There are many benefits to swinging a wood bat during batting practice.
1. Forces you to make adjustments. The bat will tell you when you hit the ball wrong.
2. Smaller sweet spot than aluminum
3. Wood bats improve bat speed b/c they are weighted differently than aluminum. Even if a wood bat is exactly (-3), it will feel heavier.
As far as brands that I recommend??? I'll have to say Blast Bat.
www.blastbat.com