He's 36 and was slumping pretty hard for a month plus prior to the injury last year. Again, he's not a .700 OPS guy yet, but incredulity at the idea that he isn't considered an offensive machine isn't really well founded. Yeah, he is aging and before long he's going to stop hitting, regardless of his health. But the point that I was trying to make was that sliding him down and a guy like Diaz up until he started hitting would have been more prudent, imo. Even if a struggling player has a proven record, that doesn't mean you have to let them figure it out in a vital spot in the order. A player's spot on the lineup card doesn't have to be fixed, regardless of their history. Conversely, is there really a spot in the lineup that is vital enough that it warrants this type of response? We're not talking about hitting the pitcher first here. I think lineup order matters a little (how much, especially in the short run...who the hell knows?) but I don't think there's anything wrong with erring on the side of a guy's track record over the results over a few weeks. I'm not a big move guys down/up based on how they're doing recently guy (i.e. you won't see me banging the drum for moving Heyward down in the order - and it'd be hard to argue that it has hurt us in any significant way), but I don't really think it matters all that much anyway. I just think it's silly to make such a big issue out of when it's pretty insignificant barring the extremes. To answer a possible follow up question, yes, I do think Diaz probably should have been moved up at some point by now, given how good he has been and how silly it is to have him at the bottom of the order, but that is kind of one of those extreme cases I'm talking about. Moving Holliday down, though, meh...he was bad/injured last year. He started out slow and has heated up. I don't know. It really depends on how he actually looked lately (now that he's healthier) while putting up the bad numbers.