Disclaimer: This site uses affiliate links. Learn More.
Disclaimer: This site uses affiliate links. Learn More.
By Bat Digest | Last Updated June 15, 2022
After several hours in the cage and consuming copious research on player feedback for the 2017 Rawlings Quatro Fastpitch bat, we present our review.
On the whole, we rank Rawlings’ first four-piece bat among the elite fastpitch bats in the space. The bat’s balanced feel and big barrel will get a lot of likes at the register and at the dish. As a drop 9 and drop 10 option only, we expect it to find good uptake in the elite player, base hitter type, market.
As we mention above, the two piece composite balanced swinging fastpitch space is remarkably packed. In the drop 9 and drop 10 niche, the LXT and XENO from Slugger, as well as the MAKO from Easton and the CF9 from DeMarini, are top notch crafts. If you are in the market and have a budget for a performance two piece fastpitch with a balanced swing, then any of those should be on the short list.
If we were forced to choose an unrelated twin to the fastpitch Quatro, it would likely be the LXT Hyper from Slugger. Both focus on a lot of flex in the handle at the transition for an ultra smooth feel.
The drop 9 and drop 10 also come in different sizes, so beware of which one you are purchasing.
The Fastpitch Quatro may be the bat with the most technological advancements in the space. It is officially a four piece bat and the first of its kind. We cover the four pieces in depth within our Rawlings Quatro baseball bat review. Here, we give a good overview.
The Quatro’s handle is a composite material made with a decent amount of flex. This flex, mind you, does not happen during the swing, but instead, at contact. As such, hits feel smooth, even when they are not. This tends to dampen sting on mishits. It also removes some power in the heavier drops—which is likely why this bat is not released in a drop 8 at all.
The Quatro’s barrel is a composite material made with maximum size (2 1/4), and is as long of a barrel as anyone else’s on the market.
Around the connection point of the barrel and handle sits a composite collar. This collar helps dampen sting and keep the vibration of the barrel out of the handle. Such technology, which a few bats like the XENO put on the inside of the bat, gives an ultra smooth feeling hit and keeps enough stiffness in the transition to deliver big hits.
Most unique to the Quatro design is the extended inner barrel on the end of the barrel. This addition keeps the integrity and durability of the bat while creating a hot out of the wrapper experience of the outer shell. A few fastpitch bats have used a dual wall system in the past, but none have focused it solely towards the end cap. Surprisingly, this addition does not effect the overall swing weight of the bat too noticeably.
The overall rating uses seven different weighted metrics to determine our overall score. Half of total rating comes from the player and our exit speed tests (Player Rating: 25%, Performance: 25%).The other categories are Relevance (20%), Demand (10%), Durability (10%), Resell Score (5%), and Tech Specs (5%).
*: When a bat is denoted by a star (*) it is a preliminary rating. Expect it to be updated as we learn more about the bat and gather more data.
(PlaRa) Player Rating: We measure player rating from user reviews. Those users include our own hitters that we test at the lab as well as reviews we find online.
(ExVe) Performance: Performance measures the exit speeds and distances we capture in our hitting lab with HitTrax using these bats.
(Relv) Relevance: We measure the number of sizes and the MOI of the bat. Bats with a wider range of options get a better score.
(Dmnd) Demand: Demand is measured by consumer sentiment and the buzz around the bat.
(Drb) Durability: A bat’s durability is measured by user reviews as well as feedback from manufacturers.
(ReSl) Resell Score: Based on the price the bats go for used. Higher prices mean greater user demand which means, generally, a better bat. A resell value closer to its original price means a higher score.
(Tech) Tech Specs: We rate the bat on its technological advancements from previous years and compared to the industry at large. This is our chance to reward companies who are trying to innovate.
MOI
MOI or Mass Moment of Inertia is a measurement of bat swing weight. This quantifies how difficult it is to swing a bat. The industry often refers to this as things like End Load or Balanced but those words have been overused to the point of meaninglessness. We measure the actual swing weights of each bat we test using the industry-standard pendulum period, balance point, and scale weight. You can read more about that here.
Price
The price is the original MSRP price of the bat.
Type
The types of bats are single-piece alloy (SPA), two-piece composite (TPC), single-piece composite (SPC), hybrid (Hyb.), and wood (Wood). Hybrid bats are made of composite handles and alloy barrles.
Date
The estimated date the bat began distribution.
Just Bat Reviews, LLC DBA Bat Digest participate in affiliate marketing programs including but not limited to Amazon and eBay. We most likely earn a comission from companies we link to on this site.
© 2023. Just Bat Reviews, LLC DBA Bat Digest Company.