New college bats...great story!

The conference my son is playing in will use these bats in the spring of 2011 and he thinks wood has more pop as well. They've even told the players that the can't use wood, even if they prefer.

quote:

Originally posted by Papa Smurf:
The conference my son is playing in will use these bats in the spring of 2011 and he thinks wood has more pop as well. They've even told the players that the can't use wood, even if they prefer.

Jeez, you have got to be kidding,,,,,,,,,,, What would be the reasoning, for not using wood, instead?

Reasoning = bat company contract with coach

Maybe there's not enough wood in the world.....

FD... true statement. Taylor said wood is much better than the new "dead bats". They start using them this spring.

I guess pitching and defense will become common place again...

Awwwww!!! You mean the coaches are going to have to teach bunting and the hit and run again. They are now going to have to focus on defense and find ways to manufacture runs. No more whiffle ball? What a shame.

In all seriousness, this could be great for College Baseball. People don't enjoy watching 4 hour 16-10 baseball games. That's why TV success has been spotty at best until the Regionals.

I think wood would be great, but its still viewed as too costly as it was when this debate started in the late '80's.

Real hitters will still hit. Doesn't matter what they swing. The homerun totals may be down and averages may drop some with these hitters but that could be a good thing. A marginal hitter will probably struggle more but as Vanlandingham says maybe this type of hitter can do other things to help his team push runs across the plate.

This might actually be ok for the D1 college game. If the bats don't improve however by this time next year, I think the highschool game will be worse for the change.

Thread from the General Forum regarding new bats...

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...16002781/m/311101135

There are only two that will benefit from the outcome of the new rules regarding the BESR switch to BBCOR bats:
1) The pitchers, both with better pitching numbers and more importantly the safety aspect for them.
2) The bat companies.....they loose nothing gain bat sales due to every HS player needing to re-up and purchase a BBCOR bat to replace their existing $400 BESR bat for 2012.

I'm all for making the game safer for the boys on the mound and taming down the inflated hitting stats that some boys have, but they should at least make it a choice if they can use either the wood or new BBCOR bats. IMO.

You can use wood bats in any college game (If your head coach lets you $$$).

Does anyone know if this new rule impacts all metal/aluminum bats, or is it geared solely at the composite bats? I did some research in the past about the BESR ratings and understand how some of the composite bats were under the BESR standard (ie. the exit speed of the batted ball was in compliance ) when the bat was bought off the shelf, but once the composite fibers were broken in after a few hundred hits, the exit speed was higher by 3-4 mph, thus making the bat out of standard for BESR. I assume the new regs make the bat manfacturers lower the exit speed somewhat to improve safety. But is this really only an issue with the composites? Never really liked them anyway, preferred the feel of aluminum (even the stupid ping), but I must confess to not knowing how broad the new standard is (ie. whether changes to be made to all aluminum bats, as well as composites). Any clarification is appreciated.

quote:

Originally posted by Vanlandingham:
Awwwww!!! You mean the coaches are going to have to teach bunting and the hit and run again.

What is this "bunting" thing you speak of???

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Boucher:
Does anyone know if this new rule impacts all metal/aluminum bats, or is it geared solely at the composite bats? I did some research in the past about the BESR ratings and understand how some of the composite bats were under the BESR standard (ie. the exit speed of the batted ball was in compliance ) when the bat was bought off the shelf, but once the composite fibers were broken in after a few hundred hits, the exit speed was higher by 3-4 mph, thus making the bat out of standard for BESR. I assume the new regs make the bat manfacturers lower the exit speed somewhat to improve safety. But is this really only an issue with the composites? Never really liked them anyway, preferred the feel of aluminum (even the stupid ping), but I must confess to not knowing how broad the new standard is (ie. whether changes to be made to all aluminum bats, as well as composites). Any clarification is appreciated.

Here you go Bobby.
The NFHS has banned hollow composite bats unless they remain BESR-compliant after undergoing the Accelerated Break-In (ABI) protocol. The ABI is intended to confirm that as such bats break-in, their performance does not improve beyond the BESR ball exit speed limit. For the 2010-2011 academic school year, and through December 31, 2011, the following types of bats are legal:
1. Any aluminum BESR bat (listed as category A on the UMLBRC site), 2. Any aluminum barrel BESR bat (listed as category A on the UMLBRC site), 3. Any non-hollow (filled core) composite BESR bat (listed as category D on the UMLBRC site), 4. Certain approved hollow composite BESR baseball bats (found on the NFHS website at
http://www.nfhs.org/content.aspx?id=4155), 5. Any solid (one piece) wood or wood laminate bat (listed as category B on the UMLBRC site), 6. Any aluminum or composite BBCOR bat (anticipated delivery date to retail stores and online
outlets late fall/early winter).

Thanks LF. Good info, I found out more at the nfhs website (and the link to the UMLBRC site -- below).
_____________

The UMLBRC list is located at http://m-5.eng.uml.edu/umlbrc/ncaa_certified_bats.asp. For bats that meet NFHS high school playing rules until December 31, 2011, go to the “League Approval” drop-down list (located at the bottom of the page) and select “NCAA 2010 Season”. For bats that meet NFHS high school playing rules on and after January 1, 2012, go to the “League Approval” drop-down list and select “NCAA 2011+ Seasons”. The UMLBRC is responsible for updating and maintaining the list. Other leagues or rules organizations may not require the ABI process or adopt the NFHS position on banning hollow composite bats.

can a high school player now buy one of these bats...does anyone know?

Yes, you can buy these bats now online at places such as justbats.com

Why would any high school player, want one of these before they are mandated? Does not make much sense, if the competetion is still swingung the BESR.

Use what you can for as long as you can! I recommend you wait until next fall before buying, there will be more model's available and I'm sure the bat manufacturers will make some improvements over the ones coming out now, also.

quote:

Originally posted by Vanlandingham:
Awwwww!!! You mean the coaches are going to have to teach bunting and the hit and run again. They are now going to have to focus on defense and find ways to manufacture runs. No more whiffle ball? What a shame.

In all seriousness, this could be great for College Baseball. People don't enjoy watching 4 hour 16-10 baseball games. That's why TV success has been spotty at best until the Regionals.

I think wood would be great, but its still viewed as too costly as it was when this debate started in the late '80's.

LV... glad to see you are still alive... lol...

Bring on the wood bats. Skill vs skill. Yes, "pardon me" hits do occur with wood bats, but not at the rate produced by metal.

quote:

I think the highschool game will be worse for the change.

Iluv... you made the above statement about the new bat standard making the HS game "worse".. I guess I ask you why? To me... there is nothing like a close one-run game that is determined by playing strategic baseball (hit-run, small ball, stealing bases, pitching duel). a game that is 16-10 is not as appealing as a close one run game...

I haven't picked up one of these new bats and taken any cuts yet, but here's one perspective...which I'm sure everyone has thought of, but just not mentioned.

I wonder how these bats will compare to the aluminum bats of the '80s/'90s? I played HS ball here locally in the early, mid'80s and at a small college from '86-'90. Everyone remember those Easton Black Magic bats?

We all got along just fine back then, didn't we?

As many have said... if you can hit, you can hit. The kids it will hurt are the ones who routinely hit 340-360' flyballs and have geared their swings accordingly. I think the rest of them (even the smaller kids who didn't hit HRs to begin with) will be fine.

Tx-Ump74
I am just a fan of some offense and think that many highschool hitters will really struggle with the change. Many kids will hit 100 points less in my opinion unless the bats improve between now and then.

Now if we can get the Umps to tighten up the strike zone a little that may help too!

http://digital.olivesoftware.c...geno=1&view=document

This link will answer all questions on the new bat rules, which leagues are effected, BBCOR bats and college coaches reaction to the changes.

IMHO, the restrictions on the bats will only make college baseball that much better.

It will bring back all facets of the game. For teams to be successful, they'll have to be very well rounded.

A summer wooden bat league down the Shenandoah Valley, the Rockingham County Baseball League that has been around since 1924 went back to “wooden bats” sometime around Y2K timeframe ?? that resulted in higher attendance and a higher quality of baseball being played.

This league is an OPEN league that features many college kids that connect to the Shenandoah Valley. The Clover Hill Bucks who play at Buck Bowman Park will draw 300-400 on a regular season weekend night and the championship series saw attendance figures 500-1000 in most recent years.

www.rcblonline.com

From everyone that I have spoken to, they have all said going back to “wooden bat” was the best thing that the RCBL has ever done.

I know that these bats are NOT wooden that the college guys are now using, but end result will be very similar if wooden bats were used.

No doubt in my mind that college baseball will more marketable than ever, it will be the closest thing to real baseball but using the new restrictive metal bats.

quote:

Originally posted by Allen Wranglers:
I haven't picked up one of these new bats and taken any cuts yet, but here's one perspective...which I'm sure everyone has thought of, but just not mentioned.

I wonder how these bats will compare to the aluminum bats of the '80s/'90s? I played HS ball here locally in the early, mid'80s and at a small college from '86-'90. Everyone remember those Easton Black Magic bats?

Yes, I played in the mid-80's and remember the Black Magics. My favorite bat was the silver GREEN lettered Eastons which was just before Black Magics came out. Those silver Green eastons were tuff, you could beat on a metal pole and not ding those things. I recently purchased one from my local sports shop who had some down in his basement. We probably had around a dozen HR's on my summer legion team.

Coach Milburn,

That silver, green bat was my favorite, too. I bought one my senior yr in HS ('86) and used it the first 2 years of college. Then I bought a Black Magic. Still have those bats up in my attic (not sure why), and yes... they were very tough.

The technology in these new bats is amazing, and it has changed the game significantly over the years.

But as an educated guess, I cannot imagine the BBCOR bats being as bad as the ones we used just 20yrs ago, and there was plenty of hitting going on then.

I understand, here for the first year or two, there will be some disappointment from players (I would be!)...but it will just reinforce the importance of squaring up balls, and will bring back some of the finer points of the game.

quote:

Usually we hit about 40-50 balls out of the park during a normal round of team batting practice with the old bats. With the new bats we hit 3-5 out!!! When the wind is blowing out we might approach 10!!! So we've recruited all these 6'4 kids to hit home runs and now they can't!

FD,
My son has been given an opportunity to play at a college that is directly related to this rule change. The college coach told me the exact same thing you described with big home run hitters hitting routine fly balls this fall. He is focused on improving team speed and defense. My son is 5’8” or 5’9”, has good speed and can run down fly balls. I am sure that because of his size he would not have received this offer without the bat changes. (I’m not saying this applies to every school or every kid below 5’10”, but does for this school and this kid)

Lion Pop, that is great to hear. When I told my team in Sherman about these changes, the eyes of my little guys lit up!

I think this will improve the game. More strategy in game...I'm all for that.

My son had an interesting point as they are using the new bats this fall. He plays infield and outfield and said that he noticed since the ball comes off a little slower that speed plays more of a roll on defense in grounders and tracking down fly balls.