New Bat Specs

Why fool around. Why not go directly to wood. Who is going to pay $300+ for a bat that acts like wood. Learn to hit with the real thing, especially on the college level. Nothing scarier as a pitcher then a 22 year old man swinging the "juiced up" aluminum bats.

quote:

Learn to hit with the real thing, especially on the college level.

Nothing I disagree with there. But, doubt it will ever happen. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. DeMarini supposed to be bringing in Bats soon at Son's school. Everyone is very curious to say the least.

The problem is most colleges would not have access to "good wood" that we see used in the big leagues....even minor league guys can't get their hands on it.

Wood gets pricier than aluminum pretty quickly. Plus there is a lot of money tied up in the aluminum market. . .don't think they'll switch soon.

Although the Gulf South is considering the move.

quote:

Originally posted by bsballfan:
The problem is most colleges would not have access to "good wood" that we see used in the big leagues....even minor league guys can't get their hands on it.

They wouldn't have to get the "good wood". There are plenty of options in the composite wood category.

quote:

Originally posted by Jones fan:
Wood gets pricier than aluminum pretty quickly. Plus there is a lot of money tied up in the aluminum market. . .don't think they'll switch soon.

No, the real issue is it's way too profitable the way it currently exists. In what other industry can you sell a $20 hunk of metal for $300+? How are they going to justify the costs when they are making the bats "more like wood bats" and doing away with the "space age metal"? I can't wait to see the spin on this one!

quote:

In what other industry can you sell a $20 hunk of metal for $300+?

Well, I never thought I would pay 2 bucks for a 12 oz bottle of water either.

In my humble opinion, I don't think there would be any difference in the dynamic of buying wood vs buying metal. The $200.00 pro grade wood bat of today would suddenly be worth $300.00 or more if metal went away completly.

It's the economics of supply and demand coupled with everyone wanting their son to hit with the best available stick. Wood, metal, it doesn't really matter. Right or wrong, I think that is just the reality of the situation.

Talked to a local Bat retailer today who said the new college (Louisville Slugger) bat specs testing shows about a 30' average travel decrease in distance from from last years standard (unrolled) average. Roughly, down to 10' more travel then wood. That's pretty radical if true.
Gonna be a lot more "Warning Track" power hitters this year.

I suppose composite bats would be ok, but wouldn't people start moving there fences in then?

I'm not sure how much fun a HS game is going to be with outfielders playing 30 feet behind the cut of the grass.

even with these new bat specs, things will change and a premium will be put on athletes over power guys. Pitchers will throw more complete games (less HR/Hits in general) and therefore less need for the bullpen.

What manufacturer has bats out there, besides TPX, that meet the new BBCOR standards? I had heard a ban on 2-piece bats would happen? Wouldn't that put a large portion of Demarini's and Easton's lines in trouble? Not a whole lot of information on anyones website. Fall baseball starts soon.

the new specs don't take effect until january 1st 2011...doubtful the non major d1 schools will have acces much before then.

quote:

Originally posted by bsballfan:
I suppose composite bats would be ok, but wouldn't people start moving there fences in then?

I'm not sure how much fun a HS game is going to be with outfielders playing 30 feet behind the cut of the grass.

even with these new bat specs, things will change and a premium will be put on athletes over power guys. Pitchers will throw more complete games (less HR/Hits in general) and therefore less need for the bullpen.

I see it as a plus. Players will now have to hit with skill to be effective. You don't have to hit the ball hard to get the job done. You just have to hit it well.

Some say its going to hurt the power guys because they won't be dropping as many bombs. One could argue its going to hurt the guys that can't drop bombs now more. If a kid can't drive it with the juiced bats what's he going to do with the new ones?

Its not the bat its the guy swinging the bat. If a kid can't hit the bats not going to make him a hitter. And if a kid can hit its not going to matter either. The kids that can hit will still hit and the ones that can not still wont.

Will it cut down on the number of HR's. It should. Will it cut down on the number of Dbls that punch and Judy guy gets? It should. It cuts both ways , right?

Nothing should change with the "chink" hits on a poorly hit ball. Probably not much difference, a ball hit off the hands with an aluminum bat will still find its way into right field just past the 2B. where with a wood bat it is broken and an out. I agree completely, that less "trampoline effect" will cut down on the power numbers. And a ball hit on the button, right back up the middle, is still going to be a scary moment for the pitcher.

quote:

Originally posted by Coach_May:
Some say its going to hurt the power guys because they won't be dropping as many bombs. One could argue its going to hurt the guys that can't drop bombs now more. If a kid can't drive it with the juiced bats what's he going to do with the new ones?

Well, soon enough the bats will be in use, and then we can argue about what we do see rather than what we expect to see.

However, I think the expectation is that the new BBCOR standard will reduce distance for all batters, but it will hurt the bomber's distance more.

At first glance, we might think that if the new bats produce 360 feet compared to 400 feet for the BESR bats (90%), then the same 90% factor would apply to all hits, and 300 feet would become 270 feet, and a bunt of 20 feet would become a bunt of 18 feet. But actually the two bats will produce almost the same bunted distance, and the 300 feet hit will become perhaps 280 feet.

Baseballs are not very elastic, meaning that when hit, the ball deforms but doesn't spring back without loss of energy. If we drop a baseball and a super ball (or pumped up racket ball), the baseball doesn't rebound very high, but the super ball will come back up to almost the height it was dropped from. If the baseball strikes a rigid (e.g. concrete) floor at speeds up to about 30 mph, it will rebound to about 60% of the drop height or 60% of the impact velocity. At 100 mph, the rebound velocity drops to 50%, and at 135 mph it is about 45%. (Figures from Robert Adair, who relies in part on Brigg's measurements. By the way, the ratio or rebound velocity to incident velocity is termed the Coefficient of Restitution, which is the COR in BBCOR.) The dropoff in percent of rebound height comes about because the ball is progressively more deformed at higher impact speeds, and a bigger volume of the ball is experiencing the internal friction that eats up rebound energy.

Hollow bat barrels act like a spring, and the ball deformation is decreased compared to a solid core (e.g. wood) bat. The bat barrel rebounds elastically, meaning that very little energy is lost to internal friction within the bat. This trampoline effect is why hollow bats hit the ball farther. And the trampoline effect helps the power hitters more than weaker hitters, because without the trampoline effect, high impact velocities yield a less efficient transfer of energy into the rebound.

The new BBCOR standard reduces the trampoline effect, and power hitters will lose more than the guys with slower bat speed.

quote:

power hitters will lose more than the guys with slower bat speed.

This one part doent make sense.Now I am not going to get into a techinical discussion other that to say Good bat speed is needed to generate power.I think the guy with less bat speed will always not be as good of a hitter that guy with bat spped.Bat spped is a TOOL.Many scouts look at BAT speed when they evaluate players.

fanofgame,
Sure, bat speed is very important, and for every kind of bat, the guys with more of it will hit the ball harder than batters who have less. I'm just saying that if the really strong hitters find that the new bats give them 90% of their old distance, weaker hitters might get 93% of their previous distance. The strong hitter will still hit the ball farther, even though he lost 10% and the weaker hitter only lost 7%.

3FingerGlove,

I understand what your saying about the loss being maybe greater.But in the long run Bat speed is what will keep you in the game, irrelevant of the bat being used.Hitting the ball hard every at bat is a product of a good swing and bat speed.JMO. But I do get what your saying.

quote:

Originally posted by Coach_May:
Some say its going to hurt the power guys because they won't be dropping as many bombs. One could argue its going to hurt the guys that can't drop bombs now more. If a kid can't drive it with the juiced bats what's he going to do with the new ones?

Its not the bat its the guy swinging the bat. If a kid can't hit the bats not going to make him a hitter. And if a kid can hit its not going to matter either. The kids that can hit will still hit and the ones that can not still wont.

Will it cut down on the number of HR's. It should. Will it cut down on the number of Dbls that punch and Judy guy gets? It should. It cuts both ways , right?

Couldn't agree with that more....no matter what bat you give the kids the better hitter will ALWAYS have the advantage....I just with the NCAA coud have/would have tested this for a summer or something to test the effects before putting it into play.

quote:

premium will be put on athletes over power guys

Hmmm...athletes over power guys? Maybe, but it seems these changes may put a HUGE premium on the guys who can still knock it out of the yard.