previous recruiting and BBCOR bats

That's a very good question, but one that's near impossible to determine this soon. It's almost the chicken and the egg, all over again. I do think guys that hit, will always hit and guys with power will always have power.

I agree, after two full college seasons, it appears the new bats have slowed offense down and sped the game up. But, I'm not completely convinced it's all about the bat. In 2011, we hit 100 HRs with the new bats. In 2012, we hit half that, with the same bats. I do think the pitcher's may have approached the 2011 season with an attitude of comfort to challenge a hitter more. So, in that scenario, the hitter should have seen better pitches to hit. If that's true, then the hitter still had an advantage = more HRs.

Now in 2012, I think pitchers are back to trying to make a livin' on the edges again. It will be interesting to see 10 years worth of data for comparison. I will say too, I've seen some real bombs these past two years, even with the bat changes.

But, a local D1 guy has had a significant drop in power numbers and hit .250 in conference after a monster year in 2010. Is it the bat, or better pitch selection/location from his conference opponents???

GED10DaD

I agree with what GunEmDown10 is saying. After major rule changes such as the new bats, there is an adaptation period and in this case it's the pitchers figuring out what they can do differently in pitching to batters. Two years is still a small sample. I agree, ten years will tell us much more than year to year disparities in power and batting average numbers as the talent on teams and weather or playing conditions can vary from year to year. I think there is of course no doubt that the days of total slugging college baseball are over with these bats.

Our team ALWAYS had multiple guys with ten or more HRS every year even as high as the mid twenties and now on a very talented team including one guy who led the nation in Juco HRs our leader has five HRs.
The whole team has hit 26 HRs in 59 games so far. Of course we play in a park where the HRs do not fly out very easily.

It might also be recruiting to some extent. The coach that picked the slower guy with more pop in years past might be picking the speed guy now to get more playing time. The coaches are adjusting, also.

Good replies so far Let.me ask this. Does the type/quantity of player change in college recruiting? IE: Larger quantity of hitters over a larger quantity of pitchers? Food for thought.

• 1974 - aluminum bats introduced. The aluminum baseball bat was introduced into college baseball in 1974 as an economical answer to rising costs of replacing the large number of wood bats that were being broken during a season. The first aluminum bats were heavy and did not perform much differently than wood bats. However, advances in aluminum alloys enabled the design of single-walled metal bats that soon began to significantly outperform wood bats.
• 1986 - weight limit. Concern about the increase in bat performance and the impact that metal bats were having on the game of baseball, the NCAA imposed a lower limit on the weight of a bat. This wasn't technically a performance standard (batted-ball speeds were neither measured nor regulated) but the fact that hollow aluminum bats can be made significantly lighter in weight than solid wood bats allows for a greater bat-swing speed and better bat control. The NCAA restriction on bat weight did cause bat performance to drop for the next several years.
• 1999 - BESR standard. During the early 1990's several governing bodies and manufacturers had been discussing the regulation of bat performance. After the 1998 season - during which a large number of scoring records were broken - the issue came to a head, and the NCAA adopted the BESR (Ball-Exit-Speed Ratio) standard to regulate the performance of aluminum and composite bats. In addition, the NCAA instituted a reduction of the maximum barrel diameter to 2.5-inches, the "minus-3" rule on weight -- which means that the difference between the weight of the bat (in ounces) and the length (in inches) can be nor no more than 3 integers -- and a lower limit on the bat's moment-of-inertia.
• 2009 - composite bat ban. During the 2009 College World Series the NCAA discovered that a large percentage of BESR approved composite bats were found to significantly exceed the performance standard after being broken in through use. In July 2009, the NCAA imposed an indefinite moratorium banning the use of composite bats.
• 2011 - BBCOR standard. After extensive laboratory testing of a large number wood, metal and composite bats, and based on the scientific evidence and arguments of several researchers including Dr. Alan Nathan and myself, the NCAA abandoned the BESR standard and replaced it with the BBCOR=0.50 standard. This new BBCOR standard effectively requires non-wood bats (metal and composite) to produce batted ball speeds no greater than wood.

With that knowledge, look closely at the NCAA DI baseball records.

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/baseball_RB/2012/D1.pdf

I see that hitters quickly adjusted to the changes in the bats and pitchers hit more batters . I guess by trying to come in. Pitchers must have dominated pre aluminum. BBCOR bats still have a larger sweet spot. Advantage hitter no question.