Why are wood bats rarely used by High School players?

[sparkny2]

There are/were states who don’t allow wood bats due to the safety issue of flying broken bat pieces.

They should allow bamboo

[pattar]

Maybe the bp thrower was told to throw hard stuff in from 40 feet to make a point to the hitter.

It is certainly possible..as is the possibility that the guy was exaggerating to make a point ; )

[sparkny2]

Understood. This is why I've been checking eBay daily to see if I can get a 30" Solo 617 at a good price at some point (hopefully soon!).

He does actually have a drop 5, 2 1/4" bat which is about as easy for him to swing as his drop 8 USAbat. He uses it in batting practice a bit. However, it's not legal for use in BBCOR settings because only the barrel was made from a single piece of wood.

I was able to get a 30/27 5150 for about $75 during the off season (late fall) after my kid completed 11U. He used it as a overload trainer during the winter and used it for summer 12U when he guest played on a 13U team. Phoenix bats sells drop 8 wood that is balanced. They have sales during the major holidays, with our holiday coming up there should be a deal. Beaver bats a local company near me makes pretty good wood bats they supply to the local MiLB team. As a disclaimer, my 13u kid claims his beaver bat is dead, but I suspect he is trying convince me to buy him a $150 Marucci, but my wallet and more importantly my wife says NO!

[sparkny2]

But the OP was talking about high school, not travel ball. Schools still have to provide some gear; especially the smaller schools that already have no budget.

On a related note, we've done several wood bat tournaments over the years. I've never seen one that didn't include a handful of broken bats. But I've only seen 1 or 2 aluminum bats broken in that time. And all of those had a very long life.

But this little trip down memory lane reminded me of a fun (not at the time) memory from 4 years ago; his 3rd broken bat. Marucci decided to replace this one because of the way it broke. They didn't have to. We didn't buy the insurance. Good customer service.

Yeah kinda hard to dispute very clear video evidence of a bat breaking from a hit on the barrel. You were fortunate to have a good camera attached to a wonderful piece of tech that firmly holds it to the backstop to capture such a great view.

[The Flush]

We played our first 14U wood bat tourney a couple weeks ago and only broke one bat. We did however create a minor controversy when we questioned an opponents use of a bamboo bat which made them forfeit the game (that we were leading 1-0 in the top of the 6th with 2 outs when their cleanup hitter got a hit to put runners on 1st and 2nd). Email from the TD clearly said no bamboo bats, but apparently our coach was the only one to read it because the 2 teams playing after us were scrambling to find enough wood bats for their game. Some coaches tried to argue that bamboo is wood, but it is not. It is a grass and a bamboo bat is a composite bat. We ended up beating the same team in bracket play the next day anyway, but only after their coach accused us of cheating for calling them out for cheating.

[skipper5]

Given the greater flexibility of wood bats, why are they so rarely used in High School?

It's so rare because BBCOR-metal provides superior performance (in the hands of most batters).

Therefore, if a batter lobbied his coach to be allowed to swing wood, he would be perceived as being cocky and/or unconcerned about the team.

This scenario occurred at a nearby HS a few years ago. When he almost hit a ball over an outfielder's head, everybody was thinking: With a metal bat it would have gone over the OF's head.

[skipper5]

FWIW, last summer my 18u team broke 20 bats in 30 games.
5 batters broke none.
3 batters broke one.
3 batters broke two.
1 batter broke three
2 batters broke four.

[skipper5]

There are/were states who don’t allow wood bats due to the safety issue of flying broken bat pieces.

Rationally, those states should ban maple, and allow ash, which seldom separate into pieces when they break.

I've coached over 400 woodbat games and can't remember an ash bat that separated when it broke.

OTOH, I have CRS.

[Tman]

Cost more due to breakage. Less customizable. Smaller sweet spot.

[Tman]

We played our first 14U wood bat tourney a couple weeks ago and only broke one bat. We did however create a minor controversy when we questioned an opponents use of a bamboo bat which made them forfeit the game (that we were leading 1-0 in the top of the 6th with 2 outs when their cleanup hitter got a hit to put runners on 1st and 2nd). Email from the TD clearly said no bamboo bats, but apparently our coach was the only one to read it because the 2 teams playing after us were scrambling to find enough wood bats for their game. Some coaches tried to argue that bamboo is wood, but it is not. It is a grass and a bamboo bat is a composite bat. We ended up beating the same team in bracket play the next day anyway, but only after their coach accused us of cheating for calling them out for cheating.

Indeed, bamboo bats are composites. However, it's something that the wood bat leagues should maybe consider allowing one day to reduce expenses as they tend to not break as easily and I believe generally meet the same performance standards.

[JoeG]

I was able to get a 30/27 5150 for about $75 during the off season (late fall) after my kid completed 11U. He used it as a overload trainer during the winter and used it for summer 12U when he guest played on a 13U team. Phoenix bats sells drop 8 wood that is balanced. They have sales during the major holidays, with our holiday coming up there should be a deal. Beaver bats a local company near me makes pretty good wood bats they supply to the local MiLB team. As a disclaimer, my 13u kid claims his beaver bat is dead, but I suspect he is trying convince me to buy him a $150 Marucci, but my wallet and more importantly my wife says NO!

The K240 drop 7 seems pretty interesting at Phoenix bats. Do you have experience with it (or have seen someone else use it)?

[JettSixty]

They should allow bamboo

Many tournaments do not allow bamboo since it is not wood. Bamboo is grass. But it’s compressed to a level that is denser than wood.

[JettSixty]

My son broke two bats per summer in 40-50 games. I had kids who were breaking a bat every weekend. I bought him LS C243’s. They were very close in shape, grip and balance to his ExoGrid.

[omg]

Composite wood bats, as skip pointed out, rarely if ever break. They cost between 50-150, are made of maple generally and, I believe, are legal or were legal in rookie and short season A ball. Demarini and Brett are two of my favorites but there are other good ones out there. If high school or college adopted them the price would come down.

BBCOR is good though I would prefer wood. Even with wood I'm sure folks would figure out how to juice them.

[skipper5]

Many tournaments do not allow bamboo since it is not wood. Bamboo is grass. But it’s compressed to a level that is denser than wood.

A baseball is a conprressed ball of yarn. It doesn't notice differences in surface hardness of a bat.

How do I know that? Because I'm declaring it to be true.