Bat Blog – Bat Digest

Very few “deal days” are actual “deal days.” (ahem, Harbor Freight). If every day is a deal, how can any particular day be a deal? We digress. Wilson’s Glove day is a beautiful exception. It’s deal-day on, you guessed it, gloves. They run it one time a year on what sometimes feels like a random day …

We spent weeks scouring eBay, Sidelineswap and used good forums trying to track down every BBCOR DeMarini Voodoo ever made. They went back to 2011. Eventually, we were successful. (Although the 2019 Voodoo Insane in a 32″ eludes us still). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F53P7TI_flI Contents MethodG …

More than a few places have measured how exit speeds affect distance. It, along with the launch angle, are the two most indicative pieces to control the range a ball flies. Although things like ball spin, altitude, humidity, and wind affect ball flight too, how hard you hit and what angle you launch …

Baseball is back. It seems like a year ago that the 33” 2020 Meta was banned, causing players and parents all over the U.S. to lose their minds. I mean, if a kid doesn’t have a bat that has been on the market for all of 5 seconds, how will they possibly survive? As soon as the NCAA and NFHS ban took …

We followed the picks (and highlights) of every 2020 MLB first-round draft pick. We are interested in what bats these players swung in College (or high school). We’ve put here everything we could find on the 1st MLB Bat Picks. The better a player gets, the less the bat makes the difference. That isn …

We spoke with a half dozen major manufacturers and distributors about the cluster that is soon to be baseball and fastpitch bat inventory. None of them agreed to be on the record. But, suffice it to say, every major player in the bat space feels precisely the same: change is coming because COVID fun …

As well as affiliate links found within this post (where we may be compensated if you click on the links and purchase things), we were compensated directly for this post. We’ve covered Louisville Slugger wood bats for some time. They also have a wood bat for Father’s Day. It could make a great gift. …

In May of 2020, DeMarini rolls out a bat trade-in program. Currently, it allows anyone to trade in a working USA, USSSA (baseball), or BBCOR bat OF ANY MAKE OR MODEL made in the last three years to receive credit towards their next BBCOR DeMarini bat purchase. What Bats? At the time of this writing, …

Currently, several states, counties, and school districts are considering how we might play baseball or fastpitch safely during a pandemic. As a mostly non-contact sport, it seems possible to play while also keeping in line with the vast majority of guidelines set to the general public. This post is …

On the 22nd of March, we surveyed the country, measuring how much baseball and fastpitch are affected by the Covid-19. How much baseball and fastpitch has been canceled due to the coronavirus? So far, 28% of high school baseball and fastpitch seasons have been entirely canceled. All of the remaining …

If your high school baseball season has yet to be on hold for 2020, then just wait a couple of days. As of last week, Monday (3.9.2020), few thought it was even possible that a game or two would be missed anywhere in the country due to COVID-19. Seven days later, a majority of high school baseball s …

Here’s what you need to know about the new NOSCAE Catcher’s Gear requirement for high school and college ball. For 2020 high school baseball requires a NOCSAE certified chest protector. The NCAA pushed their requirement out to 2021. The rules are NOT in place for youth (non-high school). Most chest …

We’ve been writing about baseball and fastpitch bats for a long time. Since everyone else seemed to be writing about the decade in review, we thought we could look through old emails, traffic reports, and links to see what were the most significant things in the last decade about bats. Not surprisin …

Are you looking for the best gift for baseball players? Good. You’ve come to the right place. Gifts for Baseball Players We’ve spent the whole year reviewing, playing with, and using baseball and fastpitch gear. Below are our top 11 go-to’s. These are the things we could not live without. 1. The Bes …

We’ve tracked Black Friday & Cyber Monday baseball bat deals for the last 5 years. Black Friday is over, but the weekend is getting started. Jump below to see most recently updated. BatDigest.com Sale: Exit Speeds for 2020, 2019 and 2018 Bats up to 50% off! For 2019 we expect Cyber Monday to be …

By Jon Zayle and Brian Duryea What are BESR Bats? BESR was the baseball bat certification requirement for NCAA and high school baseball play between 1998 and 2011. Short History – BESR was implemented in 1998 to address non-wood bat performance. Through the early 2000’s under the BESR standard, bat …

By Jon Zayle [Jon Zayle is a baseball dad from New Jersey who owns way too many bats. He declares himself a bat expert, similar to the way Michael Scott declared bankruptcy. He is currently working with Dr. Peter Venkman to create a device that will trap all travel baseball drama.] The fact that I’m …

Closeoutbats Bats List Fastpitch  https://www.closeoutbats.com/easton-ghost-9-fastpitch-fp18gh9-2018.html Easton Ghost Fastpitch Bat -9oz ASA (2018) $199.95 https://www.closeoutbats.com/easton-ghost-10-fp18gh10-2018.html Easton Ghost Fastpitch Bat -10oz ASA (2018) $199.95 https://www.closeoutbats.co …

The great irony of making a field and bat standard that allows less home runs is that it over values the kids who can hit home runs. Instead of creating value in small ball, it gives the teams who can hit it out of the park more value than they should. For example, Japan, Caracao and South Korea hit …

Want to hit more home runs next season? We spent hours looking through scientific journals (it is the offseason after all). We looked for scientifically proven ways to hit more home runs. We found five. Jump To What Pitch to Hit Batter’s Box Warm-Up How To Take BP What Muscles Hit Bombs These ideas …

We stayed up late and searched through every 2019 Amazon Prime Day Baseball/Fastpitch deal we could find. We put together a hot list of links we thought would be useful in your search. There are a few serious deals we’ve never seen the likes of. One Day Left Update We went back through the Prime Dea …

Little League Age Chart for 2020 (and 2019) follow. These cuttoff age rules affect players born August of 2002. Those born before are no longer eligible for “Little League” as they are too old. Not all little leagues follow the same age rules as Little League. (Notice the capitalization). Little Lea …

What Kind of Bats do MLB Baseball Players Use? In short, wood. MLB Players use wood bats made mainly from Maple. In years past Ash was more popular. But, today, over 95% of MLB Baseball players use maple wood bats. Here is what we cover: MLB Bat Usage Market Share 2019 World Series Bat Usage Nationa …

Major manufacturers are unloading their inventory. That inventory blowout is causing a number of vendors to drop their prices on all sizes of bats for the first time this year. (DSG has the most deals going on. They are calling it the “Biggest Sale of the Season”. We can’t confirm that, but there ar …

If you want even more updates, check out our twitter feed. Updated 6/27/ 11:15am MST Well, we made it back from the 2019 CWS. The Vandy boys pulled it off (again). It was a fun run. Here’s our video of the Wilson shop called the Baseball Experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPmUQtMapv0 Update …

Looking for a HitTrax Batting Cage near you? We spent time in the Dick’s Sporting Goods (Henderson, Nevada location) with their HitTrax setup to do some bat fitting and a home run derby. Here’s what we learned. https://youtu.be/kjozKDGWGq0 4 Things to Notice for Bat Fitting in a HitTrax Cage We’ve h …

There are two things to buy in the baseball and softball world on Memorial day. Cool Americana items. Stuff that goes on crazy sale because most of 2019 bats come off of MAP pricing. (What is MAP Pricing?) We cover both below. Jump to the deals. 8 Best American Designs for Memorial Day 2019 #1 Adida …

For the 2020 season NCAA baseball (not High School Baseball) is implementing a couple bat rule changes. They include details on the White Bat Ban as well as compression testing before each game. Compression Testing Before Each Series Compression testing is standard college fastpitch bat procedure st …

We’ve spent more time buying used baseball bats than anyone. Really. Over the last five years we’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on hundreds of different bats from no less than two dozen different sites and companies. Where do we buy our used bats? Well, that just depends. Where do we (BatDige …

Serious baseball players tend to avoid Walmart as a go to option for upper end baseball bats. We are guilty of that—often looking to the likes of our favorite online bat retailers. We tend to like the home grown feel of many of them and talk about them often on this site. Walmart, however, through …

We’ve seen more than 1,000 bats come and go. After heavy work with the bats, we usually just ignore considerable ball marks and ball scuffs. But, every now and again, we want to remove ball marks and clean the bat. How do we clean our bats? Two tricks we show below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j …

The season is upon us. Those still looking for their right choice in 2019 might consider a few bats that rarely make it to the top of any best seller list. Our experience isn’t because those bats are bad but, instead, because they are forgotten. What are they? We put 6 bats in the baseball space bel …

Looking to buy your first serious baseball or softball bat? You’ve come to the right place. (Take our what bat you should get quiz) Over the years we’ve bought hundreds of bats. We’ve also coached several into their first serious bat buy and recommended bats to millions more. Here is our beginners g …

In short, the 2019 Evolution is a much different animal compared to the 2018 Ghost X. Although we could generate nearly equal exit speeds for both bats in a cage, the feel on the Evolution was night and day compared to the 2018 Ghost X. We aren’t quite sure what was originally the matter in the 2018 …

We are in the process of updating many of the bat reviews we’ve written over the years. In the process, we’ve run across a few bats no one has thought much about since their inception. Some of those forgotten bats are still for sale new in wrapper. Since the have fell off the marketing train many mo …

Thinking of buying a bat in September or October? 10/10 Only: DeMarini is doing an 50% sale. 10/10 Only: Louisville Slugger Doing a 50% Sale. Probably not. But that is just the point. It is officially the the BEST time to buy baseball and softball bats. Here’s why. Vendors and Manufacturers flush in …

The finals of the LLWS are this weekend. The USA and International Championships are on Saturday. The finals are on Sunday. All via ABC. If you are just catching up, here are 7 things we’ve noticed after watching all 28 games leading up to this point. Consider this your primer on the 2018 Little Lea …

Little League World Series bats for 2018 are much different than those of the 2017 Series. The 2018 versions have much less trampoline effect due to a new USA Bat Standard (which restricts performance by upwards of 10 to 20%). With that said, the 2019 Easton USA bats are serious upgrades from the fi …

2018 MLB Player’s Weekend is this last week in August (8/24 through 8/26). During Player’s Weekend the MLB relaxes equipment rules.  This allows players to put unique names, colors and designs on, among other things, bats. We keep track of many of the bats you’ll see this weekend. They are, to say t …

There are three USSSA illegal CF Zens floating around in the market. The first two are a green and white barrel (and green and black end cap) from 2017 in the drop 8 and 10. As well, the drop 10 blue and white one from 2017 is also illegal. DeMarini retooled each of those bats during the year and ad …

Thinking of attending the Cooperstown All Star Village and want to know what to expect? You’ve come to the right place! One of our readers spent a week at the tournament and put together the most important Copperstown All-Star Village tips. These are 8 essential ‘need to knows’ before you go. Cooper …

Designing the best team trading pin for your Cooperstown trip is no small task. It requires planning, organization and finding the right fit to represent your team. Below you will find: 5 quick and easy steps to walk you through the process of creating a dream pin for your Cooperstown experience. 9 …

A limited edition bat is a small quantity edition designed with a unique feature. A custom bat is not considered a limited bat. Custom bats are unique designs with buyer input. Limited Editions are unique designs produced by the company in small quantities. Below are many limited edition bats. The A …

We measured the exit speeds of a BBCOR composite bat pre and post rolling. We found rolling did increase the bat’s average exit velocity but not by much. In our focused test (one bat, one hitter, 20 measured exit speeds) we found an increase of 1 mile per hour and just over 5 feet of distance. This …

We watched just about every 2018 College World Series plate appearance. This includes all the games up to the finals (to be played this week between Arkansas and Oregon State) and amounts to 980 documented plate appearances. We marked what BBCOR bat they were using and a number of other metrics abou …

Slow pitch softball, known for its yeti-shaped players and immobile third basemen, has produced a number of iconic bats. Among them, and maybe chiefly so, is the Miken ULTRA II softball bat. As a single piece composite, the bat’s post-break-in trampoline effect resembles the effect a spark has on je …

We’ve been asked more than a few times to compare the exit speeds of USA Bats and wood bats. We took up the challenge. Three different hitters of differing ability took over 300 swings with two competing bats. We measured the exit speeds on our Rapsodo device. Then, we compared to the 2019 Techzilla …

Over the past few tournaments, there has been yelling, drama, more yelling, followed by explanations and then bouts of disbelief. And that is just at the snack shack. The field, and backstop fence, has its own experience. See our 2019 USA Bat Reviews Much of this is caused by a mash-up of zealous pa …

NCAA 2020 Meta As of 2/21 the 2020 Lousiville Slugger Meta in a 33-inch has been decertified (made illegal) for NCAA play. High School (NFHS) 2020 Meta As well, on 3/2/2020, the 2020 Meta Prime in a 33-inch is also illegal for play in NFHS. That is, the 33-Meta is illegal in high school too. The 201 …

Little League International and PONY baseball changed the birthday cutoff from May 1st to August 31st. Within Little League this rule is gradually implemented starting from 2016 through 2019. PONY baseball implemented the change in 2018. See the official announcement via ESPN. Age Cutoff Following B …