In the on deck circle like what happened with Georgia yesterday?
Can you doctor a metal bat?

And why did blue ignore it?

Collins was so confused. He just stood there dumbfounded. I don't think I'd ever seen that before.

Rossy said:

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I think it was a 2 piece bat and it broke where the handle connects to the barrel. I've seen it happen before.

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Thanks

Never seen it before but saw him pick it up yesterday. Did he hit something with it?

I'm just saying that hit enough times in the same place it bound to crack over a period of time. Not saying they didn't juice the bats. Glad Jaces broke on deck not when he
Hit a 108 making it a 75.

trouble said:

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Malcolm pointed out in all 3 games that he thought several of their players were using the same bat. I just figured they were similar but he's real obsessed with details. I might have to go back and watch the first 2 games again.

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We had one split when we left it in the garage during a super cold snap

They definitely can break and split.

Just like the bat can be broken in by hitting balls, it can eventually form weak spots that might crack. The two piece bats can break apart where they are connected too just like any tool that's welded or bonded together

Cheaters gonna cheat. Major league player CORKED bats. I don't know if they still do or not.

Metal is like a coat hanger bend it enough time it will
Break.

Now if it's thinner that it's supposed to be it will break/crack faster.

Softball team broke 2 in a weekend or maybe it was Sunday and Tuesday. I have these composite bats break but that seamed odd to break 2 so close together

My bat broke in high school. Not in a game, but during practice.

I didnt see how the bat broke so I don't know if it is that atypical. However, I can say that these bats do absolutely break. My kids composite bat got a crack in it near the cap. Kids have definitely broken bats on my son's team. There are some bats that are also more fragile than others. I have heard that the Icon (Rawlings USSSA bat) is hot as hell but breaks quickly.

ColoradoMooseHerd said:

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I have seen metal bats break multiple times. Usually you can tell a bat is fatigued before it breaks

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Don't know with current bats, but they used to sound off and feel off when using them before they broke. We just called it a "dead bat" back then.

Of course guys took those opportunities to try and take the caps off and stuff them with racquetballs to see if it would juice them in BP. It often just led to a scattering of acquetballs across the infield.

I've never seen an all metal BBCOR bat break or split. The old BESR and unregulated bats of the mid/late-90's and very early-2000's that were stupid hot had pretty thin barrel walls and they would break.

Almost all of our guys are swinging the 2-piece DeMarini "Goods" which is one of the hotter BBCOR bats out there. Alloy barrel and composite handle. They're well known for being prone to breaking but probably 99% of the time they break in what's called a "telescope failure" where the connection of the composite handle to the alloy barrel breaks and the handle will slide in & out of the barrel like a telescope. Montgomery swings the Goods 1-piece which is all metal.

Composite bats like the Rawlings Icon, the Marucci CATX Connect, or Louisville Slugger META all typically have a little more pop and bigger sweet spot than alloy bats but are a bit more fragile will break more often. This holds true for BBCOR and the USSSA bats (-5, -8, and -10) that youth players use. My oldest has broken two Louisville Slugger META bats that were -5 that he used in 12U and 13U. The fragility and pop of the Easton Hype Fire -5 is why PG suspended them from being used- you had kids in 13U who are already 14 and over 6' and 200# hitting 100mph piss missiles back up the middle. Last spring a kid from what was then the top 12U Banditos team that is now the #3 rated 13U team in the country (with a 43-5 record) had a kid get smoked in the face by a shot off a Hype Fire that broke his nose, fractured his orbital on side, and gave him a severe concussion.

In 14U he's used an Easton BB05 (the reintroduction of the iconic Easton "Green") that was a 32" -3 for all fall and part of this spring and just moved up to a 33" -3 Rawlings Icon.

Shaving bats is a process where the end cap is removed, the inner wall of the barrel is shaved down to a thinner diameter and the cap replaced. This gives the bat more pop. To my knowledge you can't shave a composite bat.

I don't think you see shaving of bats in college because every single bat is compression tested before a game or series and has to be certified that it's within BBCOR tolerances and a shaved bat will fail that test.

Rolling bats doesn't do anything for alloy bats but it accelerates the break-in process for composite bats and is pretty common. There's debate on the legality because it doesn't really alter the tolerances. But, composite bats aren't made of metal. The materials vary but some, like the Rawlings Icon are made out of some sort of carbon fiber material and heavy-duty epoxy. These bats are more fragile and susceptible to breakage, especially in colder temps (like below 55). They also need to be broken in for the optimal performance. This sort of loosens the bonds in the epoxy and fibers to increase the trampoline effect. Composite bats are often rolled to speed up this break in process but it also reduces the life of the bat. I'm not sure how much rolling a BBCOR bat does though or if it would impact it passing or failing a compression test.

Are baseball bats similar to softball bats? My daughters play softball and composite bats break all the time. I'm guessing they are different and baseball bats have a lot less compression to reduce exit velocity but I haven't had to research baseball bats the same way I have softball bats.

As for the multiple players using the same bat, that seems like a clear indication of a doctored bat. I see 12u softball girls running around with 4 $400 bats so I'm sure every baseball player on an SEC team has at least 1 if not several high end bats that they own. If 12u sofrball girls don't share, I don't see how it would make sense for SEC baseball players to share unless there is a doctored bat. And to sandman's point it's not hard to find a company to shave or heat roll your bat to increase exit velocity.

Goose06 said:

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Are baseball bats similar to softball bats? My daughters play softball and composite bats break all the time. I'm guessing they are different and baseball bats have a lot less compression to reduce exit velocity but I haven't had to research baseball bats the same way I have softball bats.

As for the multiple players using the same bat, that seems like a clear indication of a doctored bat. I see 12u softball girls running around with 4 $400 bats so I'm sure every baseball player on an SEC team has at least 1 if not several high end bats that they own. If 12u sofrball girls don't share, I don't see how it would make sense for SEC baseball players to share unless there is a doctored bat. And to sandman's points it's not hard to find a company to shave your bat to increase compression and exit velocity.

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From what I hear, softball bats are notorious for breaking. And the doctoring of bats is even more rampant than in baseball. I know the whole idea of shaving and/or rolling bats was huge 30 years ago in slow-pitch softball.

Baseball bats are more durable because you're hitting a harder ball and players are typically stronger than softball girls. Obviously, men's softball is a different animal.

I don't know the ins & outs but the players don't buy their bats. The program has a sponsorship deal with DeMarini which is why every player is using a DeMarini bat. All of them are swinging a version of "The Goods"- most have the 2-piece model but Monty is swinging the one-piece. Just personal preference.

And go look at other SEC teams. LSU has a deal with Marucci which is why they're all swinging the CATX. Georgia has a deal with Marucci too which is why all their guys have Marucci bats, helmets, batting gloves, and pads. But, as a Nike school some guys have Nike batting gloves. Personal preference. From what I could tell almost all the Georgia players were swinging the CATX-Connect which is a composite bat.

Wilson owns DeMarini, EvoShield, and even Louisville Slugger so I suppose some of our guys could swing Louisville Slugger bats if they wanted to but it's why the guys all use EvoShield batting gloves, pads, and helmets. They also all have Wilson gloves.

The first swing is the best swing for an aluminum bat. The last swing before it breaks is the worst swing because it's fatigued and gone from elastic to brittle losing its pop. Composites are the opposite. The first swing is the worst and the last swing is the best swing because it's been worked in and had the biggest elasticity maximizing its pop. That's why you age the composites and don't use old aluminum bats.

Cat X Connect is a hybrid. Alloy barrel with a composite handle to help with getting rung up. Almost all bats used in college are alloy barrels. It's something like 92% alloy

Composites aren't very good in BBCOR. In usssa that's a different story.

Baron de Bastrop said:

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The first swing is the best swing for an aluminum bat. The last swing before it breaks is the worst swing because it's fatigued and gone from elastic to brittle losing its pop. Composites are the opposite. The first swing is the worst and the last swing is the best swing because it's been worked in and had the biggest elasticity maximizing its pop. That's why you age the composites and don't use old aluminum bats.

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I think that's why composite bats were banned. They would pass the performance standards when new but as they got broken in their performance would improve.

PhatMack19 said:

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Cat X Connect is a hybrid. Alloy barrel with a composite handle to help with getting rung up. Almost all bats used in college are alloy barrels. It's something like 92% alloy

Composites aren't very good in BBCOR. In usssa that's a different story.

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Yeah, I missed that on the CATX Connect. I thought it was a composite barrel.

I don't know about other composite BBCOR but the Rawlings Icon in BBCOR is composite and is pretty hot. It's right on par with the hybrid Goods for pop. The sweet spot is a tiny bit smaller but even being composite it's more durable than the Goods.

But with a BBCOR you're not getting any cheap bombs unless you're a grown-ass man.

McInnis said:

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Baron de Bastrop said:

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The first swing is the best swing for an aluminum bat. The last swing before it breaks is the worst swing because it's fatigued and gone from elastic to brittle losing its pop. Composites are the opposite. The first swing is the worst and the last swing is the best swing because it's been worked in and had the biggest elasticity maximizing its pop. That's why you age the composites and don't use old aluminum bats.

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I think that's why composite bats were banned. They would pass the performance standards when new but as they got broken in their performance would improve.

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Composite bats aren't banned as a whole at any level below college. There are specific models which are banned and mostly they're composite but not as a whole.

I will grant you that, based on personal observation, composite BBCOR bats aren't that favored in college ball. It does seem though that the hybrid (Goods, CATX Connect, Select PWR) with the alloy barrel and composite handle are the most popular. Even with there being a composite CATX Connect I think most go with the alloy barrel.

I don't have the data available to really rank but based on what I've seen the most popular BBCOR bats in college are (in no particular order):
- DeMarini The Goods hybrid
- Lousiville Slugger Atlas
- Marucci CATX Connect (no clue if it's the alloy or composite)
- DeMarini The Goods one-piece
- DeMarini Voodoo
- Rawlings Icon
- Easton ADV Hype

I have seen a couple of metal bats have the knob break off while swinging over the last few years. Can't recall ever seeing that before.

WES2006AG said:

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I have seen a couple of metal bats have the knob break off while swinging over the last few years. Can't recall ever seeing that before.

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I think a lot of the newer metal bats have a composite knob that's epoxied into the bat as a means of reducing vibration while older metal bats were one piece of metal.

This is from 2022 postseason. I would assume the hybrid 2-piece use is higher now with more options available, but alloy is still king in BBCOR.

-60% of NCAA CWS players used a single-piece alloy. 32.5% used a hybrid.
-Over 93% of NCAA CWS Series players used an alloy barrel.

https://www.batdigest.com/blog/2022-college-baseball-world-series-bat-usage-data/

This is an old Easton. It was decent and my 10 yr old used it as a cage bat. Then it cracked and turned into a rocket launcher. Hottest bat I've ever seen until it blew out.

That's the problem with composite bats. You pay $400 for a bat that is game only. You have to get another bat for practice.

Don't they check all the bats before the series and give them a sticker? Someone for Tennessee got popped last year or the year before I believe for using one without a sticker.

Thisguy1 said:

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Don't they check all the bats before the series and give them a sticker? Someone for Tennessee got popped last year or the year before I believe for using one without a sticker.

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Yes.

In college games/series the bats are compression tested and given a certification sticker. I'm not sure if it's before every game in a series though.