USA Baseball Bat Weight Help

Aaron,

The ADV Drop 11 360 does swing lighter, but not by much when compared to the Prime. He might be able to tell the difference, but it will be, if anything, slight. That said, as he’s growing this year, the drop 11 ADV in a 28/17 might sense as, if anything, it won’t be any more substantial.  We also think it will outperform the Prime.

Thanks for the question, we get it a lot. Here are the swing weights for the USA Bats for 2020.

As you can see, the Drop 11 USA ADV 360 from Easton swings as massive as several other drop ten bats.

Drops are Almost Pointless

We’ve measured swing weights for some time and found the drops on bats to be, at best, suggestions. Many drop 10’s swing like drop 8’s, and any given drop-ten-bat could be a good 10 to 15% heavier or lighter than another drop 10.

Drop weights—although an industry standard to categorize bats–feel pointless. Even still, bat companies continue to publish drops, and certification bodies continue to require bats fit in a particular category.

Caveat: USA Bat Swing Weight Translations

We have access to and measured the swing weights of the 31-inch USA Bats. In theory, those relationships translate to the 28-inch version as well. That is, we expect the 28/18 Prime to swing a tiny bit heavier than the 28/17 ADV 360.

However, we should note, companies are not required to follow a specific progression in swing weight as they change their bat’s length. In other words, we can’t know for sure that the 28/18 Prime swings a bit heavier than the 28/17 without actually getting the bat and measuring it.

As you might imagine, doing every bat is quite cost-prohibitive for us. Still, we are confident the 31-inch USA bat swing weights above are good indicators of how the 28’s swing too.