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The 2020 Annual Report On
Last Updated November 9, 2020 by @BatDigest
We watched 450 of at-bats during the 2020 and 2019 season to see if we could better understand the usage rates of MLB Bat bat brands.
Specifically, we watched a random week within the season, opening day, the All Star Games and some play off games. Here’s what we looked at:
In this write-up we are going to share what we’ve discovered.
We watched every opening day 2020 game on July 23rd and 24th.
We also tracked what bats the starters used.
This graph represents what MLB Bats players used on opening day.
We also put that data into a table. Here are the results of bat brands as seen at the plate by rank and percentage.
| # | Brand | Plate Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marucci | 23.70% |
| 2 | Victus | 19.26% |
| 3 | Slugger | 16.67 |
| 4 | Old Hickory | 10.74% |
| 5 | Chandler | 9.26% |
| 6 | Sam Bat | 4.07% |
| 7 | Rawlings | 2.59% |
| 8 | Tucci | 2.22% |
| 9 | Max Bats | 1.85% |
| 9 | Trinity | 1.85% |
| 11 | Dove Tail Bats | 1.48% |
| 11 | B45 | 1.48% |
| 13 | Asics | 0.74% |
| 13 | Mizuno | 0.74% |
| 13 | SSK | 0.74% |
| 13 | Warstic | 0.74% |
| 17 | Axe | 0.37% |
| 17 | BWP | 0.37% |
| 17 | Cooperstown Bats | 0.37% |
| 17 | Dinger | 0.37% |
| 17 | Valma | 0.37% |
| 17 | Zinger | 0.37% |
2019 Regular Season Bats
During the 2019 regular season (a week in September) we measured bat usage by brand.
Here is what we found:
Marucci (28.83%) is the most common bat brand in MLB. Followed by Victus (18.36%), Louisville Slugger (13.67%), and Old Hickory (11.33%). Sam Bat, Chandler, and Rawlings are all between 5% and 10% market share.
Here’s the data above in table form.
| # | Brand | Plate Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marucci | 28.83% |
| 2 | Victus | 18.36% |
| 3 | Slugger | 13.67 |
| 4 | Old Hickory | 11.33% |
| 5 | Chandler | 5.47% |
| 6 | Sam Bat | 6.44% |
| 7 | Rawlings | 5.08% |
| 8 | Tucci | 3.88% |
| 9 | B45 | 3.13% |
| 10 | Warstic | 1.11% |
| 10 | Homewood | 1.11% |
| 12 | B45 | 0.74% |
| 12 | Zinger | 0.74% |
| 12 | SSK | 0.74% |
| 15 | Asics | 0.37% |
| 15 | Axe | 0.37% |
| 15 | BWP | 0.37% |
| 15 | Cooperstown Bats | 0.37% |
| 15 | Dove Tail Bats | 0.37% |
| 15 | Dinger Bats | 0.37% |
| 15 | DTB | 0.37% |
| 15 | Dinger | 0.37% |
| 15 | Max Bats | 0.37% |
| 15 | Valma | 0.37% |
We tracked the bats through the top of the order during game 5 in the 2020 World Series.
By brand, here is what we found.
| # | Brand | Plate Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victus | 29.4% |
| 2 | Marucci | 23.5% |
| 2 | Slugger | 23.5% |
| 4 | Chandler | 5.8% |
| 4 | Max Bats | 5.8% |
| 4 | Sam Bat | 5.8% |
| 4 | Trinity | 5.8% |
| Starting Order | Player | Brand |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mookie Bets | Victus |
| 2 | Cory Seager | Trinity |
| 3 | Justin Turner | Slugger |
| 4 | Max Muncy | Max Bats |
| 5 | Will Smith | Slugger |
| 6 | Cody Bellinger | Slugger |
| 7 | Chris Taylor | Victus |
| 8 | Joc Pderson | Sam Bat |
| 9 | Austin Barnes | Marucci |
| Starting Order | Player | Brand |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yandy Diaz | Marucci |
| 2 | Randy Arozarena | Chandler |
| 3 | Brandon Lowe | Marucci |
| 4 | Manuel Margot | Victus |
| 5 | Hunter Renfroe | Slugger |
| 6 | Joey Wendle | Victus |
| 7 | Willy Adames | Victus |
| 8 | Kevin Kiermaier | Marucci |
| 9 | Mike Zunino | Rawlings |
We also took the starting 18 from the 2019 MLB All-Star Game.
Here is a chart, consisting of brands, showing their bat usage.
We also broke down Major League Bat usage by league. Some notes:
We broke down MLB bat usage by the American League too. Some notes:
Last we counted, there are at least 34 MLB bat
brands approved by the MLB. Wood bat companies are approved by the MLB and then each
is put on a list given to clubhouse managers. There is no official document and a wood bat
company can be added at any time.
If you know of additional brands that are approved, please let us know in the comments section.
Here is a text list of MLB Baseball Bats
Sam Bat, Barry Bond’s choice, is a maple bat company out of Canada. They have decent penetration in the MLB market.
Barry Bonds made Sam Bats famous. He was the first to really commit to a full-on maple wood bat in the majors. Most, at the time, were using Ash bats. Today, over 90% of MLB bats at the plate are made from maple. They can thank Barry Bonds and Sam bat. Game-Used models of Barry Bonds have a size range of 34-inches and 31/33-ounces.
Barry Bonds bat is a maple wood bat from Sam Bats. In his younger days, he often used Slugger. But, once he switched the full-on maple from Sam Bat, he never looked back.
Bo’s go-to bat for most of his career was a Lousiville Slugger with a B016L, B310 or J93 model. The bat’s we most often natural finish. As was common for the era, most bats during Bo’s career were ash.
Bo Jackson’s bat is almost always Louisville Slugger. On the off occasion he would not use Slugger, in the early part of his career, it appears he always used Cooper. Most of his game use bats sized out at 35-inch and 32-ounces.
Earlier in his year, Bo Jackson used a bat brand called Cooper. He also wore their wrist bands for most of his career.
On opening day 2020, Bryce Harper looks at his Chandler bat before getting to the plate. Notice the white barrel, black handle and, if you look close enough, a Pro Hitter on his top thumb.
Bryce Harper most often uses either Victus or Chandler bats. The bats are most often 34-inches and weigh between 33 and 34 ounces. That said, Harper is known to try all types of bats too. He’s used Axe, Marucci, and a few teammates bats occasionally. For 2020, he appeared to prefer bats with a darker handle and white barrel. These are maple bats built for the best.
Bryce Harper’s Bat: a Victus with a white and black handle.
Early in his career, George Brett used a Louisville Slugger natural ash wood bat. He often used a model called the B351
George Brett’s Bat is a Slugger. Always has been. Most of his game-used models were in the 33-inch and 30-ounce range. It is very hard to find a George Brett Bat that is anything but natural finished Ashwood from Louisville Slugger.
Brett also loved pine tar. One of his most memorable moments is because he had too much pine tar on a bat.
Giancarlo Stanton’s Bat is a 34-inch Marucci maple. He has a custom version of the bat with a very flared knob. In fact, it’s hard to say it even has a knob. The bat is referred to as the G27 from Marucci.
Giancarlo Stanton uses a 34-inch bat that weighs, about 32.5 ounces. He is also very much a Marucci user. The Marucci bat he uses is most often black with gold or silver lettering.
During the playoffs of the 2020 seasion, Stanton still used a full black Marucci G27. Hard to say if he used anything else during the year. But, he used the same model and color scheme bat to start and end the year.
Honus Wagner used a huge Louisville Slugger bat. Upwards of 34 inches and 36 to 39 ounces.
Back when there was pretty much a single wood bat brand, Honus Wagner used a Louisville Slugger. Honus used a monster-sized bat. His game used bats, we found up for auction, ranged anywhere from 33.5 to 35 inches and about 39 ounces.
Slugger bats color schemes were pretty straight forward back then. But, Honus did have some design to his with a type of logo on the front of some of his Slugger bats. Some were darker than others, but the bats we’re pretty straight forward.
Ken Griffey’s bat during the all-star game was always the Louisville Slugger in, usually, a C271.
Ken Griffey Jrs Bat was, most often, a C271 in a Lousiville Slugger. He liked all black with a white grip tape zig-zag pattern on the handle. Most of his game used bats were 34/31 with a few measured at 33.75/31.0.
Ken Griffey liked pine tar. He also loved his athletic tape wrap in a criss-cross design. He was one of the first big league guys to put that sort of detail in his bat.
Kris Bryant’s Bat is a 34/31 Chandler maple Wood bat. Personally engraved and a customized turn of KB17 are found on most his sticks.
Kris Bryant’s bat is from Chandler. He uses a KB17 model that is 34-inches and around 31-ounces. He has some Victus game-used models floating around. But, for the 2020 season, it does not appear he used anything but Chandler. Although, again, we don’t watch every at-bat, just many.
He likes the Gold Chalder logo on a black color base bat. But, often, he also has a natural wood color and a two-tone occasionally too.
Opening day 2020, Mike Trout uses his trusty Old Hickory Maple. He preferred the black barrel and white handle in 2020.
Mike Trout’s Bat is an Old Hickory. He uses a 33.5 drop 1—meaning the bat weighs 32.5 ounces. It’s been quite a while since he’s used anything else. For 2020, he liked the black barrel and white handle more than the pure white one.
We didn’t see the pure white maple for Trout in 2020 very much. But, occasionally he’ll break out this pure white version of the 2020 Old Hickory.
Ozzie liked long Louisville Slugger Ash baseball bats.
Some of Ozzie Smith’s bats were 35 inches long and weighed around 32.5 ounces. Most of the auctions of these bats have them listed around 35 inches. He liked Ash bats and we can’t find him using anything that was but a Louisville Slugger. He tried a handful of models like the 27, R161 and S327.
Ozzie Smith used a number of models but always used a Louisville Slugger.
The Rawlings Adirondack is a legend. We’d love to see Rawlings push that guy back in the majors. In any event, it was the go to for Reggie Jackson.
Reggie Jackson’s Bat is a Rawlings Adirondack with a 35-inch length and 32-ounce weight. It’s a monster bat for a monster hitter. He liked a big bat and was one of a few that swung Rawlings during his era.
Every game used Rawlings Reggie Jackson Adirondack we could find is a huge 35-inch and 32-ounce big boy bat.
We track our data with our MLBtv Account. We watch each at bat and take a screen shot. You can see and confirm each of those images here. We then move that data to a spreadsheet where totals and averages are tabulated. You can access that data sheet here.
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Amazing article !!! Love it. Very useful.