Why are players struggling with BBCOR?

Cause they need to learn how to hit. I love the fact baseball has went with BBCOR bats because it does provide a safer game (although there is still a dangerous element cause you will never get rid of it) and it brings baseball back to skill rather than luck.

Nothing stinks more than a terrible hitter getting a hit or even a homerun on a dominating pitcher all because he got lucky. There's always the chance of getting a hit / HR but now it's tougher.

Hitters need to realize there is an opposite field and they have to start making adjustments at the plate instead of just swinging a weapon.

I think it's a great change and offense will bounce back once kids learn to hit again but it won't be like it was - thankfully.

Because adults have made a big deal out of it and have them believing that it's the arrow not the Indian.

I agree with both of you, kids are going to learn to hit, rather than just swing an aluminum rocket launcher. NDD is correct in saying that people believe it's the arrow, not the Indian.

I believe it's because of two things: 1) Not being in the correct sequence and 2) Relying too much on the arms. I won't say not using the hands, because then I'll start another debate between myself and NDD...

quote:

Originally posted by Low Finish:
I agree with both of you, kids are going to learn to hit, rather than just swing an aluminum rocket launcher. NDD is correct in saying that people believe it's the arrow, not the Indian.

I believe it's because of two things: 1) Not being in the correct sequence and 2) Relying too much on the arms. I won't say not using the hands, because then I'll start another debate between myself and NDD...

I agree with the arms (relying on the upper half) and "not being in the correct sequence" which is a huge generalization.

However, the fact remains that those who aren't effective Wood Bat hitters are the same "non-hitters" with BBCOR. Not surprising since we saw it last year in the College game.

I too will generalize and lump these guys into two primary categories;

!. They lack rhythm (sequence) from the bottom up and thru the baseball so they don't generate bat speed.

AND;

2. They haven"t had to learn that with smaller sweet spots, as with wood, one must learn where the hands need to be, in a spacial relationship to the baseball, to find the bat and ball sweet spot. It is a learned skill that some are not capable of learning.

With BESR metal none of that was necessary with bats where the entire barrel was in fact "sweet!"

quote:

Originally posted by Prime9:

quote:

Originally posted by Low Finish:
I agree with both of you, kids are going to learn to hit, rather than just swing an aluminum rocket launcher. NDD is correct in saying that people believe it's the arrow, not the Indian.

I believe it's because of two things: 1) Not being in the correct sequence and 2) Relying too much on the arms. I won't say not using the hands, because then I'll start another debate between myself and NDD...

I agree with the arms (relying on the upper half) and "not being in the correct sequence" which is a huge generalization.

However, the fact remains that those who aren't effective Wood Bat hitters are the same "non-hitters" with BBCOR. Not surprising since we saw it last year in the College game.

I too will generalize and lump these guys into two primary categories;

!. They lack rhythm (sequence) from the bottom up and thru the baseball so they don't generate bat speed.

AND;

2. They haven"t had to learn that with smaller sweet spots, as with wood, one must learn where the hands need to be, in a spacial relationship to the baseball, to find the bat and ball sweet spot. It is a learned skill that some are not capable of learning.

With BESR metal none of that was necessary with bats where the entire barrel was in fact "sweet!"

I agree with you. However, I want to point out that my use of the word sequence is very specific. When I say "sequence", I mean the following actions:
Coil-Stretch-Separate

My HS Sophomore is murdering the ball with a bbcor. 5'11" 160lbs and he hit a 400'line drive the other night. He said it felt like a besr bat... Because he hit it on the sweet spot! You guys are 100% correct. If you can hit, you can hit with a broomstick.
Another thing I've noticed is some kids seem to recognize the location and type of pitch very very early in the delivery/pitch. My son and another RARELY swing at a pitch out of the strike zone. RARELY get fooled by a pitch. These two kids are putting the barrel on GOOD PITCHES. I LOVE the bbcor change. I always knew my kid was better than most but those "rocket launchers" allowed a lot of kids to turn heads with one good swing. Now you have to earn it

quote:

Originally posted by Low Finish:
High school baseball went over to BBCOR this year. Offense seems to be down. Way down. So, why do you think players are struggling with BBCOR?

The same reason that they would struggle if it were wood. It is all in the mechanics of the swing.

I'm seeing plenty of power hits (doubles/triples) and home runs in these parts. Could be because many of these kids play wood bat fall leagues and practice all winter with wood.

In three games so far, we've seen just one HR and a few doubles.

What I'm seeing though is an awful lot of 5-3 and 6-3 weak GB outs that maybe last year with BESR were still hot enough to get through. Also have seen a few weak liners to SS that maybe last year would've blooped into shallow LCF for hits.

quote:

Originally posted by RedSoxFan21:
I'm seeing plenty of power hits (doubles/triples) and home runs in these parts. Could be because many of these kids play wood bat fall leagues and practice all winter with wood.

Practicing with wood and Wood summer and Fall leagues should be the norm these days as I certainly can't remember that not being the case since about HS age. All that practice doesn't change the performance of BBCOR vs. BESR. Those that have mechanics that enable them to drive the baseball, can still drill it with BBCOR or WOOD BUT not to the distances of BESR.

Because when you hit a ball with a BBCOR bat it doesnt go as far as it does as it would have with a BESR bat, regardless of how good your swing is.

quote:

Originally posted by Walawala:

Because when you hit a ball with a BBCOR bat it doesnt go as far as it does as it would have with a BESR bat, regardless of how good your swing is.

I kind of scratched my head when I first saw this thread and thought the exact same thing. That's the entire point of the BBCOR bats. There's no other reason.

quote:

Originally posted by RedSoxFan21:
I'm seeing plenty of power hits (doubles/triples) and home runs in these parts. Could be because many of these kids play wood bat fall leagues and practice all winter with wood.

Seeing the same here. For my son metal is reserved for the high school season; summer and fall are wood.

Been over .400 all year while this time last year as a 10th grader was barely .200. Part of that was everything coming together as far as mechanics, but if you put sweet spot on it you'll still drill it.

Our home field, zero home runs, this year and two last year. Plenty of doubles. Also in the case of my kid, since I film all at-bats, just about every well-hit ball deep in the OF that was caught was hit close to the end of the bat. So maybe some of those sneak through with BESR, but now, that's just a mis-hit ball.

What I see is the guys that can really hit are separating themselves from the the weaker hitters with BBCOR...

The gap between them is growing larger too...

The reason: The guys that can hit grow more confident really fast and the guys who are failing are losing all confidence, quicker...

It's amazing to watch actually...

My eighth grader practices with a BBCOR in anticipation of next year. On his initial swing he hit it close to the end and the result was indicative. His reaction was priceless. He followed the ball’s flight, paused, then looked at me with a big grin on his face. When I asked why he was smiling, he said “So that’s what all the noise is about. My Voodoo (BESR) would’ve launched that!” I chuckled back at him and said, “Welcome to the Brave New World, kid!

I'm happy to say he seems to have adjusted quite well to the BBCOR, but we hit nearly every day and spend a great deal of time refining his mechanics. Some of his friends and teammates have not fared so well and won't relinquish their BESRs for even a BP session.

quote:

Originally posted by Bolts-Coach-PR:
What I see is the guys that can really hit are separating themselves from the the weaker hitters with BBCOR...

The gap between them is growing larger too...

The reason: The guys that can hit grow more confident really fast and the guys who are failing are losing all confidence, quicker...

It's amazing to watch actually...

I agree. And fun.

if taught to hit with wood the hs player would now have no problem----this is another of basic basebalelements that players today are lacking

quote:

Originally posted by Sandman:
…What I'm seeing though is an awful lot of 5-3 and 6-3 weak GB outs that maybe last year with BESR were still hot enough to get through. Also have seen a few weak liners to SS that maybe last year would've blooped into shallow LCF for hits.

What I’ve seen in the last 2 seasons with BBCOR, is for just about every weak grounder that MIGHT have gotten through the IF, or every weak liner to short that maybe would have blooped into the OF for a hit with a BESR, a slow hit grounder that would have been a routine play, or a ball that would have carrier to an OFr with a BESR, are turning into hits.

But it doesn’t really matter because there’s a new law of the land, and people have to get used to it no matter what they think. Out here in Ca where we were using BBCORs last season, everyone has pretty much gotten over being obsessed with the change, and is just playing ball. So far this season I don’t think I’ve heard more than a handful of comments about it one way or the other.

I went through the much bigger change from nothing to drop 3 BESRs, and the exact same thing happened. There was a lot of angst floating around about how the game was being ruined, but guess what, 2 years later it was all forgotten. The only thing wrong with BESR, was there wasn’t anything to allow for technology being able to make the bats much better after they’d already passed the tests. This time they made the rules a lot better.