Setting the lineup with players who arent hitting

Question
This topic came up here recently, but I'd like to follow up.  On a Babe Ruth youth team, 7-8 year olds hitting off a pitching machine.  No bunting allowed.  13 kids on the team, and all 13 bat in order every game.  Say four kids are simply automatic strikeouts.  Yes, the coaches have worked and worked and worked on batting, worked on confidence, stance, technique, etc.  Four kids, however, remain automatic strikeouts every single at-bat.  Yes, they should continue to take batting practice, extra practice, extra encouragement...but say they are playing today and it is 99.99% certain these four will strikeout every at-bat today.

Now the question.  Consider of your 13 kids you have six fairly reliable hitters, three marginal ones, and the four automatic strikeouts...how do you set your lineup?

Thank you!

Answer
Hi Buzz,

think of your batting list like a big circle.  Figure out how many innings you have per game and how you want that game to proceed.  Judging by your description, batters have about 3 to 4 chances at bat per game.

If you want to come out strong, you line up your best 'on-base' hitters followed by hitters who consitently hit strong.  Spread the weaker batters out so that they come to the plate with a strong batter following.

Try to imagine a typical game and how you'd like the weaker batters to fit in.  Don't bunch them together and don't have them lead off the game.  Also, you may keep the weaker players in the list but rotate them every other game.  This will not put them in a 'rut' position and your young players won't 'groan' when they come to bat (adding more pressure onto the weaker players shoulders).  Batting is a question of confidence and experience as well as ability.

I always used the circle method with the expectations of so many 'at-bats' per game.  Depends on the number of players and is a good tool to create a batting order.

Best of luck,

JohnMc