Purchasing Wood bats

QJensen · Grand Poobah

Purchasing Wood bats

KegHead · Two Star Guru

Anaconda came out with their own brand, Trump bats couple years ago. The guy I order thru is Nate (x 216) but I know the H'Birds have a brother-in-law or similar that works there as well. I picked up a couple for other guys, and the pro maples were $55 (on web site as $70), but he will probably go lower if you order a bunch.

Personally I use the Nokona Rock Maple, which I get for $60 ($6.95 flat shipping no matter how many you order) from a site in Kansas. I tried 5 maples and found these to feel the best to me. The web site is Don Morton Sports, http://www.ballgloves.com

I know some guys use Hickory and other woods, and I know some guys who get personalized bats. If anyone is around, there will probably be 60 replies by Monday.

Big thing to keep in mind is the barrel type - most popular are:
110 - thicker handle, balanced throughout - gives you the most bat speed
271 - medium handle, thicker barrel, good middle of the road
243 - thin handle, thick barrel, gives you the most whip

I typically use the 243, but put that away quickly in Puerto Rico when the guys were throwing major gas and used my 110 the rest of the tourney.

Tommy Smith

Lexter10 · Two Star Guru

go to MAXBATS.com you will se a list of several different bats and their description, they have packages of bats as well I used a Max Bat for 3 years 2 leagues and it broke on inside fastball by Louenella this past play off season, thats alot of games
what i like is you can design the bat and you can get the weight you want and it give you a detail on each of the bats so If guys want to swing for power it tells you what bats are the rigth kind and for base hit hitters as well etc etc cost about 70.00 made of Maple
Lex

Lexter10 · Two Star Guru

plus you can get the handle width the way you want it also the knob as well it is a real good site and great information

mhart · Three Star Guru

i'm not too thrilled with the bat selection in stores around here, but i'm also wary of going to an online site. i like being able to swing a bat before i buy one.

unfortunately, that's not foolproof, either. goldstocks on freeman's bridge road in scotia has one of the better bat selections around and they let you go outdoors to the parking lot and swing bats. i've bought bats from them since about 2000. so this summer i bought a thin-handled, light maple easton, which seemed to have a real good whipping action when i tried it out. but an hour later, when my friend al hart threw me some pitches at collins park, i found that the bat stung my hands nearly every time i hit the ball. and when i did hit it on the sweet spot the bat was so light on heft that the ball hardly traveled. that was a $65 loss.

so swinging the bat isn't enough either. only way to really tell is to take a bat to bp or play a game with it. i don't know any batmaker who'll let you do that.

which means i'm considering an online purchase. been looking for a few weeks. so far, hittingworld.com appears to be a site with a lot of offerings: they sell many of the bats on the market in various woods (ash, maple, birch) - and they sell many at the same prices that the home companies advertise. they also sell a variety of training aids like pitching and batting machines.

fortunately, it's not february, so i don't have to order now. when i do, i'll go slow, probably, one bat at a time. see if it stings to sock a snowball.

-mike

fyi: a great web site with tons of bat information - including a directory of about 65 batmakers in the u.s. that has listings of the bats they make and where to buy them - is baseball-bats.net. the site also has neat histories on batmaking. -m

-- Edited by mhart on Friday 18th of September 2009 10:48:48 PM

-- Edited by mhart on Friday 18th of September 2009 10:55:35 PM

QJensen · Grand Poobah

Thanks Guys for some great info. I will relay the info to my guys in the 25 division.

Lexter10 · Two Star Guru

Maxbats also has a list of hundreds of Major league players who use their bat, they even show game pics of the players using the bats, I had alot of success using the max bat and I have tried many others they just seem to be very durable and b eing hard maple the ball flys off it, I like how the give full detail of each bat and how each bat is for what type of baseball player, whether a home run hitter who takes huge swings or a gap line drive hitter either way i am sure you can gain knowledge before you make any purchases good luck and I will hav eto take a look at the other site as well thanks

jreel · Grand Poobah

Johnson Bats out of Maine. custom made AND shipped for around $40. heavier but more durable. he does not kiln dry. what mattered to me was durablitiy and good wood grain. weight was not my first priority. durabilty comes from good wood and most likely a thick handle. most of you have grown accustomed to metal and those extra thin handles. and take that preference into wood bats. And pay for it with multi-purchases in one season. if you aren't a long ball hitter with metal you won't be with wood. and the rebound area on the metal is huge compared to the sweet spot on wood. the flex in wood no way compares to the rebound in metal so every player has to also make a conscious decsion to learn to hit that smaller sweet spot, or accept getting less hits ....or expand the sweet spot with a thicker handle....and get less broken wood in the deal. Lenny Fox you read me?

The_Hurricane · Grand Poobah

I bought two Birch bats from the Barnstable Bat Company before the start of the 2008 season in the 35's. So far, I have only used one of the two and I also shared that bat with other players on the team. The bat has actually become stronger over time - it's actually the nature of birch wood. The more it's used (i.e. the more contact you make) the wood compresses and becomes even more stable.

There's a great study out there regarding the benefits of birch over ash and maple (the two primary wood sources for bats) here. The B45 bat company was invited onto XM-175 (MLB Homeplate) for a great interview involving bats now that MLB is studying maple with the proposition of banning the use of maple.

In my opinion, birch is the way to go.

I purchased my bats for $130 ($65 apiece) and he will ship to anywhere and personalize the bats as well. Link to the Barnsatable Bat Company is here. He hand-makes all of his bats in the basement of his house. He's also the official bat supplier of the Cape Cod Baseball League (because he's actually located on Cape Cod). He does claim to offer reduced prices for bulk orders but asks that you either e-mail or call for pricing. Jose Moreno of the Braves also uses Barnstable Bat Company bats and loves them.

Even if you decide not to use Barnstable Bat Company, I urge you to do your homework and read up on the studies of birch bats.

QJensen · Grand Poobah

Thanks guys. I will do some research of my own as well.

Thanks for all your help.