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By Bat Digest
Updated November 17, 2022
Our hitters like the light swing and long barrel of the 2015 Rawlings VELO. It's a no-frills bat and it's price point and popularity show as much. But, it also works just fine in each of its leagues and great hitters will have nothing to complain about.
The 2015 Rawlings Velo end-loaded version is the same exact exterior shell as the hand-loaded version of the bat but its internal weight is distributed more towards the end cap. From a measurement standpoint, it weighs in as one of the lighter 'end-loaded' bats for 2015. Not nearly as heavy to swing as Easton's XL1 but with a little more drag than Baden's Axe Avenge.
So if it's not sting-free and the benefits of the exterior shell are removed by the distribution of the weight inside toward the end cap then why does it exist? Good question and, quite frankly, according to most vendors (even the very biggest in the bat space) it doesn't. Few carry this bat. It's like pickles and ice cream. They both make sense separately, but on the same plate, no one wants to touch it.
The benefit of the fused carbon composite end cap on an aluminum barrel is to create a bat with a really low swing weight. Which begs the question as to why Rawlings goes through the trouble of making a light swinging bat exterior and then fills the end cap with weight to make it an end-loaded feel in the BBRVE?