Shaved bats in HS play ??

[MTR]

I don't know how many of you were around when we had wood bats, but we didn't break them very often.....and there were not alternatives.....there were plenty of trees around....and the number of wood bats and competition drove the prices down.

REPORTED injuries may be down....solely because of the lack of knowledge on how to report an injury....or that 95% of them don't result in a trip to the hospital. It doesn't mean pitchers aren't getting pummeled....I saw another one last week....I've seen 6 pitchers hit with batted balls in an elite HS league in a total of 20 games. Three of them had to leave the game.

ASA has the power to reduce the standard down to that of a comparable wood bat. Problem solved.

I agree with everything but the last statement. That alone should be enough for hell to freeze over.

ASA is still in a business. I guarantee that if the ASA dummied down the equipment enough, they would be out of business. Like it or not, and this is already happening, someone else will allow the hotter bats and the customer will just move to where their ego can be satisfied in the easiest manner.

[Sam]

Baby...its cold outside....

Mike,

ASA already dumbed the bats down once...and the lemmings followed. The other orgs would have no choice but to follow along. If you were USSSA, would you want to be the only org allowing hot bats.....and a pitcher is severely injured by a batted ball in your association? Your legal argument would be decimated....and you would cease to exist after losing that liability suit.

[seniorsbfart]

In terms of advance players, college and upper level club.

USSSA allows hot bats because that is what players want. That is what coaches want and that is what the market demands. Build a low performance bat and nobody will come, build it hot and they line up at the door.
We want hot bats and the game wants hot bats. Why is it the the NCAA is wanting to move away from ASA? Why is it that in the last WCWS not one player used the 'new standard' bats?
Any talk of wood is off the wall and not worth the time to talk about. We want hot bats and let the players adjust.

In terms of high school and lower level club or rec ball.
Maybe alloy bats or just stay with demeaning level of ASA standards.

[Sam]

In terms of advance players, college and upper level club.

USSSA allows hot bats because that is what players want. That is what coaches want and that is what the market demands. Build a low performance bat and nobody will come, build it hot and they line up at the door.
We want hot bats and the game wants hot bats. Why is it the the NCAA is wanting to move away from ASA? Why is it that in the last WCWS not one player used the 'new standard' bats?
Any talk of wood is off the wall and not worth the time to talk about. We want hot bats and let the players adjust.

In terms of high school and lower level club or rec ball.
Maybe alloy bats or just stay with demeaning level of ASA standards.

Why didn't everybody line up for USSSA when ASA went from 100mph to 98mph?

We is YOU. Coaches don't give a crap about hot bats.

Parents are going to refuse to allow their DD's to pitch, eventually. Then all you guys can go to 110mph bats, use pitching machines, and pretend your DD's can actually hit.

[dodgerblue]

Parents are going to refuse to allow their DD's to pitch, eventually. Then all you guys can go to 110mph bats, use pitching machines, and pretend your DD's can actually hit.

My point exactly, well said Sam.

[seniorsbfart]

When ASA first when to 98 the bat where somewhat the same as USSSA. It is the new ABI standard that players don't like.

I did not make clear my comment on coaches, sorry, it is college coaches that really care about bat performance.

Nobody wants 110mph bats, not in the least. What I think is needed is to drop the current standard and returnn to the old ASA standard. I have heard this is what might happen.

I do not want to see anything more than the old standard returned.

[SnocatzDad]

The people that want the hot bats are the same middle aged fat white guys that want a toaster on the end of a stick so they can all hit a 300+yd drive. It's okay for them to have them in slowpitch (pitching distance 46', bunting not allowed so corners are not in danger due to playing up to cover a bunt) Not sure why we can't have slowpitch and fastpitch bats, we seem fine with having different barrel diameters between baseball and softball. If we have to continue to use the same bats for slowpitch and fastpitch and are going to allow the slowpitch market to drive innovation and change ( because they buy more bats ) that's fine by me as long as we start allowing bunting in slowpitch, and then when we kill off the first dozen 3rd basemen who come in to cover a bunt and get smacked with a line drive, then we can get some change initiated.

[Tumblebug]

Yet, it is being done successfully elsewhere. But you need to get your head out of the trees. I don't know how many times I've repeated this. With today's technology, there should be a way to produce a composite wood bat.

You say that like nobody has tried it. Your right, it is being done but the results are not particularly good nor is it economically sound. H&B had been working on an economically viable engineering solution for 10 years when I worked there twenty years ago in 1989. The project is more than 30 years old. It's easier too say it can be done than it is to actually make it work in a real production model within a viable economic model. No matter how many times you say it, the raw materials have to be processed many times over to build the blank to turn a bat. The layers still have to be hard wood to possess good mechanical properties. This is not a trivial engineering project.

[Dropn N]

Yet, it is being done successfully elsewhere. But you need to get your head out of the trees. I don't know how many times I've repeated this. With today's technology, there should be a way to produce a composite wood bat.

You say that like nobody has tried it. Your right, it is being done but the results are not particularly good nor is it economically sound. H&B had been working on an economically viable engineering solution for 10 years when I worked there twenty years ago in 1989. The project is more than 30 years old. It's easier too say it can be done than it is to actually make it work in a real production model within a viable economic model. No matter how many times you say it, the raw materials have to be processed many times over to build the blank to turn a bat. The layers still have to be hard wood to possess good mechanical properties. This is not a trivial engineering project.

Wood is wood! Wouldn't a composite wood bat be exactly that.....composite material? and not wood.

[Tumblebug]

I don't know how many of you were around when we had wood bats, but we didn't break them very often.....and there were not alternatives.....there were plenty of trees around....and the number of wood bats and competition drove the prices down.

REPORTED injuries may be down....solely because of the lack of knowledge on how to report an injury....or that 95% of them don't result in a trip to the hospital. It doesn't mean pitchers aren't getting pummeled....I saw another one last week....I've seen 6 pitchers hit with batted balls in an elite HS league in a total of 20 games. Three of them had to leave the game.

ASA has the power to reduce the standard down to that of a comparable wood bat. Problem solved.

Fiction in red . . .