Batting Order Advice

[patsox]

My U12 softball rec team starts playoffs this week and I've been thinking about whether I'm taking the right approach with the batting order. I've had the weaker hitters bunched up at the bottom of the order and although we've been winning games, we lost against a good team last night in a close game when as luck had it the bottom of our order came up in the bottom of the last inning and we couldn't get a base runner. We have 13 on the team with a rotating batting order so everyone hits.

Looking for advice here - do you keep the weaker hitters at the bottom with the expectation that you score all your runs in the top of the order, or do you sprinkle the weaker hitters throughout so there's no gaping holes in the order?

Here's what I have so far:
1. Good contact hitter, good speed, good bunter
2. Good contact hitter, good speed
3. Best overall hitter
4. Best hitter with power, good speed
5. Good hitter with some power
6,7. Good hitter, decent contact
8,9,10 Usually makes contact
11,12,13 Unless the pitcher is wild, K's

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

Personally, I'd keep the top 5 or 6 intact, but then slot the 3 worst hitters in between the other bottom-of-the-order guys. That way you don't have 3-auto outs in a row.

[FiveFrameSwing]

My U12 softball rec team starts playoffs this week and I've been thinking about whether I'm taking the right approach with the batting order. I've had the weaker hitters bunched up at the bottom of the order and although we've been winning games, we lost against a good team last night in a close game when as luck had it the bottom of our order came up in the bottom of the last inning and we couldn't get a base runner. We have 13 on the team with a rotating batting order so everyone hits.

Looking for advice here - do you keep the weaker hitters at the bottom with the expectation that you score all your runs in the top of the order, or do you sprinkle the weaker hitters throughout so there's no gaping holes in the order?

Here's what I have so far:
1. Good contact hitter, good speed, good bunter
2. Good contact hitter, good speed
3. Best overall hitter
4. Best hitter with power, good speed
5. Good hitter with some power
6,7. Good hitter, decent contact
8,9,10 Usually makes contact
11,12,13 Unless the pitcher is wild, K's

Three important findings:

1:
OBP is the number one metric in terms of correlating with the number of runs scored. It is more important than BA or SLG.

2:
You will generally score the greatest number of runs by arranging your batting order in descending order of the player's OBP.

3:
Grouping your highest OBP hitters together is important in terms of scoring runs. According to the study, mixing in a low OBP hitter between your best OBP hitters is the absolute worst strategy in terms of maximizing the number of runs to be scored.

Look at it this way. There is no time clock in baseball. Instead you have a limit of ***3*** outs per inning. You want to accomplish as much as you can before three outs are recorded against you. By placing your highest OBP hitters back-to-back you increase the chances that somewhere during the game that you'll accomplish the most you can before three outs are recorded against you.

[chesspirate]

1:OBP is the number one metric in terms of correlating with the number of runs scored. It is more important than BA or SLG.

2:You will generally score the greatest number of runs by arranging your batting order in descending order of the player's OBP.

3:Grouping your highest OBP hitters together is important in terms of scoring runs. According to the study, mixing in a low OBP hitter between your best OBP hitters is the absolute worst strategy in terms of maximizing the number of runs to be scored.

Yes! I agree with this whole-heartedly.

[patsox]

I'd be interested to see the study you referenced.

Sounds like I'll just keep the order the same. It IS the top of the order that scores most of the runs.

Thanks for the info!

-Steve

[FiveFrameSwing]

I'd be interested to see the study you referenced.

Sounds like I'll just keep the order the same. It IS the top of the order that scores most of the runs.

Thanks for the info!

-Steve

Book: "Baseball Between The Numbers".

[Jake Patterson]

You may want to post the Sabrmetric guys. They may have more information for you.
Jake