Article on maple bats

[jdawgsenior]

Baseball at breaking point over maple bats - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

It would be great to see baseball actually do something about this, instead of merely talk about it.

[1998 Yankees]

Interesting article. Until I read this, I thought it was just the thinner handles that accounted for all the shattered bats that we see these days. This is dangerous; I've been wondering when somebody was going to get hurt.

Someone’s going to die at a baseball stadium soon.

Sounds ominous.

[Cryomaniac]

I dunno why they don't just use Aluminium bats and get over it =/.

[Erik W.]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

I dunno why they don't just use Aluminium bats and get over it =/.

600 ft home runs and 150 mph line drives at pitchers. That pretty much sums it up.

[spark240]

Since I have no basis for believing otherwise, I will accept the assertion that ash and maple bats of equal dimensions break differently; "ash bats crack while maple bats snap."

But it seems to me that bats can be made to break a lot loss frequently, regardless of wood type, if the handles are thicker. There are maximums for bat size and weight; it's time to introduce some minimums.

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

I dunno why they don't just use Aluminium bats and get over it =/.

Are you joking? Please say you are.

[koohead]

I'd be very interested to read the details of the U Mass study where they concluded ash and maple generated the same ball speed. This had to have been tested many times. isn't that enough to convince players? I know players are very superstituous but if the result is the same the MLBPA and MLB need to come to an agreement before someone really does get critically injured.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

Are you joking? Please say you are.

I will say, I wasn't being 100% serious, but it would stop the bats breaking.

[Elendil]

Maple is a notoriously flimsy wood. Maybe they should start making bats out of ironwood or black walnut.

[Splitter24]

Originally Posted by koohead

I'd be very interested to read the details of the U Mass study where they concluded ash and maple generated the same ball speed. This had to have been tested many times. isn't that enough to convince players? I know players are very superstituous but if the result is the same the MLBPA and MLB need to come to an agreement before someone really does get critically injured.

The reason why people choose maple over ash has zero to do with bat speed. It's because maple is harder than ash. A harder object striking a baseball at the same speed is going to hit the ball farther. Now the difference in distance might not be enough to make all that much of a difference. I don't know. I'm not a scientist. But I do know that when a hard object breaks, it sometimes has a tendency to shatter, whether it's a rock, a glass or a maple bat.

I use maple bats myself. I've used them for 8 years. Only once have I had one shatter with the barrell flying out onto the field. Maybe it's because I don't have major league bat speed. Mostly they just crack like any other bat.

[Elendil]

Originally Posted by Splitter24

The reason why people choose maple over ash has zero to do with bat speed. It's because maple is harder than ash. A harder object striking a baseball at the same speed is going to hit the ball farther. Now the difference in distance might not be enough to make all that much of a difference. I don't know. I'm not a scientist. But I do know that when a hard object breaks, it sometimes has a tendency to shatter, whether it's a rock, a glass or a maple bat.

I use maple bats myself. I've used them for 8 years. Only once have I had one shatter with the barrell flying out onto the field. Maybe it's because I don't have major league bat speed. Mostly they just crack like any other bat.

The study was about ball speed, not bat.

[Splitter24]

Originally Posted by Elendil

The study was about ball speed, not bat.

Never mind then.

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Erik W.

600 ft home runs and 150 mph line drives at pitchers. That pretty much sums it up.

If you use unregulated aluminum bats, sure. The technology certainly exists to make bats of aluminum, or ceramic, or wood or even some exotic kind of material that would result in very dead bats or very lively bats.

The main problem here is that MLB doesn't regulate their bats outside of saying they can't be more than a certain length and weight, and have to be one piece of wood (unless previously approved).

If baseball wants to control how offense happens and make sure that flying bat pieces don't kill anyone a great place to start would be to make and enforce some rules about bats.