So I see where Counsell is going with this.