My son plays for a 14U Majors team in north Texas. He has related to me that many kids on his team, and opposing teams, are now using shaved bats to gain a competitive advantage. I'm unsure how prevalent this situation is, but, I've personally noticed several upper-level teams having their players all use the same one or two bats, which I had not previously seen. I also saw a 14 year old hit a ball about 420 feet this weekend, with a sound, body and swing that did not even remotely match the distance that the ball traveled. The ball also seems to make a different sound coming off certain bats.
My son is not interested in using a shaved bat, and I would not permit it anyway. I mostly think that it hurts the game, and does a disservice to the user down the road, who may never get a feel for barreling the ball up with an unnatural bat.
A quick google search revealed names like Dr. Bat and others, who sell shaved and rolled bats for home run competitions; so, this situation does not appear to be imaginary at all. And, knowing human nature, it's quite reasonable to assume that some might use shaved bats outside of home run competitions. I know that cheating in baseball is as old as the game itself, but, this seems to be a new one in the youth ranks.
As a result, I'm very curious how prevalent this is in the minds of other folks on this forum. I also wonder how scouting services like Perfect game, or scouts in general, deal with this new challenge. I also wonder whether there is discussion about how this problem might be corrected down the road, i.e. wood bats only, weighing bats, having tourneys supply bats, etc.
Thanks.