With Arrival of Fielder, Where Does the Put Inge? (Fans Opinion)

With the arrival of Prince Fielder to Detroit, It has moved Miguel Cabrera over to 3rd base and left Brandon Inge in a pickle. What should the Detroit Tigers to him?

People have been talking about having Inge play at Second Base. But why do that when you still have 2 other positions he can play? You have the option of having him use his wide range to an advantage with Cabrera's short range at Third by having him play Shortstop. If you do this, It gives us our good Second basemen we've been wanting, by moving Jhonny Peralta there. If Inge were to play at Short, I would say he would still bat either 7th or 9th in lineup. This also allows Leyland to use his bench players in the DH roll still.

The second position he can play in Left Field. He has played in the outfield in the past including center in '08 when Granderson wen't down. No he may not have the best speed, but he has a better chance at getting most of the play's Delmon Young would potentially miss. Inge also has a pretty good arm if you ask me. A better one the Young does. So... When you think about it. It's a win-win situation because, you your DH in Delmon Young, and then your bench players can share the roll of second base, in fact, other then Andy Dirks and Clete Thomas, you have Ramon Santiago, Ryan Raburn, and potentially Don Kelly who can all play Second.

With all that said, if Inge were to play Left Field, how would that effect the lineup? Well... although Inge is known for his strike outs, if you look back in his career, he is a pretty lead off hitter. No he is not the ideal lead off hitter, but... in 84 games, he has 328 at-bats, and is batting a solid .280 batting average. And... on top of that, he have only 81 Strike Outs. Yes that is still a pretty big amount, but in 328, that is roughly only 1 stike out for ever 4 at bats. Austin Jackson in lead off career, in 1197 at bats has 347 at bats he has roughly 1 strike out for every 6 at bats (rough estimate). That may not be a very big difference, but Inge also has not had over 170 strike outs, where that is the lowest amount Jackson has in his first 2 seasons. Inge's Lead off stats consists of, 328 at bats in 84 games along with a .280 average. 81 strike outs, and 44 walks, 6 home runs 12 doubles, 5 triples, and 39 RBI's all along with .767 OPS. So no, Inge may not be the fastest runner, but he has good history there.

If Inge were lead off hitter, this is how I would set up the lineup....

1st- Brandon Inge LF (R)
2nd- Brennan Boesch RF (L)
3rd- Miguel Cabrera 3B (R)
4th- Prince Fielder 1B (L)
5th- Delmon Young DH (R)
6th- Alex Avila C (L)
7th- Jhonny Peralta SS (R)
8th- Ramon Santiago 2B (S)
9th- Austin Jackson CF (R)

My ideal line up would be....

1st- Austin Jackson CF (R)
2nd- Brandon Inge LF (R)
3rd- Brennan Boesch RF (L)
4th- Miguel Cabrera 3B (R)
5th- Prince Fielder 1B (L)
6th- Delmon Young DH (R)
7th- Alex Avila C (L)
8th- Jhonny Peralta SS (R)
9th- Ramon Santiago 2B (S)

Inge bats a whole lot better when he is in an important role! He gets 1 strike out for ever 5 at bats when he bats in the top of the order. But when he bats 7th through 9th, He gets 1 strike out for ever 4 at bats. When you think of this in percentages... It is only a 5 percent difference. But thats 5 more percent of the time he is making contact with the ball or getting walked! 5% could end up being a game winning hit or a game losing strike out.

So... in the end, I know this is highly unlikely to happen, but it doesn't hurt to put it out there. I do expect a lot of criticism about how Inge doesn't deserve to be a Tiger because of his season last year. But also remember he has Mononucleosis, a sickness that effect the immune system make you weaker and more tired. Thanks for reading my opinion.