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By Bat Digest | Last Updated November 17, 2022
Over a year ago we reviewed the Axe Handle bat lineup and were thoroughly impressed. Within that year, Axe Bats made an agreement with Victus Bats and designed the first MLB prototype of the bat.
Major players in the league (Dustin Pedroia) started using the stick and the Axe bat from Victus got an insane amount of coverage nationally.
We also picked the brain of the engineers behind the asymmetric shaped handle. Earlier today, before pushing publish on this article, we spent time our best wood bat reviews page. That gave us a good feel for the wood bats out there.
In the end, we would be confident recommending the Axe handled Victus Bat to any player looking to get the absolute most out of a wood bat experience. A soon to be impressive list of MLB players would agree. If you prefer a hard maple wood bat, prefer one that passes ink dot standards and are okay getting used to an asymmetric handle, then this wood bat makes perfect sense.
There are no other hard maple bats with an ink dot test that have the Axe Bats grip. Axe does make a high end composite wood bat but there is no ink dot test and it isn’t a pure wood bat so may not be legal in your league. Otherwise, Axe makes a whole slew of bats including a 2016 Hyperwhip bat that takes one sided hitting to the next level—but it is aluminum. If you want an ink dot tested wood bat with an axe handle you have one option: The Victus Bats Axe Handle DP15A (price check).
The Victus bat is a traditional Maple Hard wood bat with an ink dot test made for elite players in the wood baseball bat space. More significantly, the bat’s handle is shaped like the bat handle on an axe. We have previously reviewed the functions of a bat from Axe Bats, but as a refresher:
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.