cabbagedad,
I really don’t know what one of my “own agendas” is, so I suppose this is gonna make everyone mad just because I posted, then ruin the thread. But, that’s your problem not mine, so I’m gonna post and let whatever happens, happen.
IMHO, you’ve begun the thread by failing to define something very important because it changes from coach to coach. Unless you define “best hitter”, anyone else trying to duplicate what you come up with is gonna be hard pressed unless they happen to use the same definition you do. I’m not talking about some long algorithm, but rather whatever you define as the criteria for best hitter.
In the class I’m taking, the “best” hitting metric is defined as the one that best predicts runs, with the order of the 5 most common metrics being this. BA worst, OBP next best, SLGP next best, OPS next best, and RC being the best. Those are all pretty simple metrics, and personally, I don’t care which is chosen, but you should start someplace in order to get everyone on the same page. But just saying “best hitter” gets things started poorly.
Again, this is probably gonna be taken me going off on one of my “own agendas”, but I have to risk it.
You said: My question is... how would you apply some of the new thoughts on batting order to the typical HS game where the games are only 7 innings and there tends to be a gap in ability between the top six or seven and bottom two or three hitters?
I don’t understand what difference it makes how many innings are played? Are you saying in MLB there’s no gap in ability from the top 6 or 7 to the bottom 2 or 3, or that the gap is much less than in HS?