Best Aluminum Metal Bat | Baseball & Softball Metal Sticks

Pros most likely don’t use metal bats because (1) that’s the rule in professional baseball; (2) although BBCOR standards keep the bat from performing better than a ‘wood’ bat, the swing weight and sweet spot size give a big advantage to a metal bat; (3) it has long been tradition to swing a wood bat in the pros and if baseball is anything, it is about tradition.

Yes. The vast majority of metal bats are legal. Some governing bodies from BBCOR and USSSA have banned some bats. But, in recent memory, metal bats are perfectly legal in baseball, fastpitch and slowpitch. Be sure, though, to make sure the bat’s approval type is in your league.

In short, there is no difference between bats referred to as aluminum or metal. In today’s market, every metal bat on the market is made of aluminum. This aluminum is manipulated to perform better by additional chemicals. The addition of these elements within the aluminum, like scandium, is why many officially call aluminum bats aluminum alloy bats. But, at its core, aluminum bats are simply metal bats just like composite bats are simply plastic bats.

There are a number of general benefits to aluminum metal bats when compared to composite and wood bats. We discuss that here. Also, you might find it helpful how some vendors make their bats sortable by aluminum metal only.

Aluminum metal bats provide the distinct advantage of a hot out-of-the-wrapper performance—meaning, there is no work in period like composite requires. That hot out of the wrapper performance provides confidence from swing one that you are getting the most out of your bat. As well, aluminum bats almost always cost less than their composite counterparts.

On the other hand, alloy bats (another name for aluminum bats) struggle to swing light–especially when used for younger age groups. It follows that manufactuers need to keep the barrel profiles smaller than composite bats so growing kids can swing them as well.

We have tested every performance bat since the genesis of this blog in late 2014. Those tests involve both simple approaches and more complicated ones. Measuring the swing weight, comparing it to previous models and seeing where the bat fits in the grander scheme of things, and discussing the aesthetics of the bat constitute more of our superficial approaches. We also use the bat in games and practices, as well as have multiple player feedback on each bat.

More recently, we have driven ball exit speeds and barrel size testings on our bats too. This more quantifiable data gives added insight to which bats really do perform best. Add that information to conversations with real players, an obsession for reading real reviews on a bat’s performance and dialog with major vendors and manufacturers, and we start to formulate data on what the best aluminum metal bats actually are.