Wood bat recommendation?

My 14 year old swings a Chandler maple, but has also used Marucci ash and maple in the past.  I also picked him up a Louisville MLB Prime to try out.  No feedback on that yet.

With the Marucci and B45 bats you can play with the weight a bit.  The B45 more so.

Most wood bats are sold as -3's off the shelf.

How heavy is his Chandler?  Seems like people rave about their bats - at $199 I hope so!  I'd love to know how close to drop 3 they are. 

People do rave about the Chandler bats!  Thing with Chandler is that a 14 year old player gets the same high quality wood as the MLB player gets.

If your son likes a more balanced bat, the Mizuno MA271 ash bat is what my son uses. It is well made and very affordable, about $40-$45 a bat. He says it has a good feel to it. You can find them on Ebay even cheaper if you spent the time researching. He will break a few bats when he starts to play wood bat tournaments.

He swings a 33/30, but he is a very strong kid.  He'll also swing a 33 +2 (35 oz) during winter workouts.  In my opinion, the weight doesn't matter as much as a kid's mechanics.  Your son should swing what he's comfortable with and he can increase it as he gets older and stronger.  

He loves the Chandler bat and it has held up as well, or better then the Marucci.  In my opinion again, the maples hold up better then the ash bats.  When you do order a bat, just specify the length and weight you want.  With most bat companies a -3 bat is not a special order.

With B45, like Marucci< which is also a good bat (yellow birch I believe), you can also order a -4 (32/28) without an issue.  

I'm not sure if Chandler makes a -4 bat.

With Chandler, you should be able to find one for closer to $175...

http://www.hittersinc.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=68_142

... and dad pays for it.  

EDIT:  but I will say this, his Chandler bat has lasted through many games this year. He's faced a few kids throwing in the 80-86mph range, but we are not talking about very high level HS, college or pro pitchers here.  

He's used it in 50+ games this year and, I hate to say this as you know what will happen the next time he swings it, the bat hasn't broken.

I would recommend he look at a Baum bat. They are around $190 now but will last a couple of years for HS age kids. They are a composite wood bat and are almost unbreakable....my son has been using one (college) and it typically lasts him a full year and this includes BP every day, and summer wood bat league use. Nice balance good performance. 

I will second the Baum bat.  My 2015 son has used his for the past 2 summer/fall seasons along with bp year round.  He has had no problems and he loves it as well or better than his bbcor.  We just got tired of buying $60-80 bats that were lasting what seemed like weeks or months at best.

Baum is a good bat also.  Just make sure that the tournaments and leagues that he will play in allow composite wood.  My son was in a couple this year that did not allow it.

Have your son try as many as he can so that he gets an idea of what profile he likes (271, 243, 273, 110, etc).  My son likes the 243 profile (normal knob, thin handle, extra large barrel) and prefers BWP maple bats over the others he has used (Maruci, MAX Bat, Mizuno).  My son's game bat is a BWP Pro Maple Lite, BL-243, 33.5", full cup, black barrel, royal blue handle.  The bat weights in at 29.5-30 oz so -3.5 to -4.  The cage bats he uses are 1/2 cup pro maple BWP bats and weigh in at -2 which is very similar to what his DeMarini and Rip-IT BBCOR bats actually weigh.  How long a bat lasts is directly related to where you hit the ball.  Hit it on the end or the handle and it will break.

My son swears by Zinger. He was introduced to them a couple years ago by a couple of MLB players.  Since they are local to us, he wanted to give them a try.  In 2 years he has had only 1 bat break, which they replaced immediately.  The staff over at Zinger has always been great to work with.  If you call them or are out at an event they are at, you can always do better than the price listed on the website.

www.zingerbats.com

I was using a kid's Old Hickory to hit fungos a while back and I really  liked the way it felt so I bought my kid a couple of their blems at $40 a pop.   He he loves them, and their quality control standards must be awfully high, as the apparent flaws in the bats are insignificant.

My 15U son has used the Brett Bros MB110 Maple/Bamboo Bat since he was 13.  It has not broken yet. 

http://www.justbats.com/product/brett-bros--maple-bamboo-wood-bbcor-baseball-bat--mb110-adult-with-free-titanium-bracelet/6655/?pa_source=justbats&pa_campaign=generic&pa_medium=badges&pa_content=brett-bros--maple-bamboo-wood-bbcor-baseball-bat--mb110-adult-with-free-titanium-bracelet

My son played a lot of baseball in wood bat leagues and tournaments.  He preference was bamboo, any brand.  Check one out and see how your son likes it.  They seemed to last longer as well.

My son used the Brett Bros MM110 Maple and loved it.  He still uses it for tee work and soft toss.  It held up great throughout the Fall and a couple of tourny's.

Good thread, im in the market too. My son has been swinging an autographed Victorino bat I won at his tournament last year, Think its RX sports or something, really nice bat IMO. Been through hell and back and he is still slamming balls with it (hoping to win another on 11/23 lol)

My son had a Brett Bros bamboo for the cage, and a Bamboobat  before that. Both looked, felt and sounded great. (the finish on the Bamboobat is like  fine piece of furniture)  Both lasted a long time. But I wouldn't recommend either for games. From what I've seen and felt I don't think they  have the same pop as good, solid wood bat.

My involved with SSK Japan has provided knowledge. The 1st "bamboo" bat was designed by SSK to teach the HS hitters to concentrate on the "sweet" spot. If you hit the ball off the 2 " sweet spot the bat stringed.

Interesting.

Now Robert my son son sells the SSK to the MLB players including Robinson Cano.

We carry 4 dozen with our teams for our trip to Australia.

The SSK fungo is preferred by all pro scouts and ML coaches. Why?

Bob Williams

<www.goodwillseries.org>

The Rx Sports Victorino bat is made by Chandler.

I have a 15u that loves the Rawlings velo - has several other models Marruci, Mizuno one other but gave them to his brother. We bought 4 Velo's for him this fall, played 33 wood bat games and broke one. Everyone was happy.

I've never heard of a difference in performance between wood and bamboo.  I'll have to check that out for myself.  I don't recall my son ever noticing a change in the pop.

Not well known like the big boy bat makers, but Victus bats are catching fire especially with Jonny Gomes HR during the WS. My son has used the Pro Maple JC24 and ME8, which are both great bats for <$100

I don't have any evidence of it other than my own perception.  But it makes sense to me that it should perform differently. A bamboo bat is  a laminated wood+glue  product, not single piece of wood, so I would expect it to perform somewhat differently, maybe better maybe worse, depending on how it was engineered.  

FWIW since they usually carry a BBCOR seal, I guess strictly speaking some organizations don't even regard bamboo bats as wood bats.

Am I correct here, don't composite wood bats carry the same BBCOR seal?

Yep.

The BBCOR standard differentiates between wood and "non-wood" bats, and defines wood bats as only those made from a single piece of wood.  Anything else, even if made entirely of wood (which, incidentally, bamboo is not - technically, it's a grass), is a "non-wood bat" for the purposes of the rule, and must pass the BBCOR testing procedures and bear the BBCOR certification.

Then, and I'm not being facetious here, a bamboo or composite wood bat would be superior to ordinary wood, but probably less then BBCOR metal in it's performance?

EDIT:  thanks Edgar, we were typing at the same time.

I don't know. The wood-composite bat is certainly marketed as if it's superior to wood, and it's priced as if it's superior to wood. The fact that the handle is lighter, more durable, and has more whip than wood probably means that the bat does perform better than an all-wood bat.

As for the bamboo, it's priced at about half the cost of a good wood bat.  It's defnitely more durable.  I don't think it performs as well as wood, but that's my subjective opinion,  mostly  based in hitting flies with one. I can hit a lot further with an all wood bat.

Thanks JCG.  Makes sense.

I've heard of and seen the bamboo and composite bats, but have not gotten one for my son as of yet.

I don't know what the testing shows, but I'd sure be surprised if wood composite and wood laminate bats didn't enjoy some of the same small advantages that other, truly "non-wood" BBCOR bats enjoy over wood bats.  If that weren't the case, what would be the point in lumping wood composite and wood laminate bats in with metal and composite as "non-wood" bats that have to go through the BBCOR certification process? 

The consensus, albeit unscientific, of several people I know who've used both wood and various wood composites is that the wood composites are definitely lower performing than straight wood.

I think all bats that aren't one-piece wood have to go through the BBCOR testing just as a matter of simplicity.  I think the composite wood bats are built primarily for the durability advantage relative to wood, and because they're allowed in a lot of amateur wood leagues/tournaments, not because they're likely to hit as well as (or better) than wood.  That said, I imagine that if they weren't subject to the BBCOR requirements, someone would find a way to engineer one to outperform the standard, hence the need to be consistent on bats that aren't one piece of wood.

Having watched my son hit with all types of bats from metal to one piece wood to composite wood I see the following advantages for each. The metal bumps up (unrealistic?) performance, requires less skill to hit with due in part to a larger sweet spot along with reduced breakage possibilities . The one piece wood gives you only expected performance, requiring much higher skill levels due to small sweet spot and possibilities of breakage. The third option, composite wood, combines the two incorporating the smaller sweet spot with performance close to one piece wood while having reduced breakage potential. At least at the HS level the composite wood bats make sense from a player development aspect as well as an economic option. 

If you want to be a better hitter swing some type of wood. It's that simple.

JP uses Chandler. They custom-make bats, and so far, after a year of use, he's only broke one. The bad news is, it was his favorite -- and he broke it two weeks before Jupiter.

When I told Chandler he hoped to have a new one for the tournament, they actually made and shipped a new one -- customized with a slightly more tapered handle, which was his only wish -- in a week.

When I asked Lauren, the incredible woman there, how they were able to do it so fast (it's taking 4-6 weeks, she said, on average now) ... she said, "We're making it a priority to complete bats for boys going to Jupiter."

Can't beat that.

Hey ... on this subject, if anyone wants a brand new 33-30 Louisville Slugger MLB Prime Birch bat, JP wants to sell the one he won at the TrackMan event in Jupiter.

I can't find a picture of the actual bat online because it's so new, but it's a model C243 -- natural wood handle, wine barrel. Looks like the image below.

These birch models are $130 everywhere we look. He wants to try and get $100 to buy a Chandler.

If someone here buys it, I'll donate $20 of my own money (not JP's ) to HSBBW.

PM me.