Playing with wood bats

I don't know for sure if it is a requirement in Florida but my guess is the Coach wants the use of BBCOR bats. It's too bad because so far I havent seen any difference between the two with the exeption of a slightly larger sweet spot on the BBCOR

quote:

Originally posted by CBMDad:
I don't know for sure if it is a requirement in Florida but my guess is the Coach wants the use of BBCOR bats. It's too bad because so far I havent seen any difference between the two with the exeption of a slightly larger sweet spot on the BBCOR

And the BBCOR won't break.

I can buy 6 Wood Bats for the price of 1 quality BBCOR. My Son played in a Wood Bat league last year & broke one bat (roughly 180 AB's). He hit just as good with the Wood as he did with his BESR Bat he used for the School team. The only differance was the Ball traveled further if he Popped it up with the BESR. when he squared it up with both there was no difference.

Haven't bought many metal bats have you? Let me make one suggestion to you. Save your receipt.

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Originally posted by tradosaurus:

And the BBCOR won't break.

At the batting cages last Christmas break, my son broke two wood bats in two days. The first one, a Mizuno, the whole barrel disappeared behind the curtain. The second one, a Big Stick, cracked up the handle. He buys his own bats, now.

How about a safety issue.

Last summer my son was pitching and broke a bat off in a players hand, the head if the bat struck him in his forearm of throwing arm. Bad cut, stitches, lost for rest of tournament, and was still pull pieces of wooden bat out his arm for months. A BBCor bat won't become a flying projecticle on the field.

NFHS rules allow either wood or BBCOR bats to be used in games. There are some requirements on the wood bats and I'm not sure what they are but you would have to buy a telephone pole and swing it for it to be an illegal bat. I'm not going to get into whether the coach is right or wrong about having your son use the BBCOR bat. But in the grand scheme of things it's really not that big of a deal. If you or your son try to push this then you become "that guy" who looks like a spoiled brat who wants to get his way. There will be many opportunities to use the wood over the summer and fall. Let him be part of the team and be like the rest and use the metal.

Now if you don't want to go this route then I suggest your son go to the coach and ask in a diplomatic way if he could discuss using a wood bat. Don't ask because too easy to shoot down. Don't go in and demand because now it's an ego contest and your son will lose. But if your son goes to him and say; "Coach I was wondering if we could talk about me using a wood bat this season?" Now they can get into the reasons for / against using wood bats.

There are no rules against Wood that I'm aware of but in most instances Coaches will prefer (that means you better use them) they use metal.

Most of us are proponents of Wood bats. H.S. and College Coaches promote winning. We can debate the relative comparisons but if the Coach feels his hitters stand a better chance of getting a cheap hit with one (metal) over the other, then you can bank on what his recommendation will be.

As far as personal opinions go, if you have viewed PG's WWBA (high school wood bat tournament) at ECB or any summer wood bat leagues for high school or college players, you will see that wood bats aren't quite as forgiving as are even the BBCOR's.

I suggest you pick your battles, this may be one that isn't worth going to "war" over with the Coach. I believe they should always work, and practice with WOOD as much as possible once they hit their early teen years, if not before. Going to metal for the season is then a very smooth and advantageous transition.

Metal bats allow for more margin for error and are overall easier to hit with. Therefore it benefits the team that your son use one. Using a wood bat only benefits him.

Sounds like you are already "that guy."

My son wants to swing wood this spring. He just really believes he hits better with wood than a BBCOR bat. He had a very successful summer hitting with wood, so you know how that goes. We will see what his high school coach says.

our travel team uses wood at all timeseven in events that aremetal---we have found that college coaches like to see it

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our travel team uses wood at all timeseven in events that aremetal---we have found that college coaches like to see it

Sure they do, it makes evaluating hitters easier. Since most recruiting is done in the summer when wood is being used, certainly it would be the College Coaches preference.

Don't for a second believe that's what they will have them doing when they sign to go play with ABC College! Ditto that with many, if not most, HS Coaches.

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Originally posted by twotex:
He just really believes he hits better with wood than a BBCOR bat.

He's wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by CBMDad:
I can buy 6 Wood Bats for the price of 1 quality BBCOR. My Son played in a Wood Bat league last year & broke one bat (roughly 180 AB's). He hit just as good with the Wood as he did with his BESR Bat he used for the School team. The only differance was the Ball traveled further if he Popped it up with the BESR. when he squared it up with both there was no difference.

Well then you are paying too much for a "quality" BBCOR bat.

Just go to Justbats.com and check reviews on BBCOR. I picked up a quality Easton Reflex for $70.00. $50.00 each if you buy three of them (go in with other people).

I think wood bats should be everywhere at all levels but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Also, I believe that you should use wood bats predominantly in practice for BP. If you can hit with wood then you can hit with metal. But if the level or team says use metal then use metal.

I think from a pitchers point of view they would love to see more players using wood. Most high school kids can't hit wood, and you wouldn't have some 140 pound kid hitting the ball 300 feet, and no dub base hits, dubs with wood are outs.

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Originally posted by tradosaurus:

quote:

Originally posted by CBMDad:
I can buy 6 Wood Bats for the price of 1 quality BBCOR. My Son played in a Wood Bat league last year & broke one bat (roughly 180 AB's). He hit just as good with the Wood as he did with his BESR Bat he used for the School team. The only differance was the Ball traveled further if he Popped it up with the BESR. when he squared it up with both there was no difference.

Well then you are paying too much for a "quality" BBCOR bat.

Just go to Justbats.com and check reviews on BBCOR. I picked up a quality Easton Reflex for $70.00. $50.00 each if you buy three of them (go in with other people).

I Will take it one step further... All wood bats are not created equally. That's a fact.

So even if you're buying a $300.00 BBCOR, you're not getting 6 quality wood bats for $300.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by coach2709:
NFHS rules allow either wood or BBCOR bats to be used in games. There are some requirements on the wood bats and I'm not sure what they are but you would have to buy a telephone pole and swing it for it to be an illegal bat.[QUOTE]

Coach2709 is correct....not quite a telphone pole but as long as it is made of a single piece of wood and is 2 3/4 inches or less in diameter at the thickest part, and 36 inches or less in length its legal.....

NFHS rule 1-3 article 3

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Just go to Justbats.com and check reviews on BBCOR. I picked up a quality Easton Reflex for $70.00. $50.00 each if you buy three of them (go in with other people).

What I would consider a Quality BBCOR would start @ $299.00. My Son uses an Easton Reflex in the Cages. It's an older design, Still a decent Bat but if your going to use a BBCOR you may as well get the best one you can.

Well I still think that once you go over $150.00 then you are paying for the hype.

You may be right. That was not the case with the BESR Bats. The "New & Improved" BBCOR Bats may all be the same. I know I dont know anyone praising any particular BBCOR bat. There's not enough Data on the new Bats yet

Well I pulled the trigger and bought a Rawlings Plasma Bat SLPL5 (Size 32/27)". I paid $78.00 with shipping at Amazon.

I sold the 33/30 BBCOR I bought because for my 13 yr old I thought it was a little heavy even though it hit well according to my son. I think the 32/27 will be a nice transition until he is required to use a 3 oz drop BBCOR.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I was just curious about the request by the coach to play with BBCOR. It isn't a problem for my son to play with BBBCOR, just a preference to use wood. He has no intention of discussing it with the coach.

This season will be my sons firsfull year of wood bat league- no mor metal

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Originally posted by prepared:
This season will be my sons firsfull year of wood bat league- no mor metal

Lucky stiff.

Trad - the -5 is a good choice to use as a transition as you say. You can also find many wood bats that are lighter than -3... trust me, just take a scale with you to the sporting goods store. Small digital food scale works best. If you dont have one, ask the manager if you can use one of there "fishing scales". I was amazed at the inconsistency and how many of them were weighing in at -5.

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Originally posted by tradosaurus:

quote:

Originally posted by prepared:
This season will be my sons firsfull year of wood bat league- no mor metal

Lucky stiff.

He is a hs sophomore and for the last two years he has played a fall wood bat league. Last year was metal -3 in his league but now it is just wood year round.

That would be my dream. We played in 2 wood bat tournaments and I really enjoyed watching the games.

It's the way baseball should be played.

Personally if I was king only wood bats would be legal.

My son is recently started making the transition to wood bats and about two weeks ago we found him a great BBCOR approved composite wood bat here. He really likes it so far and since it comes with a 30 day warranty we are not worried about breaking it during this transition phase. Hope this helps out!