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August 26, 2020 | by Brian Duryea | @BatDigest
We used HitTrax to compare the 2020 Baum Baum vs 2020 Louisville Slugger Meta
If you are a younger high school player that can use a composite or aluminum bat, we recommend the Meta in virtually every circumstance. The bat’s feel, barrel profile, and performance (although only marginally better) will be well worth it for the vast majority of high school baseball players. That recommendation assumes you are deciding between the Meta and the Baum. Of course, there are dozens of legit composite and aluminum options in the space.
That said, if you are playing in a wood-only league or would like a challenge for BP, practice, or winter workouts, the Baum is a great option. We know of no bat as indestructible and with as much resale value as the Baum.
We compared the Slugger Meta and the Baum bat. We found, after 30 hits with each bat, the Baum did better than the player thought it did. They were not happy with the feel of the bat, but the results were reliable. Still, though, the Meta outperformed on average exit velocity, after 30 hits, by about 1.5 miles per hour.
They didn’t like how the bat stings their hands and felt the sweet spot was small. But, in the end, the BBCOR standard appears to have leveled the playing field between the composite wood Baum and two-piece composite Slugger Meta.
The player we used is a 15-year-old player, 5 foot 9 inches, and one hundred fifty pounds. They play high school baseball and have played baseball for as long as they can remember.
NOTE: We’ve measured thousands of bats over the years. We’ve found, in large measure, bat results are very hitter dependent. Most comparisons we do are very, very close. The 1 or 2 mile per hour difference is hard to attribute only to the barrels performance. We think the hitter determines upwards of 70% of the exit speeds. The other 30% is the bat.
On a maximum velocity measurement, the Baum closed the gap even more. It hit 82.5 max and 83.3 between the Baum and Meta, respectively. The Baum’s performance, again, was a surprise to the player who was sure they did terrible with the Baum. But, in the end, the data don’t lie.
The greatest surprise when comparing the Baum and Slugger Meta is the swing weight. Initial impressions were the Baum, as a faux wood bat, swung heavy. But, when we measured the swing weight, we found the bat to swing surprisingly balanced when compared to the Slugger Meta. Both bats should be considered balanced swings.
The player loved the feel of the Meta. In fact, of all the bats the player had hit, they thought the Meta was the best. The Baum, with its small barrel profile and stiff feel, was not very well received. However, as we stated above, the results were very similar the player was surprised the Baum bat held its own when compared to the Meta.
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