Disclaimer: This site uses affiliate links. Learn More.
Disclaimer: This site uses affiliate links. Learn More.
By Bat Digest | Last Updated November 17, 2022
Baseball bat reviews are inundated with the word ‘pop’. “Amazing Pop”, “Great Pop”, “Freakish Pop” and so on and so on.
Baseball bat reviews are inundated with the word pop. Amazing Pop, Great Pop, Freakish Pop, and so on and so on. This drives me batty for a handful of reasons. Not the least of which is how .50 BBCOR and BPF 1.15 regulations constrain the trampoline effect of performance alloy and composite bats, making any claim of pop vs. another high-performance bat an unfounded claim.
Quite truthfully, top-shelf high performance bats don’t have different ‘pop’. They aren’t allowed to. And most big time companies with big time wallets make sure their big time bats get as close to that regulatory limit as possible.
We are not sure why there isn’t a drop 8 or drop 5 in the Generations but wish there was. Especially for a bat boasting the largest sweet spot in the business it would be nice to have some umph behind that bat in the upper echelons of little league where just about no one is swinging a drop 10.
Pricing
Mizuno’s pricing is, in our opinion, its real sweet spot. And for Mizuno’s first run in bat space they’ve made a great decision on keeping pricing honest. Lots of new comers to the market have a real tendency to think a $300+ bat is the market. But the truth is a sub $200 dollar swing for a performance bat is the real sweet spot…and probably the most notable one Mizuno has this year.
For Mizuno’s first foray into the metal bat space they get high marks.
The 2015 Mizuno Generations bat has an intuitive design that extends the length of the usable barrel
The swing weight should be applicable to a number of players and the price is right in line what a lot of parents are willing to spend.
The grip at first contact does feel great but has a few users disappointing in its durability. As well, finding a way to help damping the sting on mishits would be an improvement.
We would recommend the Mizuno Generations to players looking for a middle of the road swing weight and want a decent sized barrel in the aluminum space. This is not a power hitter’s bat. The hitter also needs to prefer one piece alloy barrels that ring a bit on mishits.
It is available for purchase here and here.
The 2015 Mizuno Generation baseball bat boasts a tapered alloy wall. Outside the center of the barrel the bat walls are thinner. This allows the bat to pass BBCOR standards with less trampoline effect in the middle of the barrel as well as extending the length of usable sweet spot. In other words, if the bat is tuned perfectly, you can get the same .50 BBCOR or BPF 1.15 pop along any part of the barrel.
The overall rating uses seven different weighted metrics to determine our overall score. Half of total rating comes from the player and our exit speed tests (Player Rating: 25%, Performance: 25%).The other categories are Relevance (20%), Demand (10%), Durability (10%), Resell Score (5%), and Tech Specs (5%).
*: When a bat is denoted by a star (*) it is a preliminary rating. Expect it to be updated as we learn more about the bat and gather more data.
(PlaRa) Player Rating: We measure player rating from user reviews. Those users include our own hitters that we test at the lab as well as reviews we find online.
(ExVe) Performance: Performance measures the exit speeds and distances we capture in our hitting lab with HitTrax using these bats.
(Relv) Relevance: We measure the number of sizes and the MOI of the bat. Bats with a wider range of options get a better score.
(Dmnd) Demand: Demand is measured by consumer sentiment and the buzz around the bat.
(Drb) Durability: A bat’s durability is measured by user reviews as well as feedback from manufacturers.
(ReSl) Resell Score: Based on the price the bats go for used. Higher prices mean greater user demand which means, generally, a better bat. A resell value closer to its original price means a higher score.
(Tech) Tech Specs: We rate the bat on its technological advancements from previous years and compared to the industry at large. This is our chance to reward companies who are trying to innovate.
MOI
MOI or Mass Moment of Inertia is a measurement of bat swing weight. This quantifies how difficult it is to swing a bat. The industry often refers to this as things like End Load or Balanced but those words have been overused to the point of meaninglessness. We measure the actual swing weights of each bat we test using the industry-standard pendulum period, balance point, and scale weight. You can read more about that here.
Price
The price is the original MSRP price of the bat.
Type
The types of bats are single-piece alloy (SPA), two-piece composite (TPC), single-piece composite (SPC), hybrid (Hyb.), and wood (Wood). Hybrid bats are made of composite handles and alloy barrles.
Date
The estimated date the bat began distribution.
Just Bat Reviews, LLC DBA Bat Digest participate in affiliate marketing programs including but not limited to Amazon and eBay. We most likely earn a comission from companies we link to on this site.
© 2023. Just Bat Reviews, LLC DBA Bat Digest Company.