10u lineup thoughts

[Caredeocr]

I'm probably overthinking this (no definitely am overthinking it) but curious about thoughts on building a lineup for 10u rec. 12 players, no bunting. Likely will play a max of 4 innings so depending on how they hit, the girls at the top of the order probably will be the only ones with multiple ABs in the game. We have 5-6 players that consistently will hit the ball. 3 that won't come close to making contact. And the rest are probably 50-50 at best.

Do I bunch the "guaranteed" hits together at the top of the lineup or push a couple towards the bottom to try and get on base? Slot the 3 that I know won't make contact together at the bottom or "hide" them in the middle somewhere?

 

[cvsoftball]

you bat everyone everywhere in the line up. it's 10U.

 

[Caredeocr]

I get the spirit of your response. It is rec and the focus should 100% be on fun, learning the fundamentals, and growing interest/participation in the game. Our practices are absolutely geared towards that. However, I also want the girls to witness some measure of success during the games. Maybe the team won't win any, but not scoring any runs is pretty demotivating (I witnessed from the parent side the team doing that last fall for the entire season).

When batters are sprinkled through the lineup regardless of their abilities, the chances for a few girls getting hits and being stranded on the bases goes way up.

 

[Mocoso]

That’s a tough one - depends how good the pitching is and if they walk a lot - if there’s a chance of walks I would sprinkle one of the 50-50 in top 5 so your good hitters can bring more in - I would then sprinkle the 50-50 in the bottom half with the ones that won’t hit …. But yea you’re overthinking


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[murphdog]

When I coached 10U we started the season by randomly giving each girl a number 1-12. First game #1 bats first, second game #2 bats first and #1 goes to end etc.

If there is playoffs then we’d do a lineup based on batting average and on base percentage at that point.

 

[Rick M]

When I coached 10U Rec, I usually tried to mix the ‘unlikely’ hitters between the stronger ones. Best case scenario looked like this:

Batter 1 is a good (probably our best) player, usually gets on base. Number 2 isn’t going to give you much, but #1 will get to second on a steal or WP, almost guaranteed. #3 comes up, good hitter, drives home #1, probably winds up on second after an ill-advised throw home. Rinse and repeat, make sure the lineup changes from game to game to equalize AB’s.


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[Caredeocr]

That’s a tough one - depends how good the pitching is and if they walk a lot - if there’s a chance of walks I would sprinkle one of the 50-50 in top 5 so your good hitters can bring more in - I would then sprinkle the 50-50 in the bottom half with the ones that won’t hit …. But yea you’re overthinking


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No walks; after 4 balls coach throws 5 pitches.

When I coached 10U we started the season by randomly giving each girl a number 1-12. First game #1 bats first, second game #2 bats first and #1 goes to end etc.

If there is playoffs then we’d do a lineup based on batting average and on base percentage at that point.

Wow, that's creative. I like that.

 

[_MIA_]

In 10U rec in many states, if you can advance on passed balls (including advancing to home) the number of runs you score is probably pretty close to the number of runners you get on base..

 

[Cannuck]

I coach both a U11 (Canada) house league and travel team. For the house league team I set one batting order at the beginning of the season. I mark who was the final out at the the last game and start the batting order off at the next person in the order for the next game. It equalizes at bats over the season, lets everyone experience different spots in the order and allows players to always (or most of the time) know when they are on deck. I also rotate fielding positions as long as there are comfortable playing the position and not at risk of injury.

 

[_MIA_]

I coach both a U11 (Canada) house league and travel team. For the house league team I set one batting order at the beginning of the season. I mark who was the final out at the the last game and start the batting order off at the next person in the order for the next game. It equalizes at bats over the season, lets everyone experience different spots in the order and allows players to always (or most of the time) know when they are on deck. I also rotate fielding positions as long as there are comfortable playing the position and not at risk of injury.

This is what I did when I coached my son's rec team, granted it was 7U rec coach pitch.