Then 6,29,39,5.4.0,11,16,29,,21,46 and 9 to turn over
I was thinking the same thing...either that or he has the great great granddaughters of the 1927 Yankees on his team..You have a team OBP well over .500 and OPS over 1.2 at 18u level. You need to find some better competition. What the hell were the scores of the games?
Everyone knows who can hit, the coaches the players heck even the parents in the stands have a good idea. Its getting those that are struggling at the plate to hit that wins games. But stats are deceiving, my lead off hitter is only batting .178 this year, what people dont see is %75 of her ABs end with a laser of a hard line drive that is hit right at a player. She rakes the ball but it just has been a running them that the "the ball has eyes" for her this year.
Moving batters around in the order depends on a lot of things imo. At the younger ages if a kid has shown to be a good for a while and then slumps and you move her down for a kid who normally bats in the 7th hole you could a) ruin the confidence of the kid who is getting moved down and b) put more pressure on the kid who is currently comfortable batting lower in the order. At the older ages, the 3 hole batter may be getting pitched differently than the 7 hole batter. Personally I would err towards the MLB model where particular hitters typically are not moved around in the lineup a lot (in particular the top of the lineup) but that is just me. I can see the utility of using statistics to set lineups in particular if the sample size is somewhat large (a few tournaments for example..)
Although I certainly wouldn't remove a player from the lineup who was striking the ball well but not getting good results, I'd find someone else who was luckier for the lead-off spot. Earlier in DDs career, despite a lack of speed, she often found herself in the leadoff spot because she tended to draw lots of walks and get hit by the pitcher. The #1 hitter gets the most at-bats, so they need to go to someone who can make them matter. It doesn't matter how the lead-off gets on, but that happening during the first AB greatly increases the chances of grabbing the lead early and boosts the confidence of entire team.
Except their 2nd or 3rd at bat might come in the last inning with a girl on third. A walk doesn't help nearly as much as a hit. I think we'd agree that a girl with a .389 OBP with tons of hits is better than one with a .389 OBP and tons of walks.
How long does it take a 'hot' hitter to get moved into a better spot in the lineup? How long do you keep her there until you consider moving her again based on her performance?