Complete list of USAbat bats, including MSRP

[WailukuHeights]

What do you think it shaping up as the best "deal" of these? For a second year kid pitch 8-year-old, I was thinking maybe the 5150 at $119.99 (probably lower with discounts) would likely have a decent sweetspot, 2 5/8, and not need breaking in.

If you're going the 5150 route, I would suggest cheapbats.com @ $75.99 + shipping ($8 i think is what I paid), looks like they're selling quickly though as a lot of the sizes are already gone: https://www.cheapbats.com/shop/advan...words=5150+usa

I bought the 28/17 for my younger son (will be 8 in October). A little warning though, the "barrel" is short. Really short and tapers fairly quickly. My older son has the Quatro 29/19, pretty big difference in barrel length. I never saw a USA Velo in person, but compared to my older son's 2014, the Quatro is a bit longer (both 29").

My younger sons likes the 5150, but only because it's new. He's not much of a hitter, but he previously swung an Easton S1 (bought used) and there's a sizable performance difference as expected.

[JoeG]

What do you think it shaping up as the best "deal" of these? For a second year kid pitch 8-year-old, I was thinking maybe the 5150 at $119.99 (probably lower with discounts) would likely have a decent sweetspot, 2 5/8, and not need breaking in.

I've seen a lot of good things with single-piece aluminum Axe bats, though of course I haven't tested any with the USAbat logo yet. My guess is that Axe bats have the most to gain from this change for one-piece aluminum bats because they have the most value-add that isn't related to barrel elasticity. For example they now take advantage of the "one-sided-hitting" to lop off a bit of the bat at the end, which means their one-piece aluminum bats should theoretically be more balanced compared to other one-piece aluminum bats, and possibly with a bigger sweet spot. Of course, $129.99 isn't exactly cheap. Axe is coming out with some more bats in December, so it's worth keeping an eye out for what they come out with.

I know your kid is much bigger than average which opens up many possibilities for lower drop bats. I am very curious to see just how much of a difference there is between the inexpensive Easton S150 through S650 series of inexpensive one-piece Aluminum bats versus the more expensive one-piece aluminum bats. If the difference ends up being small, then there may be no reason to buy a more expensive one-piece aluminum bat that isn't Axe.

However - everything I say is speculation at this point. I have not yet laid eyes on any of the new bats, let alone seen kids swinging any. I'll be getting an Axe bat for my son soon and will have something more substantial to say a month or two from now after he's had a chance to swing it some.

[WailukuHeights]

I've seen a lot of good things with single-piece aluminum Axe bats, though of course I haven't tested any with the USAbat logo yet. My guess is that Axe bats have the most to gain from this change for one-piece aluminum bats because they have the most value-add that isn't related to barrel elasticity. For example they now take advantage of the "one-sided-hitting" to lop off a bit of the bat at the end, which means their one-piece aluminum bats should theoretically be more balanced compared to other one-piece aluminum bats, and possibly with a bigger sweet spot. Of course, $129.99 isn't exactly cheap. Axe is coming out with some more bats in December, so it's worth keeping an eye out for what they come out with.

I know your kid is much bigger than average which opens up many possibilities for lower drop bats. I am very curious to see just how much of a difference there is between the inexpensive Easton S150 through S650 series of inexpensive one-piece Aluminum bats versus the more expensive one-piece aluminum bats. If the difference ends up being small, then there may be no reason to buy a more expensive one-piece aluminum bat that isn't Axe.

However - everything I say is speculation at this point. I have not yet laid eyes on any of the new bats, let alone seen kids swinging any. I'll be getting an Axe bat for my son soon and will have something more substantial to say a month or two from now after he's had a chance to swing it some.

Joe, I had read your review on Axe on your blog. It definitely made me think.

One of our kids that traveled with us this past Summer swung an older Axe. We were surprised at the pop. He might have been the only kid in our rec league age group that had one.

[riot]

I sent an email to USA Baseball and to Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken (my kids affiliated leagues) asking for clarity regarding wood bats. I just sent it to their generic info@ email address, so who knows if it will be seen.

The Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken bat rules webpage has no mention at all regarding wood bats.

Heard back from USA Baseball.

Thanks for reaching out. Solid, one piece wood bats can be used with or without the USA Baseball mark. Multi-piece and composite wood bats will need to have the USA Baseball certification mark.

[JoeG]

Heard back from USA Baseball.

Thanks very sharing that info here.

Updated the list again today. Easton puts out more new bats per week than everyone combined. A bit of work to keep up with them.

[WailukuHeights]

Thanks very sharing that info here.

Updated the list again today. Easton puts out more new bats per week than everyone combined. A bit of work to keep up with them.

One of the kids on my son's coach pitch team brought an Easton Rebel (pretty sure that was the name, black bat with red lettering) to practice today, 28/18, 2 1/4" barrel, no end cap, USABat compliant. Seems like a repainted S150 or S250. I'll see if I can snap a pic of it on Wednesday and ask his mom where she bought it.

[JoeG]

One of the kids on my son's coach pitch team brought an Easton Rebel (pretty sure that was the name, black bat with red lettering) to practice today, 28/18, 2 1/4" barrel, no end cap, USABat compliant. Seems like a repainted S150 or S250. I'll see if I can snap a pic of it on Wednesday and ask his mom where she bought it.

Make sure it's USAbat. There is a USSSA bat by that name and description for sale in Target. If it's a USAbat, hopefully a photo will get the details on the model number.

[riot]

Make sure it's USAbat. There is a USSSA bat by that name and description for sale in Target. If it's a USAbat, hopefully a photo will get the details on the model number.

A couple of kids on my younger son's coach pitch team are using 2 1/4 in USA Bats. They were t-ball bats though.

[JoeG]

A couple of kids on my younger son's coach pitch team are using 2 1/4 in USA Bats. They were t-ball bats though.

At the swing speeds of 5-6 year olds, bat pop is irrelevant, so I doubt anyone will notice the change in standard at the T-ball level.

[WailukuHeights]

At the swing speeds of 5-6 year olds, bat pop is irrelevant, so I doubt anyone will noticed the change in standard at the T-ball level.

I think USA Baseball agrees with you since they allow owners of old teeball bats to just purchase the USABat sticker from them (@ $2 a piece) and just stick it on their old bat themselves.

[JoeG]

I spent a couple days compiling specs on all the bats currently available with the USAbat logo, as well as bats soon coming out for which I had some information. I posted the spreadsheet on my blog. The list can be viewed on the web using a desktop browser (but not a phone) or downloaded:

https://www.filterjoe.com/2017/09/08/complete-usabat-list/

Note that there is a list on the official USAbat site as well but it doesn't have as many columns of information, and after spending a number of painstaking hours checking everything, I believe the usabat's list is less accurate (i.e. Axe Bat T-ball bat information on usabat site is not accurate):

https://usabat.com/

Feedback on anything inaccurate is welcome (please include link to your information source).

I plan to maintain this list for at least a few months, perhaps longer. The more help I get, the longer I'll maintain the list.

Just updated the list for the first time in a few weeks. There was a lull in new bats coming to market but I become aware of a few others today. Still lots of missing/incomplete information because sometimes I just see the bat appear on the USAbat site but with incomplete information.

[Scrub]

Now that the USA bats have been out for a little while, has anyone here actually swung one yet? Any anecdotal evidence of performance (or lack thereof)? Worse than we thought? Not as bad as we thought? Dead logs? I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has gone the route of "early adopter."

[Vette74]

Now that the USA bats have been out for a little while, has anyone here actually swung one yet? Any anecdotal evidence of performance (or lack thereof)? Worse than we thought? Not as bad as we thought? Dead logs? I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has gone the route of "early adopter."

From my limited experience 2 kids on my fall LL team (ages 8 and 9) had easton ghost x and they were dead logs, one made good contact in a game and I was looking for the ball to land mid outfield and it still hit the back of the infield dirt. Another 8 year old on the travel ball team had an easton s750 and it seamed worked really well in the cage with 2 different kids. It is the 29" the 28" tapers completely different at the barrel. Also this bat appeared to be more end loaded.

[JoeG]

From my limited experience 2 kids on my fall LL team (ages 8 and 9) had easton ghost x and they were dead logs, one made good contact in a game and I was looking for the ball to land mid outfield and it still hit the back of the infield dirt. Another 8 year old on the travel ball team had an easton s750 and it seamed worked really well in the cage with 2 different kids. It is the 29" the 28" tapers completely different at the barrel. Also this bat appeared to be more end loaded.

My son now has an Axe Bat Element USAbat 31" drop 8. He has only done one half hour session of daddy easy pitch with it so this is really just a minimal first impression. We also used his previous bat to compare, and that bat was an Axe Bat 30" USSSA drop 10. Both of these are single piece aluminum. To some extent we were comparing whether he was big enough to wield the new bat (he's only 4' 10", 85 lbs).

I think he wasn't quite big enough for it. He hit a few just as far as he could with the USSSA drop 10, but had far more poor hits. Perhaps the sweet spot is a little smaller but I think more likely it's just that it was still a bit too long/heavy for him.

As for the pop though - I guess it's slightly less as a reasonable expectation is that a bigger/heavier bat should hit the ball a little further. It didn't. Biggest hits were about the same for the two bats - both about 180' - 190'.

So best guess at this point is that it's has slightly less pop and slightly smaller sweet spot.

[mdgaw1988]

Now that the USA bats have been out for a little while, has anyone here actually swung one yet? Any anecdotal evidence of performance (or lack thereof)? Worse than we thought? Not as bad as we thought? Dead logs? I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has gone the route of "early adopter."

New Louisville Slugger Omaha is supposed to arrive later this week. My son excited to try out. He's got the old non-USA Bat model, too (same length/weight), so will be a good comparison. Will report back.