Best Fungo Bats

Fungo bats are light and long, giving coaches the best chance to repeatedly hit the ball where they want it on big fields without getting tired. If you are a little league coach, then a fungo might not make as much sense as the players’ bats are already light, and you don’t need to go deep for them to get good practice. But, in a high school or pro setting, a fungo’s purpose is to repeatedly hit a ball 350 feet in the air or as fast as possible on the ground without getting tired and with reasonable accuracy.

A fungo bat is a coach’s baseball or softball bat used to hit balls to practice infield and outfield. The bats are usually long, like 37 inches, skinny, and swing-light. A coach with a lot of skill can place a ball about wherever they want with a fungo bat. A professional or college coach uses these bats because they don’t want to lug around a 30-inch bat.

Why Tape A Fungo Barrel?

This is likely more a trend and aesthetic play than anything, but some coaches argue that taping their fungo improves its durability and helps with noticing ball markings and where they should hit the ball. It also changes the sound a bit, looks fantastic, and makes it personal. So, coaches trying to show some flare and protect their favorite fungo tape their barrel.

Depending on the brand and model, Fungo bats can weigh as light as 13 ounces and up to 25 ounces. Most are considered, around a drop of 20. So, your 37-inch fungo might weigh around 17 ounces. However, the balance of the bat is so thin that they swing very light. Control is, in considerable measure, the point of the fungo bat.

If you ask the pros, they will tell you yes. Nothing quite feels right until you hit with a wood bat. And that extends to fungo work too. But, we have found that aluminum bats are smooth and straightforward too. They are also somewhat cheap and, to boot, they do not break. For the average coach on the average team, aluminum fungo’s work just fine.

Depending on the quality, you can expect to pay anywhere from $40 to $80 for a legitimate fungo. There are several outside of those ranges too. But, last we checked, even our winning SSK fungo is close to $80 a stick.

Material is the big difference between fungo bats. Some are made of high-quality wood (like an SSK), others are made from a more mid-grade rock-cut maple or ash (like a K100 from Slugger or Fungo from Brett Bros). Other fungos are made out of metal. Each type of wood and construction gives the bat a different feel and performance, most prefer wood, although aluminum metal fungos work fine too. The other significant difference is the length; some come in as tiny as 33-inch while others are as big as 37 or 38-inch. Longer fingers are meant to hit the ball further.

In most cases, you’ll want the longer 36 or 37-inch fungos. This allows you to hit the ball to all fields. If you really want an infield-focused fungo then get a 33-inch. However, most coaches need one that does both and you can hit grounders with a 36-inch about as well with a 33-inch.