10u Rec Lineup Philosophy?

[andyh64000]

Need some advise on making a 10u rec lineup.

Is it best to mix up the lineup to try to balance things for all the players or set a batting order by strength?

Same goes for fielding positions (maybe other than P, C, and 1st base).

The teams in our interlock seem to have a different philosphy than me and we are about half way through the season so now woul dbe a good time to shift if need be.

 

[Coachmom]

From 10U on up I always set my line up according to OBP.
I explained to the girls what OBP is and they competed for it.
It is a teaching moment.

 

[andyh64000]

Given where we are in the season that is good idea since we now have a statistical sample. Although I think I will still shuffle the bottom few spots or so...at this age I hate having a girl think she is the worst player on the team (I know...kind of relates to that other thread ).

 

[InsidePitch]

If it's rec you end up with walkathons so it might be better to put your heavy hitters on top in anticipation of getting an extra turn at bat. OBP sounds like a good way of doing it. LOL, I had a shrinking violet on my fall rec team last year. After about 5 games I'm looking at the score book and she has a 1.000 OBP. Quietly getting a small hit here and there, a lot of walks and a few HP. She became my lead off hitter and finished the season over .800.

 

[amanda_cake]

We stack the top half, then the bottom half is our weaker hitters. That being said, last weekend almost everyone had a hit!

 

[fastpitch]

Read this (there is also a tournament batting order strategy):

http://www.mysoftballcoach.com/10u-batting-order-strategy.html

The key to developing your 10U Batting Order Strategy is to know each player's abilities. Are they power hitters, are they fast, are they strike out monsters, can they bunt? You will also need to size up the level of play you will be competing against. Are you playing league ball or tournament softball? For this exercise, we will assume you are playing in a typical 10U Fastpitch League. We will also assume that you bat your roster and that you have 6 strong hitters and 6 weak hitters.

Winning 10U Batting Order Strategy

Be sure to reference the 8U Batting Order Strategy as much of the same basic strategy applies, however, we will get a bit more specific with the 10U strategy. Your goal is to conservatively maximize your run production without creating too much downside risk. We will sprinkle in some weak hitters but continue to keep the strong hitters bunched together.

1. Good Hitter with great speed.

2. Good Hitter with great speed.

It can be a tough choice as to which player bats lead off and this is a critical decision. It has to be a player with enough speed to steal some bases, but more importantly it has to be a player with a very high on base percentage. Your #2 hitter should be very similar to the lead off hitter. Just in case your lead off hitter gets out, you want to have a strong chance of running your strategy with #2 on base.

3. Weak Hitter, Good Bunter, average to slow speed.

At this point, you should have one or two runners on base and they are probably going to be on 2nd and 3rd. So we want #3 to lay a bunt down towards 3rd base. The 3rd baseman now has a decision to make, hold the ball so a run doesn't score or throw to first and let a run score. About 70% of the time they will hold the ball (which is the wrong decision). So what you have accomplished is putting a weak hitter in a great situation to be productive. The result is bases loaded with your #4 and #5 hitters coming to bat with no outs.

4. Best Power Hitter

5. Second Best Power Hitter

We are looking to blow the game open right now. The bases are loaded with #4 and #5 coming to bat. A nice line drive to the outfield and your team grabs all of the momentum.

6. Weak Hitter, Good Bunter

There should be runners on base. So again, we are going to put the pressure on the defense by forcing them to field a ball, make a good decision, and make a good play. You have again put a weak hitter in a great situation to make a play.

7. Good Hitter, slow runner

8. Good Hitter, slow runner

We are looking for #7 and #8 to put the ball in play somewhere and finish our 5 run inning.

9. Weak Hitter (Best Bunter left)

10. Weak Hitter

11. Weak Hitter

12. Weakest Hitter

Don't just give up on these bottom 4 hitters. Determine their abilities and have them hit or bunt, whichever gives them the best chance of putting the ball in play. I'll always take a bunt over a strike out and give the defense a chance to make an error.

Advantages of the Winning 10U Batting Order Strategy

This 10U batting order strategy gives your softball team the best opportunity of having explosive scoring opportunity, put 3 weaker hitters into great bunting situations with runners on base, and thereby extend how far you get through the batting order.

 

[Brittany'sDad]

Hi Andy,
Last year I coached a 10u “c” team and I broke down my lineup this way:
1) number one hitter
2) second best hitter
3) third best hitter
4) fourth best hitter
5) fifth best hitter
6) sixth best hitter
7) worst hitter
8) ninth best hitter
9) tenth best hitter
10) eleventh best hitter
11) eighth best hitter
12) seventh best hitter
By setting the lineup this way I was able to prevent the whole in the lineup where nothing happened. It also gave me the opportunity to set the table for the top of the order. Of course I did this letting the seventh and eighth know the reason for them being at the bottom. We scored lots of runs this way and beat a few “b” teams in the process, including the “b” team in our own association.
Mike

 

[redhotcoach]

I have always stacked the top of the lineup. Hate to have a good hitter get left on base constantly. We get some hits in the bottom of the lineup (our 10u rec rules: no walks, 4 balls=batter's coach pitches until hit or strikeout.), but the top of the lineup is usually doubles and triples where we score.

 

[Wookie]

Apparently all of the previous posters have a much more competitive league than what we play in. We have a running batting order - we have 15 girls (yes, 15!) on the roster, they all bat. So to make my life easier, I have the SAME LINEUP every game and rotate who leads off from game to game. That way I do not have players asking "who's up next" and me saying "you, get a helmet!". They all know who the follow, and if someone can't make the game, we move the roster up. They all then get a chance to lead off, hit 2nd, .... and hit last. This was suggested to me by the league director as it is U10 and considered developmental. After this year the numbers will dwindle to about 10-12 per U12 team and up. At the U12 level, I would definitely follow some sort of criteria for line-up to get the most effective hitters at the beginning of the order.

And DD's travel team is different, which it should be, but since the question was about rec league, this is what I do.

 

[SoCalDad]

In 10U rec ball I set my line up as:

1. Speed
2. Bunt
3. Contact
4. Power

These four spots in the order were fixed and were typically the same players week to week.

5 - 12 (or more)
Rotated the batters so everyone batted in the #5 spot and everyone in the last spot.

I have kept this philosophy in place all the way through 14U. Rec ball is for learning and growing and sticking a player consistently at the bottom of the order may win games but it doesn't build players. I have always felt my role in coaching rec ball is to give players a chance to perform.