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Well, my son loved the 2012 Prototype II last year until the end-cap flew off. Returned the bat for a refund.

They say they have fixed the problem so we will give it another go. Should have the bat soon and will let you know how my son likes it. He will use it in HS fall ball so if something goes wrong we have time for plan B.

Interesting how they rifled the inside of the barrel to reduce the MOI.

They have the "30 day return it for a refund" policy and a 400 day unlimited warranty.
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So far the end cap has stayed on. I watched a lesson my son took and the bat has pop. He says the sweet spot is a lot bigger. If he doesn't hit it right on the center of the sweet spot the ball still goes. Sounds like a BESR. I asked the company if they had fixed the end cap problem and the said they did. Of course, what else would they say... but so far so good. He will be playing fall ball so we will be able to tell more later.
Last edited by Ninthmanout
The bat is great. No end cap problems (yet).
Last night he ripped a double in the gap and it looked and sounded great. The nice thing about the Rip-It bats is there are no rings inside to loosen.
My son says there is good pop and a bigger sweet spot. Great balance! No rings in the barrel and they rifle grooved the inside of the barrel to reduce the weight of the barrel, reducing the MOI.

He has been using the bat a lot. They have practice 6 days a week and games most Wednesdays and Saturdays. As I said, so far so good.
Last edited by Ninthmanout
Truman,

I guess it all depends on what you want out of a bat. When I say more like a BESR I mean it has a better balance than most BBCOR bats and instead of a small sweet spot like most BBCOR bats it has a larger one, more like a BESR. If you want something to be more like wood... use a wood bat. They now have laminated wood bats with a one year warranty.
The reason for the BBCOR standard was to reduce the trampoline effect to that of wood not to make the bat behave like wood. I guess it's the same thing as the large head tennis rackets with a large sweet spot or perimeter weighted golf clubs that have large sweet spots so the balls that don't hit right on the sweet spot still go someplace.

IMHO the only reason the pros still use wood bats is tradition. Wood is not the best material to use for a bat (that's why they break so much) or any other club or racket. If it was the best they would still make and use golf clubs and tennis rackets made out of wood... or skis (water and snow) or auto bodies or wheels or any other thing that was made of wood until they found a better material to make it out of. Do people say that pro golfers are not as good today as say Bobby Jones because they are not using badly balanced clubs with wooden shafts anymore? Maybe but you will not see a wooden wood on the tour because it's no longer the best material to use. They do limit how fast the ball can come off a golf club. They could do the same in pro baseball. Baseball is just slow to change.
I know that this sounds sacrilegious but it is true.
Last edited by Ninthmanout
We went to the RIP-IT Prototype Air BBCOR demo in Orlando this weekend, and it was pretty cool. My son got a free RIP-IT Prototype Air BBCOR 33/30 and was filmed and was interviewed after the demo... It was a very professional atmosphere!

Initial reaction was that it's a pretty decent bat... He doesn't see it replacing his S1 at this time though. He also wished that the demo was at a field instead of an indoor batting cage so that he could see the results on-field.

Overall though it was a positive experience, and we thank the Rip-It staff very much for an outstanding opportunity!
Last edited by Bolts-Coach-PR
quote:
Originally posted by Ninthmanout:
Truman,

I guess it all depends on what you want out of a bat. When I say more like a BESR I mean it has a better balance than most BBCOR bats and instead of a small sweet spot like most BBCOR bats it has a larger one, more like a BESR. If you want something to be more like wood... use a wood bat. They now have laminated wood bats with a one year warranty.
The reason for the BBCOR standard was to reduce the trampoline effect to that of wood not to make the bat behave like wood. I guess it's the same thing as the large head tennis rackets with a large sweet spot or perimeter weighted golf clubs that have large sweet spots so the balls that don't hit right on the sweet spot still go someplace.

IMHO the only reason the pros still use wood bats is tradition. Wood is not the best material to use for a bat (that's why they break so much) or any other club or racket. If it was the best they would still make and use golf clubs and tennis rackets made out of wood... or skis (water and snow) or auto bodies or wheels or any other thing that was made of wood until they found a better material to make it out of. Do people say that pro golfers are not as good today as say Bobby Jones because they are not using badly balanced clubs with wooden shafts anymore? Maybe but you will not see a wooden wood on the tour because it's no longer the best material to use. They do limit how fast the ball can come off a golf club. They could do the same in pro baseball. Baseball is just slow to change.
I know that this sounds sacrilegious but it is true.


From what I've read from official's statements, staying with wood is more about maintaining relative consistency in baseball than just tradition's sake. And the same goes for the ball itself. Having BESR bats and/or juiced balls would change the game much as it has for golf, even more so.

Yes, BBCOR standard was to reduce the trampoline effect AND and effort to get the game of Collegiate Baseball back to what it used to be rather than Gorilla Ball. The BBCOR bats has changed how Collegiate Baseball has been played in recent years and I from what I heard in the pro ranks, they would not like to see baseball changed to what baseball was at the college level. IMHO, keeping baseball "traditional" is a good thing and I'm glad college baseball has made attempts to get the game back to that.

While I feel golfers are as good or even better today than was Bobby Jones, it's impossible to compare except for what you see around the greens. The technology that has gone into metal clubs allows player to not only hit the ball much further, but also allows them to be more accurate. To reach a 600 yard hole with a driver and an iron is almost all thanks to technology put into the clubs. (I gave up my persimmon wood driver a few years ago because I just couldn't compete with my friends using their high tech clubs). I would not like to see that kind of thing in pro baseball and I'm glad it's out of collegiate baseball. And personally, I don't like seeing it in Little League either and would like to see LL go to wood.

If pro-ball were to go with high tech metal bats, they'd have t enlarge the infield and the whole baseball park and pitchers would have to pitch differently just as the college pitchers did. So, call it "traditional" if you want, but I like the idea of keeping the game "pure." No juiced bats, no juiced balls and no juiced players.

PS: It was interesting seeing what was going on when my son played at the Cape this year and the concern they had about why there were so many more home runs hit this year over last year. Apparently it had something to do with the ball having a harder core than last year's balls. So, it'll be interesting to see if that is something they're going to try and regulate to keep the game. . . "traditional".
Last edited by Truman
Truman,
I agree with most of what you say but there are always two sides.

College ball: There were a lot of homeruns, maybe too many but then again, there were a lot of people who were attracted to college ball because of its greater offense. People complain that baseball is slow and boring. College ball was different. Chicks dig the long ball. Attendance at this year’s CWS was down. Viewership was down, S****r viewing up.
Speaking of the CWS, they built the new field without thinking about BBCOR. Two years and nobody has hit a homerun gap to gap. That's just silly.

IMHO: Small ball is boring.

Pros: They can engineer a non-wood bat that would perform like wood (kind of like BBCOR) that the pros could use that would not break every other at bat. One of these days we are going to see somebody really hurt (impaled). Maybe composite/laminated bats... still wood, less breakage.

LL: I don't know if you could keep their interest in the game if a bunch of little kids can't get the ball out of the infield... a lot of freshman ball is looking like that right now with BBCOR. For all that, I don't know if you can keep the parents interested. Kids can always kick a "s o c c e r" ball and get results. Our LL in the foothills shut down because not enough kids were interested.

Rip-It seems to be the first to get back some of the BESR features, like a larger sweet spot and lower MOI. The HS kids are far from the adult hitters in the pros.
Last edited by Ninthmanout
quote:
Originally posted by Ninthmanout:
Truman,
I agree with most of what you say but there are always two sides.

College ball: There were a lot of homeruns, maybe too many but then again, there were a lot of people who were attracted to college ball because of its greater offense. People complain that baseball is slow and boring. College ball was different. Chicks dig the long ball. Attendance at this year’s CWS was down. Viewership was down, S****r viewing up. IMHO: Small ball is boring.


Yeah, I've heard that argument several times before. And I'll admit that there's something to the argument for the excitement of the home run ball. But I don't think it's much of a factor in terms of attendance or viewership. Look at the SF Giant. . .and how many consecutive home games have they sold out, and they don't hit many home runs at all do they? So???

quote:
Originally posted by Ninthmanout:
Pros: They can engineer a non-wood bat that would perform like wood (kind of like BBCOR) that the pros could use that would not break every other at bat. One of these days we are going to see somebody really hurt (impaled). Maybe composite/laminated bats... still wood, less breakage.



Hmmmm??? "One of these days", huh? And over how many games over how many years since the last time a player was hurt/impaled by a broken bat? Oh, I'm sure it can and may well happen. But there are greater dangers in the game than that, which isn't likely to change the way baseball is played.

quote:
Originally posted by Ninthmanout:
LL: I don't know if you could keep their interest in the game if a bunch of little kids can't get the ball out of the infield... a lot of freshman ball is looking like that right now with BBCOR. For all that, I don't know if you can keep the parents interested. Kids can always kick a "s o c c e r" ball and get results. Our LL in the foothills shut down because not enough kids were interested.


Freshman ball is looking like that because they've depended on such a large sweet spot and now they have to learn to hit the "proper" way and as well as learning better approaches at the plate. Once they actually learn to hit, they'll be getting the ball out of the infield just fine.

From what I've observed, I don't really see so much a lack of interest for LL as a dilution of it in large part due to access to alternative to include the travel ball programs. In my neighborhood, there's been a hug cultural changes due changes in the work environment and demographics. Because I love baseball and the nature of the game, it's sad to see such changes in interest in LL.
Last edited by Truman
Getting back to the topic... I guess...If we have to.

My son's bat is still going strong and yes, the end cap is still on.

I was trying to remember where I read that they removed 4oz off the barrel... Cheapbats.com ....
In their discription they say Rip-it removed 4oz off the barrel.

I guess you make the bat walls thicker so a 33 inch bat would be 34oz and then rifle the barrel, removing 4oz. That would really lower the MOI.

I don't know if that's exactly what they did... but it make sense.
My son just got his Prototype Air and in the cage at least it sounds nice and he's definitely noticed that it is much more balanced than the Prototype II and I he had used previously.

He won't be using it in games this fall, as the V team is in a wood-bat league (sounds so much nicer) so I won't be able to report on that until the spring.

And, yes, the cap is still on!
Have to concur with the observations that the ball jumps off this bat: just received the 32.5/29.5 and the boy loves it. Had an 2012 XL1 that went dead fairly quickly, so he tried many other teammates' bats (Rip-It, Nike, 5150, other Eastons, Cat5, etc.), and absolutely preferred the Rip-It.

Disagree with the notion about balance: he says that the Rip-It is more end-loaded than the Easton, 5150, etc. However, I believe this is the reason why the ball is jumping off the bat: he is now strong enough to handle the end-loaded bat and carry it through the striking zone with stability.
quote:
Originally posted by Freeway1000:
How is this 2013 rip it air compared to the team Marucci or Marucci black?
My son always preferred the Marucci bats vs the rip it bats for balance, pop, and how large the sweet spot was. Just curious if anyone has used both bats? Just trying to get comparatively feedback. Thx!!
Spoke to the resident expert (who knows all), and he said that the Rip-It is more end-loaded than the Marucci Cat 5, but with a larger sweet spot and more pop. Remember: that's from a 14 yo.

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