2018 Dirty South Made USA Bat Review

We were the first independent group to review the Dirty South Bats in 2015. Seeing them grow in their presence on social media and the eyes of individual reviews has been exciting and impressive. They recently worked out a chance to sell some of their USSSA bats on justbats.com. These are significant milestones in the bat space. Dirty South is a USA-based manufacturer of composite youth baseball bats. They also sell some peripheral baseball items like batting gloves and bat wraps. Our experience with the company has been primarily positive. Although they lack some of the significant features that more established brands produce (like many size options, including a BBCOR line), what they make is legitimate stuff. We have yet to find a kid who did NOT like their Dirty South bat. Nor have we found anyone that has anything but good things to say about the brand and company. They are active in guerilla marketing via social media circles. As a generally comprehensive industry note, we think the disappearance of Combat left a void that DSB is filling nicely. Dirty South Bats has a small, homegrown company sentiment producing big barreled composite bats against behemoths in the space. Word of mouth, an excellent social media presence, and a massive barrel have taken them a long way. It is reasonable to assume they are on the map to stay.

The DSB Made comes in a drop 10 and a drop 12. We note that drop 12 is a different bat than the drop 10 as the drop 12 is a single-piece bat. Single-piece bats feel much other than two-piece bats. We DID NOT HIT with the drop 12. We find naming the two bats the same confusing. But Rawlings does it too with their drop 12 VELO and drop 10 VELO. Our guess, and this is just a guess, is that drop 12 lacks the power and forgiveness on mishits to be considered seriously. Never in our lives have we been impressed with a single-piece full composite bat in a drop 12 regardless of the company of origin (yes, including Combat). As much respect as we have for Dirty South Bats, we don't think they somehow cracked some laws of physics. We are doubtful, but in the end, we must admit that we have never swung the drop 12. If we start hearing great things about it, we will find a way to get it in the lab.

The Made, in a drop 10, is a two-piece composite bat. That is, the bat is made from two pieces of composite fused together at a midpoint. The swing weight on the bat is right in line with other light swinging drop 10 bats on the market. In theory, the major advantage of a two-piece bat is to dampen sting on mishits. Younger players especially can generate more bat speed with the added confidence that their thumbs won't get knocked off on a poorly hit ball. As well, two pieces of material allow engineers more liberty to construct bat pieces with different functions in mind. Clearly, the handle serves a different purpose than the barrel, and in a two-piece bat, engineers are able to accomplish that with greater ease. The drop 12 USA DSB Made is a single piece of composite. Single piece composite bats, in theory at least, are meant to produce maximum power to the ball with the added ability to construct an enormous barrel without over-weighting the bat. Dirty South Bats, like Combat before it, has made a living in massively barreled single piece composite bats. The DSB Made, however, is not big barrel like the Swag and Big Texas USSSA DSB counterparts.