I am coaching a team of 6-8 year old baseball players this summer. We use a pitching machine, and the majority of outs in the league are made by strike out...I want to treat the regular season (12 games) as one continuous game so that all of my kids get an equal amount of at bats (meaning I am going to have a continuous line-up, if the 4th hitter makes the last out today, the 5th batter will lead off the 1st inning next game). However, I also want to try to ensure that we have a reasonable chance of scoring runs in each inning, which means I dont want my best hitters to all bat in the first inning and then struggle through the next 2 to 3 innings while my weaker hitters hit. I have 11 players, and I am required to include them all in the line-up regardless of whether they are playing one of the 9 positions in the field. If I ranked them after a few practices from 1 to 11 in terms of their ability to put the ball in play, what is my most consistent line-up? I messed with this a little and came up with 1-11-5-4-9-3-6-10-2-8-7, but I welcome your input.

at first i was gonna do this. and i actually gave it a ton of thought. but then i realized, this is kinda dumb.

adjust your lineup game to game. the kids will progress and get better at different rates / speeds during the summer. i say adjust accordingly. keep track of total at bats as the season progresses, and bump a kid or two up in the lineup if you feel the need. always bat your two best hitters 3 and 4. use the 1, 2, and 5 holes to reward kids who are progressing and/or just plain putting in hard work during practice. i know these are kids, but they gotta learn sometime.

I agree. I wouldn't complicate things. Putting 11 in the #2 spot doesn't make any sense if you want the kids to also learn about how to achieve those key spots in the lineup.

Good for you for coaching! Tons of respect for you. It's not easy!