Son's team is using Axe bats. Been reading a lot about them recently. Anybody have any experience with them? Is the hype true?
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Haven't seen any at the HS level...
Here are the Baden/Axe Sponsored Colleges:
http://blog.axebat.com/2015/02...llege-field-near-you
Right. My son's college is on that list. He's been swinging it since unofficial workouts started. Coaches made it clear that they are to use only Axe bats. So far he's not a huge fan. But that's the only bat they can use.
I don't know if the hype is true. It sort of makes sense. I've hit a few rounds in the cage with one and I thought it felt pretty good.
But from what I've seen players don't like them much. Baden has made wood Axe bats for years, but I've never seen an MLB player use one. My kid is very close to a coach who sells Axe bats and could have been using one for free since travel days, but he's not done so. His HS has a bunch of BBCOR Axe bats and nobody uses them.
Actually, Prince Fielder, Jimmy Rollins and Dustin Pedroia have used an Axe wood bat before...
I stand corrected! Did those guys stick with them or just try them for a while?
I stand corrected! Did those guys stick with them or just try them for a while?
I think they stuck with them. they don't exactly seem to be taking the country by storm. Wonder if that's because baseball players are tradition bound and don't like change or because they hype -- that they will increase bat speed, cut down on injuries, etc -- is oversold.
I'm surprised it didn't come up in this thread... I saw Yadier Molina swinging one in the playoffs the other day. I'm not sure if he was using it partially due to the thumb injury or if he'd been using it prior.
I picked one up and swung it over the summer when helping coach a summer college team. One of the players had a few (and yes,Sluggerdad, this player is from your son's school). It felt pretty good actually - much less of a difference than I remember as compared to a regular bat. I had swung a few at a trade show when they first came out.
It would be simple enough to use Zepp bat speed and attack angle measurements to see the difference between an Axe bat and a regular bat (using the same weight). Post 'em here if you have 'em.
Fastpitch bats look awesome.
Oh crap... Now I have to buy the college baseball player one for summer league or our fastpitch player one for travel ball.