SM - The only bats that are BESR certified are those -3 bats intended for HS & College use.
"Youth bats", "Senior League bats", -5's, etc. are NOT subject to BESR limitations.
BESR comes pretty close to having the ball come off the bat at the same exit velocity as a wood bat - UNDER THE TEST CONDITIONS. As some have pointed out, the test conditions involve slower speeds than would be seen in much of HS and all of college ball.
So it is possible that a manufacturer could tweak the design such as to meet the BESR requirements, but still have the ball come off faster than wood when the pitch is coming in at 85-90 mph.
Let's go back to an important point PG made. THERE ARE MORE HARD HITS UP THE MIDDLE WITH ALUMINUM THAN WOOD! I don't need to have a study with statistical analysis of actual hits in games to prove that to me. Regardless of whether or not the BESR requirements do or do not make the aluminum bat act just like wood in terms of exit velocity.
Why? Because the sweet spot is much bigger on the aluminum bat. Give everyone bats with smaller sweet spots, there WILL be fewer hard hits. Give everyone bats with bigger sweet spots there WILL be more hard hits. Pretty basic fact if you think through it just a bit.
Now, probability will tell us that if there are more hard hits in general, there will be a distribution as to where those hard hits travel on the field. And probability tells us that some of those extra hard shots will be back up the middle. Thus metal will result in more hard shots up the middle than wood.
There is logic and science behind PG's assertion.
And iig, to me it is refreshing to see someone questioning things and looking at both sides of the issue.
The bat companies do have a huge interest in keeping aluminum bats. Want to see bat companies line up for filing Chapter 11? Eliminate metal baseball bats. Not that I have anything against the bat companies, but I still would like to see wood and wood composite bats used.