Tigers fans are losing their minds over AJ Hinch's stubbornness with Riley Greene

The Detroit Tigers are struggling badly right now as a team, but especially on offense. Amidst these struggles, manager AJ Hinch continues to make puzzling decisions on where to bat outfielder Riley Greene in the lineup even though he's been one of the few bright spots offensively.

Fans are starting to get fed up. Radio host Jim Costa went off on the team choosing to bat Green fifth in the lineup against a left-handed pitcher when he has the best batting average of any hitter in the American League and the highest OBP of any hitter in MLB.

It’s a move that does seem to defy logic especially since Greene’s numbers against lefties this season have been great. He’s hitting a remarkable .370/.500/.543 against southpaws, so there is no reason to shift him down in the order versus lefties.

AJ Hinch must make Riley Greene linup change to save Tigers

Greene has batted cleanup in 31 games this season compared to 13 games batting fifth. His numbers when batting fifth are better than when he bats cleanup, but with the Tigers desperately needing offensive output, Green should just be the permanent cleanup hitter until further notice.

Greene’s overall numbers on the year are pretty remarkable. He is hitting .333/.430/.486 with four home runs and 26 runs batted in. This comes a season after he hit .258/.313/.493 with 36 homers and 111 RBI. The power numbers are down a bit this year, but the Tigers are probably okay with that since he’s getting on base at such a high clip and has cut down on the strikeouts.

Still, Hinch’s lineup choices are certainly confusing. Once would think he’d want arguably his best power threat to have potentially one more at-bat with the game on the line if he were moved up in the lineup. Maybe Hinch should even experiment by batting him higher in the order.

Detroit is currently 26th in MLB when it comes to runs scored. Obviously they have been bit by the injury bug, which hurts but as they wait for guys to come back they need to experiment and see if they can squeeze anything more out of the guys they currently have.

Kevin McGonigle has clearly been amazing, but the Tigers need to find a way to get more out of the rest of the lineup. And it's on Hinch to figure that out with his current personnel.

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