I have an excellent championship team - eight players are excellent batters (with a few power hitters), three are average to above average batters, and the remaining three are below or well below average. My goal has been to get 5 runs in the first inning so the top eight bat 1 to 8, followed by the average players and then the three below average at the bottom of the line-up. All 14 players must be in the Line-up.
I'm seeking the "Wisdom of the Message Board" for some brilliant ideas or advice. What do you think boys and girls?
Hey
Not to be cruel, but bat 11
The others can bat in the RR or get better where they can contribute.
Sorry, but if you want a championship team, you can't play buddy ball.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Coop3636
First, are you playing for fun or playing to win? If it’s just for fun how you set your lineup doesn’t matter but if your playing to win I would mix up your hitters so your lineup is not top heavy. In senior ball the key is to score 5 every inning, the way your set up you’re going to have a run drop off for one or possibly two innings batting 14. Mix it up so you have decent bats all through your order.
Hey Mike ... There are a lot of 80+ teams always on the lookout for talented guys ... I think the honorable thing for you to do is to host an "Expansion Dispersal Draft" to spread them around ... That would also eliminate you having to spend time worrying about the too much talent dilemma ... Good luck! ... See you in Las Vegas! ...
To quote a wise man who once said about managing, "this job doesn't pay very well".
Unless your team is sponsored then everyone normally has to pay their own way, I try to use the equal pay, equal pay approach when making line ups for tournaments.
We keep batting averages for the seeding games and beyond, everyone hits, then decisions are made on who plays and sits during bracket games.
Top hitters go at the top of the line up to get the best advantage to get the five run first inning as much as possible and get more at bats after that.
It's a guessing game because no one has the crystal ball and after all the hopes and wishes of the manager it's still up to the players to perform.
Looking at the Western Nationals, the winner of the 60AAA division scored an average of 15 runs per game, that is just a tick above 2 runs per inning.
Emphasis is put upon scoring in SS but so many other factors go into play that determine winning and losing on a game basis and tournament basis.
Brian Sabean, the general manager of the S.F. Giants after they won the 2010 World Series had a quote that said. "you don't pick the time, the time picks you".
Good luck in Worlds everyone, stay healthy, be safe, and who knows, the time may pick you.
In the big SSUSA tournaments you will play anywhere from 5 to 15 games depending on the size of your bracket. We would bat everyone during seeding games and then rotate (in your case 14 players) the bottom 6. Rotate the guys that sit every game. We would probably bat 12 and sit 4 each game. The bottom 6 in this case would play 2 out of every 3 games. Even if you only played 5 games in given tournament your top 8 would play in all 5 games and each of your bottom 6 would play in 4 games. The other option is to bat 11 and rotate bottom 6 every other game.
