Bizarre Coaching Situation - Could use some advice

[Momo'sDad]

Since Sluggers has given you some batting order advice I will give you my $0.02. Most rec leagues require you to bat everyone. They also usually have an allowable number of runs per inning. The secret is to make sure you score the maximum number of runs every inning and you do that by spreading out your weak hitters. It you lump them together at the bottom of the batting order the probably of scoring no runs that inning increases dramatically! If you are able to 'coach up' your weakest hitters your chances of winning go up exponentially!

Yes, the goal is to coach up the weaker batters, but with many players, if they don't get it during practices, they're not going to have it in games.

In order to maximize run production, though, the better hitters are placed at the top of the lineup and the weaker hitters are at the bottom. Over the course of a season, the better hitters get more at-bats and therefore more opportunities to help the team. I'm not saying that you should be coaching to win every single time you go out with your rec team, but teaching players how to win ball games is at least a part of what we should be teaching. If you're in a game where the top of the lineup is likely to get 4 at-bats each and the bottom 3-4 batters will only bat 3 times, wouldn't you generally rather have your more capable batters in those positions? I know it's our job to help develop all our players within the context of the team, but what about those players who don't wish to improve?

All that said, this is rec we're talking about, so I'll probably put my weakest hitter in the leadoff spot sometime this season, but it won't be against a strong team with a win-however-we-can coach.

 

[marriard]

Yes, the goal is to coach up the weaker batters, but with many players, if they don't get it during practices, they're not going to have it in games.

In order to maximize run production, though, the better hitters are placed at the top of the lineup and the weaker hitters are at the bottom. Over the course of a season, the better hitters get more at-bats and therefore more opportunities to help the team. I'm not saying that you should be coaching to win every single time you go out with your rec team, but teaching players how to win ball games is at least a part of what we should be teaching. If you're in a game where the top of the lineup is likely to get 4 at-bats each and the bottom 3-4 batters will only bat 3 times, wouldn't you generally rather have your more capable batters in those positions? I know it's our job to help develop all our players within the context of the team, but what about those players who don't wish to improve?

All that said, this is rec we're talking about, so I'll probably put my weakest hitter in the leadoff spot sometime this season, but it won't be against a strong team with a win-however-we-can coach.

I don't agree with most of the site I am going to quote - but this batting lineup works well in any rec program - especially ones that have 5-run per inning rules.

The Winning 8U Batting Order Strategy for Fastpitch Softball

I have won an awful lot of games mixing in some really inexperienced players following this batting lineup strategy.