College Baseball:Aluminum Or Wood?

[southbaysucker]

Came across an interesting article on the plane last night.
paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/NCAA-stats.html

This debate will never go away. In some states, mostly in the Northeast , they have already banned the use of aluminum bats in high schools for safety reasons. Here in California, like legislation is being drafted and discussed at state level.

But I digress, we are focusing on performance at the college level. Does the use of those weapons adversely change the college game? You should tell by my tone that I am one that think it does.

"The College Game" and Pro ball have never looked and played so differently. I will argue in many ways "the College game" is looking more like and being played like softball..And the reason is the bats. Pitchers -Sans Strausfreak-have to pitch away from contact and often are asked to make guys swing and miss to get outs. That's a lot of pitches, A lot of stress and a lot of time.
hitters obviously benefit. I mean making contact will more than likely produce a hit. Seen way too many 17 hit-15 singles Aztec games this year , way too many. I would bet more than half of those hits would be eliminated with wood..

I realize that I am more of a purist and that a well played 4-3 game in around two hours may not be for everyone , but now seems to be the time for a transition. I think people , especially college fans , over the long ball era.. I think fans would come to see these games especially since more than likely they wont be four hour affairs!!! what do you think?

[AztecBill]

Jul 29, 2010 12:34:45 GMT -8 southbaysucker said:

Came across an interesting article on the plane last night.
paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/NCAA-stats.html

This debate will never go away. In some states, mostly in the Northeast , they have already banned the use of aluminum bats in high schools for safety reasons. Here in California, like legislation is being drafted and discussed at state level.

But I digress, we are focusing on performance at the college level. Does the use of those weapons adversely change the college game? You should tell by my tone that I am one that think it does.

"The College Game" and Pro ball have never looked and played so differently. I will argue in many ways "the College game" is looking more like and being played like softball..And the reason is the bats. Pitchers -Sans Strausfreak-have to pitch away from contact and often are asked to make guys swing and miss to get outs. That's a lot of pitches, A lot of stress and a lot of time.
hitters obviously benefit. I mean making contact will more than likely produce a hit. Seen way too many 17 hit-15 singles Aztec games this year , way too many. I would bet more than half of those hits would be eliminated with wood..

I realize that I am more of a purist and that a well played 4-3 game in around two hours may not be for everyone , but now seems to be the time for a transition. I think people , especially college fans , over the long ball era.. I think fans would come to see these games especially since more than likely they wont be four hour affairs!!! what do you think?

Using wood bats would be very expensive.

[joshjones1]

Jul 30, 2010 9:58:52 GMT -8 AztecBill said:

Jul 29, 2010 12:34:45 GMT -8 southbaysucker said:

Came across an interesting article on the plane last night.
paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/NCAA-stats.html

This debate will never go away. In some states, mostly in the Northeast , they have already banned the use of aluminum bats in high schools for safety reasons. Here in California, like legislation is being drafted and discussed at state level.

But I digress, we are focusing on performance at the college level. Does the use of those weapons adversely change the college game? You should tell by my tone that I am one that think it does.

"The College Game" and Pro ball have never looked and played so differently. I will argue in many ways "the College game" is looking more like and being played like softball..And the reason is the bats. Pitchers -Sans Strausfreak-have to pitch away from contact and often are asked to make guys swing and miss to get outs. That's a lot of pitches, A lot of stress and a lot of time.
hitters obviously benefit. I mean making contact will more than likely produce a hit. Seen way too many 17 hit-15 singles Aztec games this year , way too many. I would bet more than half of those hits would be eliminated with wood..

I realize that I am more of a purist and that a well played 4-3 game in around two hours may not be for everyone , but now seems to be the time for a transition. I think people , especially college fans , over the long ball era.. I think fans would come to see these games especially since more than likely they wont be four hour affairs!!! what do you think?

Using wood bats would be very expensive.

Exactly right. Sure, sponsorships are likely......but I have seen articles where college coaches flat out say the program couldn't afford the cost of a season of wood bats. Maybe at an LSU, Texas, or whatever.....but not everywhere.

[joshjones1]

Jul 29, 2010 12:34:45 GMT -8 southbaysucker said:

Came across an interesting article on the plane last night.
paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/NCAA-stats.html

This debate will never go away. In some states, mostly in the Northeast , they have already banned the use of aluminum bats in high schools for safety reasons. Here in California, like legislation is being drafted and discussed at state level.

But I digress, we are focusing on performance at the college level. Does the use of those weapons adversely change the college game? You should tell by my tone that I am one that think it does.

"The College Game" and Pro ball have never looked and played so differently. I will argue in many ways "the College game" is looking more like and being played like softball..And the reason is the bats. Pitchers -Sans Strausfreak-have to pitch away from contact and often are asked to make guys swing and miss to get outs. That's a lot of pitches, A lot of stress and a lot of time.
hitters obviously benefit. I mean making contact will more than likely produce a hit. Seen way too many 17 hit-15 singles Aztec games this year , way too many. I would bet more than half of those hits would be eliminated with wood..

I realize that I am more of a purist and that a well played 4-3 game in around two hours may not be for everyone , but now seems to be the time for a transition. I think people , especially college fans , over the long ball era.. I think fans would come to see these games especially since more than likely they wont be four hour affairs!!! what do you think?

Don't expect too many high school leagues to ban aluminum. Too expensive to go to wood.

As for the purity...I say nonsense. It's ONLY the pros that use wood. Little league through high school, and on to college all use aluminum.

We grow up on it as kids.

Sure, there are dangers, but also with wood bats. In any sport, there is risk of injury.

[joshjones1]

Unless Major League Baseball ever made a decision to say, ‘We’re going to underwrite college baseball,’ I don’t think it (wood bats) will happen.”— South Carolina coach Ray Tanner.


rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/baseball/news?slug=ap-aluminumorwood-quotes

“It’s all financial. When you start talking about what bats, there’s probably several mid-major and smaller programs around the country that can’t afford to have wood bats.”—Texas A&M coach Rob Childress

[gettough]

I'm sure the finances are a big part of it, but I don't get it.
Metal bats are about $450-500 or more and last a season.
Wood bats are about $85-100. They break, but can't you but 5 wood for the cost of 1 metal?

Someone who gets the economics, clue me in, please.

[1lefty]

This is a great topic! I am in total agreement that HS and college should go to wood bat. The metal bat game is totally different than wood.

The cost issue that folks bring up is an excuse in my mind. If you can buy a $400 metal bat, then you can buy 10 $40 wood bats. Approximately.

Safety is a concern also. With wood you do not have the ricochet effect from metal. I have seen to many kids injured in my day.

Wood is the way the game was planned to be played, plus I cannot stand the sound of a metal bat vs. the crack of wood. Best sound in the world!

Lefty out...

[Deleted]

This will become a non-issue once the aluminum bat industry invents a product off which the ball doesn't carry any differently than with wood. I've heard they're in the development stage since necessity is the mother of invention (i.e., get it done or risk losing market share) and that it's just a matter of time.

[joshjones1]

Jul 30, 2010 10:27:51 GMT -8 gettough said:

I'm sure the finances are a big part of it, but I don't get it.
Metal bats are about $450-500 or more and last a season.
Wood bats are about $85-100. They break, but can't you but 5 wood for the cost of 1 metal?

Someone who gets the economics, clue me in, please.

Makes sense. I am sure between what you say, and sponsorships, it's more than doable. I just quote mutiple respected coaches who factor in the expense.

And, as always when you're talking about the NCAA...there's the factor of politics/special interest dollars. TPX and the aluminum industry has lucrative advertising and supply deals with the NCAA and moving them aside isn't so easy I am sure.

And then there's the fact that there are multiple wood types being used nowadays, such as maple (Barry Bonds preferred choice), and others that are growingly expensive.

[azterick]

More and more young players are using wood bats. They use them to practice with and many play in wood bat only tournaments. There are some high school leagues and JC leagues that use only wood. My son has a bat made of bamboo. This stuff grows quickly and is inexpensive. It has a little different feel that some woods, but it's a viable option for youth baseball.

[1lefty]

I concurr with Rick. The kids seem to like wood bats, especially now that maple is out there. My son's play HS and college ball. All of the HS BP is with wood, games they swing metal. My college son plays in a summer college league which is all wood. His regular season they swing metal.

I see a trend where more and more leagues will make the swith to wood.

[cvbigguy]

from college on it should be all wood. this would take out a lot of the guessing out of the draft. either you can hit with wood or you can't. no middle of the road here.
if you replaced the metal with wood then you would not need a time clock as games would go quick. i remember getting ready for little league back in the day with my wood bat and my chicken leg bone rubbing the bat to break down the wood to make the bat harder. if you ain't cheating you ain't tryin....
cv out

[azterick]

Jobu would be happy.

[Bob Forsythe]

When I played Little League we only used wood bats and when I went to SDSU the helmets were bright red instead of the color they have now that the players like but I hate. So of course I'm in favor of wood bats because that's the way it was when I was young!

<sarcasm alert> for those who aren't bright enough to figure it out.

=Bob

[jdaztec]

wood bats would be much safer and they should be underwritten by major league baseball.

[William L. Rupp]

I have been trying of late to keep tabs on whether threads are posted in the appropriate section of AztecMesa. This one is just too general a topic to be under the Aztec sports heading; therefore I moved it here.

WLR

[AztecWilliam]

There is another alternative. . . composite bats. Seems to me that a few years ago there was talk of this type possibly becoming popular. However, right now they have been banned by the NCAA. Here is the Wikipedia article on composite bats.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_baseball_bat

(Talk about irony! Notice in the Wikipedia article that some players seem to think that a metallic "ping" is the noise a baseball bat should make! Ty, Babe, Lou, Joltin' Joe, and Teddy Ballgame must be turning over in their graves! :

AzWm

[southbaysucker]

Aztecwilliam the composites that have been banned are the graphite bats.. there have been wooden "composites" and in some minor leagues the "Baum" bat has been a standard. The cost of such bats are higher than reg wood bats (additonal 20 30 bucks) but substantially cheaper than the weapons college kids swing now!( we are talking 130 vs 400plus) I think based on this board, talking with players and coaches and definitely scouts,that all involved in the game would prefer to go away from the aluminum .
additionally, there is a a small but very loud and powerful group to ban the aluminums all together.. reaction time issues.Wont get into all of that, but if you look even as far down as little league, the game is influence heavily by bats/technology. Playing inf at that level is obsolete.. The true battle is the bat companies and the dreaded bottom line..

[1lefty]

My son play JC ball in town. He just heard that they will be going to wood bat this season or next. Sounds like it is a done deal. The wood wave is coming...