Baseball Bat Guide

Craig Brooks of Jonquil Sporting Goods talks about bat technology; composite vs. aluminum, wood bats for practice and more.

Clubhouse Gas Casey: Well it’s baseball season again so we’re here at Jonquil Sporting Goods. We’ll meet with friend of the show Craig Brooks to Talk about bat technology, how it’s coming of age the different types of bat that you need to look for, for your child, what the differences are and what might fit your child the best, it would be a great show. Right here on Clubhouse Gas. Thank you again so much Craig for joining us I really appreciate it. Craig: Thanks for having me. Casey: We’ll talk today about bats and the performance difference between aluminum and composite so we have these 2 different types of bats us growing up we didn’t have it but what are differences? Craig: Well what the composite material versus aluminum, the composite is just going to allow for a slightly more trampoline effect which is what you want out of every bat that you ever use. You want any bat that you hit, the better the bat, the more it’s actually going basically going to dent every single time you made contact with the ball but then it’s going to release and give you that trampoline effect and that’s your performance. So to be able to dent but then pop back to its original shape is what you want on a mini bat. Aluminum allows for a little bit of that but the composite is just going to allow for that much more trampoline. Casey: So you get more of an explosion off the base of the bat. Craig: The bat speed or the ball speed off the bat is going to be slightly faster, more times than not with composite bats over aluminum. Casey: What about the sound I’ve heard some complaints about the sound of the tube bat? Craig: Well when you and I played we drew it with all aluminum bats that’s all we ever hit so what and that’s most high school kids most college kids they also swung aluminum growing up their whole lives. The composite bat has a totally different sound, it almost sounds like a wood bat, it almost sounds kind of dead. Casey: Right. Craig: An aluminum bat take this worth prodigy for instance is going to have a very high pitch you know ping sound. That being probably the loudest another aluminum bat the Exogrid Louisville Slugger it’s still got somewhat of a ping. But then you get into something like the stealth and that sound s very, very dead sounding, now that baseball being such a mental game that can really affect a player so a lot of the kids that have never swung a composite bat if they’re established 16, 17, 18 or even older when they swing that composite bat they just don’t like to sound. They just don’t feel that their getting the same performance out of that bat solely on the sound. Casey: So you do with the higher performance bat for the sound and we’re comfortable with it. Craig: Very often. Casey: The most superstitious people on the planet that have to be baseball players. Craig: That’s good too. Casey: Let’s talk about Flex. I’m hearing a lot about bats now being like golf clubs. What do you feel and what’s going on with the Flex in baseball bat. Craig: Well there are 2 schools of thought when it comes to flexing the bat. You know, I guess 2 of your major manufacturers Easton and Louisville Slugger are both going opposite. Louisville slugger feels that what you want is the stiffest handle possible so as you swing that bat there’s absolutely no give whatsoever and so when you make contact with the baseball it is not going to give way to the ball and so you’re going to swing completely through it and get the best performance that way. Casey: That way, like a steel shaft and golf club. Craig: Correct, so the other train of thought would be the flexible shaft and so what happens there is as you swing through the zone, the bat’s going to give way negatively initially but as you come through it’s going to increase your bat speed your barrel speed will come through quicker than you’re actual, than you’re hands are actually coming through and it will give you more performance there. Casey: Now that’s got to be a pure timing thing about as far as making sure that the bat’s loaded correctly when the ball gets there. Craig: Well somewhat, I mean if I get— if somebody throws me an inside fastball and I come in and I get jammed like this with a flexible bat I’m not going to get a very good performance out of that so you know— Casey: I’m good at that. Craig: Yeah exactly. But as long as you get your hands through the zone and get the barrel out I think both are good arguments. Casey: How much flex is there, can you actually see the flex? Craig: Sure, Louisville Slugger, this is the Exogrid. They try to make this as stiff as possible. They actually add composite into the handle to stiffen the handle so there’s going to be very, very little flex in that bat whatsoever, alright so that’s going to be the stiffest bat that you can find. Easton however and I have just picked these two manufacturers at random but they’re going to have a lot more give in that bat. Casey: So now do you decide for your kid or if you’re an older kid what’s going to be best for you? Craig: Well— Casey: You kind of try them out it’s so expensive. Craig: Often times you can borrow another player’s bat you know a lot of people really don’t care for you to do that, just I mean you can take it you know we’ll allow you to go outside and swing it or whatever you know it’s a lot of it just has to do with feel. I would highly recommend that you probably maybe borrow somebody else on your team or somebody else at the batting cage and hit a few balls with their bats trying both out. Again I think both trains of thought have value points. I personally swing a bat that has flex and I like it but the majority of the people on my team don’t so you know— Casey: We’re talking about flex and sound and composite is there a future for aluminum in the back market? Craig: I think aluminum bats will always be around. I just think there’s— but who’s to say. You know I have no control over that whatsoever but composite is just so expensive to make. I’m sure as they make more and more that it can become less expensive but the composite bats are you know anywhere from you know high 2’s or upwards of $400 a piece so think the aluminum bats will always be around but I think composite is here to stay. Casey: Now we have to choose between composite and aluminum and flex. A league determines the drop that your child’s allowed to have but there’s also a range in there how do you decide as far as drop goes for your kid. Craig: It has to do with the shrink to the child and a lot of it has to do with the balance point of the bat. You know some bats maybe a minus 10 so it’s a really like big barrel bat but all the weights on the end of the barrel so it swings heavier than possibly a very balanced minus 9 or minus 8 and a half. So again it’s very child specific as far as that goes. Casey: Are these technologies transferring into the girl’s game or the softball bats have the same? Craig: Softball bats you see some slight variations but softball bat’s pretty much are using the same technologies as the baseball. You would have flexible handles. You have aluminums you would have composites. I would say overall softball and baseball technologies are running in the same direction. Casey: But I can’t have a baseball technology show without ask you at least one wood bat question. I have heard a lot about some coaches who are trying to get their kids to do BP with wood bats to save money, is that practical as far as saving money goes? Craig: Money wise I would say probably not because I think you’re just going to end up breaking a lot of wood bats and you’re just going to buy 6 or 7 wood bats as opposed to one really expensive aluminum bat. Most even halfway decent wood you’re still looking at about 50 bucks per bat. But it definitely makes sense I mean they have smaller sweet spots. They’re a little more heavy. I mean it’s a great practice tool. It’s definitely going to teach you to hit the right way. Casey: From performance, yes to get better, yes cost effectiveness, not so much. Craig: Not so much. However you could do, there are different forms of composite wood bats like there is a bamboo bat. There’s other bats that Louisville Slugger makes where it’s coated with a basically like a fiberglass cover. Some bats are pieced together to make composites. So basically they may have 30-day warrantees even a 6 month warrantee. So that probably becomes more cost effective but you do pay more for the composite. Casey: Well Craig what a great information. We really appreciate it. That’s going to do it for us today. We’ll see you right back her next time for another great edition of Clubhouse Gas.