We’ve reviewed many Marucci products on here, including their youth wood and Marucci composite and aluminum lines, but we’ve yet to really dive into what they are probably most known for: Premium MLB Wood Bats. We recently had the opportunity to spend several hours hitting with their most common high end performance bats.

We hit with five of Marucci’s MLB bats: CUTCH22 (Price Check), CB15 (Price Check), AP5 (Price Check), CU26 (Price Check), JB19 (Price Check) and RIZZ44 (Price Check). We also read as many “reviews” as we could find online and we spoke to Marucci corporate directly gathering data for our reviews.

After that extensiveness, we can attest these bats are things of beauty by way of performance, feel and look. We do not hesitate to claim that anyone looking for the absolute best in the wood bat business are looking in the right place with Marucci’s wood bat line.

The only question left is what model is right for you?

If you are trying to narrow it down, one quick way would be to decide if you like a tapered knob. If so, then either the AP5 (Albert Pujols), CUTCH 22 (Andrew McCutchen) or RIZZ44 (Anthony Rizzo) bats should be put on your short list. The Cutch22 has the largest taper with AP5 as a normal tapper and RIZZ44 as slight taper.

If you prefer a lighter swing than the RIZZ44 is your best bet as it transitions slower to the max barrel size which gives you a lighter swing weight. If you want as much gumption a wood bat can deliver then either the CUTCH22 or the AP5 will be your weapon of choice. To decide betweet those two, you must decide if you’d like the fatter taper and little more flashy look (CUTCH22) or a more traditional taper with a more traditional look (AP5).

If you want a traditional knob then you’re left with two options: The CU26 (Chase Utley) and the CB15 (Carlos Beltran). The only difference aside from the paint job is the  has a slightly larger barrel when compared to the CU26. Both knobs are traditional, both handles and thin and both bats definitely rake with the best of them.

It should also be noted that Marucci’s wood bat site let’s you customize whatever you want and each bat is hand crafted. In other words, if you end up preferring an AP5 but would like a shorter taper in ASH or would rather have a different color scheme then it’s likely you can just design it right on their site and get it delivered.

Maybe more impressively, I suspect if you needed a very specific size or particular drop you could reach out directly to Marucci, which is still a small business in comparison to some of the other behemoths that are in this market, and ask for even more specifics. It’s likely they’d figure out a way to get it made and delivered. It is that great of a company and that great of a bat.

Competitors to Marucci will claim they have so many brand name players swinging their bats because the company is owned, at least in part, by those major players. No doubt about that conflict of interest. However, you’d be hard pressed to convince us that major names in major league baseball are willing to sacrifice their baseball careers and multi-million dollar contracts just so they can keep swinging a bat in a company they own stock in. Regardless, Marucci’s Pro Model Wood line is an absolute pleasure to hit.