Baseball Lineup Card Template (Free Printable PDF)
August 4, 2026
The lineup card is the one piece of paper every baseball coach touches every single game. This free printable gives you the batting order, each player's defensive position inning by inning, and a substitutes section on a single card — so the dugout question is never "who's up?" or "where am I playing?" again.
What is on the card
Twelve batting slots (enough for a continuous order), a position box for each of six innings, and space for substitutes and notes. Print two copies — one for your dugout, one for the opposing coach or scorekeeper — and the pre-game exchange takes ten seconds.
Setting a youth batting order
Most youth and Little League programs bat a continuous order — every kid on the roster hits, and defense rotates separately. If your league uses a traditional nine-player order instead, the classic shape still works: contact hitters who get on base at the top, your best all-around hitter third, power in the fourth and fifth spots. At younger ages, resist over-engineering it; rotating the order across the season teaches more than optimizing it ever will.
Plan the defense by inning, not by game
The inning columns are the real coaching tool. Fill every inning before the game starts and you have already answered the hard questions: who sits when, who gets an infield inning, and whether your minimum-play rules are met — before a parent asks. A good rule of thumb is no player sits two innings in a row, and every player sees the infield at least once every couple of games.
When the paper card meets a live one
Paper is perfect for the dugout fence, but it can't tell you whether Saturday's lineup keeps everyone inside your league's playing-time rules. If you run your team on My-Team Sports, you can build the lineup online, keep score play by play from your phone, and let the AI lineup advisor suggest a batting order and defensive rotation from your roster — then print this card as the dugout copy.
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Frequently asked questions
How do you fill out a baseball lineup card?
List the batting order top to bottom, add each player's starting defensive position, then fill the position boxes for later innings so substitutions are planned before the game. Note eligible substitutes at the bottom and give a copy to the opposing coach or scorekeeper.
What is a continuous batting order?
Every player on the roster is in the batting order all game, even while sitting out on defense. Most youth and Little League divisions use it because it guarantees every kid hits and removes pinch-hitting complexity.
How many players should be in a youth baseball lineup?
With a continuous order, everyone on the roster bats — commonly 10 to 12 players. Nine play defense at a time, so the inning-by-inning position boxes are where you plan fair rotation for the rest.