Atlanta Braves: Where Austin Riley should hit, how he affects the defense

Where do you put Riley in the lineup?

Assuming the Atlanta Braves are essentially replacing Ender Inciarte with Austin Riley, those two play a very different style of baseball.

Ender is somebody who typically either hits at the top or bottom of the lineup, while Riley is someone you want in the meat of your lineup.

With Gwinnett, Riley obviously hit third in the lineup as the team’s best hitter.

That won’t happen with the Atlanta Braves as long as Freddie Freeman is healthy.

This may be controversial to some fans, but against right-handed pitchers, I would have Riley hit sixth and put Ozzie Albies in the eighth spot.

Ozzie has not proven to me that he can consistently hit from the left side of the plate, and his at-bats frustrate me more than anyone else on the team.

I’m OK with putting Ozzie in the eight-hole against righties.

I think the sixth spot would be a good position for Riley as it doesn’t put a ton of pressure on him, and it gives him a chance to drive in some runs.

When Acuna made his debut last year for the Atlanta Braves he hit sixth in the lineup.

Not that I’m comparing the two, but I think that is a safe spot to put Riley for now.