College Baseball

[dacbrewers]

Any chance College Baseball goes to wooden bats only in the near future?

[jerichoholicninja]

I can't believe they haven't yet. A pitcher is going to be killed sooner or later. When I played in college one of our pitchers took a line drive to the chest. No one had any clue where the ball was. All you heard was the ping and our pitcher was on the ground and the ball was rolling down the third base line. They took him in an ambulance and the ER doc told him it very well could have killed him.

[MrTPlush]

We're your college days pre BBCOR or post BBCOR. Because if prior your experience wouldn't be as legitimate as it is now. Metal bats still trump wooden bats, but not as much as they used to. What is the reason college don't opt for wooden? Cost I would imagine?

[Humans Need Water]

Wood bats are legal in college but nobody is going to swing them. Cost is the major factor here. Between all levels of college baseball there's an absurd amount of teams and every player has their own bat. And they only need 1 bat. These guys miss the barrel a lot and would shatter plenty of wood bats. Metal bats retail for $350-400 typically with pro quality wood bats around $130-160 depending on the manufacturer and type - ash, birch or maple (ink dot test).

 

There are composite wood bats - Baum Bat being the classic original full length and Demarini with a composite handle but wood barrel. They retail from $150-220. I could see these type of bats in college but not traditional wood.

 

Pre-BBCOR the exit velocity off the barrel between wood and metal was greater but relatively negligible and the separation is even closer today. The overall numbers for exit velocity are skewed greatly toward metal being greater because the off-barrel mishits result in a greater exit velocity than wood due to the slightly larger sweet spot, trampoline effect and durability of metal. I remember bringing a game used, slightly cracked Reggie Sanders bat to college practice one day and a handful of us swung it. Everyone hit that bat harder and farther than our metal bats.

[pacopete4]