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By Bat Digest | Last Updated November 17, 2022
In short, we think the Easton Ghost X Hyperlite is a ho-hum drop 11 USABat on the market for 2018.
Ho-hum might be putting it nicely. The lack of weight in this bat as well as the single piece design made it an absolute hand killer. We don’t know of a single person that thought it was great. If you see slow pitch speed and need as much bat speed as possible then its a maybe. If the price is right go for it. Otherwise, if you need a light swing, look elsewhere.
| 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| MOI | Tech | Drb | Flx | Prof | ReSl | PlaRa | ExVe | Relv | Dmnd |
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At the time of this writing there are three drop 11 USABats on the market: the Rawlings VELO and Rawlings 5150 as well as the Slugger 618 Solo. With all respect to Rawlings, we don’t think either the VELO or 5150 hold a candle to the Easton Ghost X Hyperlite. The 618, however, felt great for us. But, it lacked the barrel size and oar like feel that many of our younger players tended to prefer.
The 5150, VELO and 618 Solo are single piece aluminum bats at a fraction of a price point when compared to the Hyperlite.
If the price point of the Ghost X Hyperlite wasn’t in our wheelhouse, or we disliked it for any other reason, we’d go with the 618 Solo in a drop 11 for the light swing.
The Ghost X Hyperlite is a single piece composite bat. It is the only single piece composite bat in all of the USABat space for 2018. In many regards, it serves the market where Combat (now defunct) may have delivered.
Those familiar with Dirty South Bats will be quick to claim the Hyperlite is not the only USABat in a single piece composite. Fair enough. But at the time of this writing we have yet to see that bat in production although it is widely talked about.
The composite in the Ghost X Hyperlite is referred to by Easton as EXACT Carbon Composite. It is the same composite material they use in the Ghost X line from BBCOR and USSSA.
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.
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