NCAA Bat Regulations

[Erie Warrior]

http://www.thedmonline.com/article/chan ... e-baseball

Starting this year, NCAA baseball bat regulations have changed. No more "ping", but more of a "gloved hands clap" sound according to info from a few college coaches. Big difference so far in BP, not nearly as many balls leaving the yard, and slower moving balls on the ground and in the gaps.

Coming to high schools everywhere next season.

I think it will certainly help the development of MiLB hitters, now mishit balls will be outs and not opposite field home runs. Working back to solid fundamentals and plate approach. Kids will really have to work on picking a pitch to hit.

[gotribe31]

http://www.thedmonline.com/article/change-bat-regulations-may-change-college-baseball

Starting this year, NCAA baseball bat regulations have changed. No more "ping", but more of a "gloved hands clap" sound according to info from a few college coaches. Big difference so far in BP, not nearly as many balls leaving the yard, and slower moving balls on the ground and in the gaps.

Coming to high schools everywhere next season.

I think it will certainly help the development of MiLB hitters, now mishit balls will be outs and not opposite field home runs. Working back to solid fundamentals and plate approach. Kids will really have to work on picking a pitch to hit.

Will also help HS pitchers not get killed when a guy drills a 70 MPH fastball back at their grill. This is a good thing, and long overdue. I still think they should go to wood across the board.

[Loo]

Agreed, wood needs to be universally used. If I'm a pitcher, I'm much less worried about a bat-shard coming my way than a ball off the bat heading at my head faster than I threw it.

Side note, we should have stopped reading the linked story as soon as we read "football match."

[Erie Warrior]

No way can high school teams afford wood bats. It's $50-60$ every time they break. I've seen 2 or 3 break during a single BP session. The idea of deadening the metal/ composite bats for the sake of durability & safety seems logical, but I'll know more next year.

Talked to a coach today that said the ball "floats" off the bat. He is not a fan.

[Ziner]

No way can high school teams afford wood bats. It's $50-60$ every time they break. I've seen 2 or 3 break during a single BP session. The idea of deadening the metal/ composite bats for the sake of durability & safety seems logical, but I'll know more next year.

Talked to a coach today that said the ball "floats" off the bat. He is not a fan.

Completely agree, having to pay for wood bats would destroy a lot of high school baseball programs, or at least push them in the pay to play. I think it is long overdue and there will likely be kinks that need to be worked out, but hell I remember playing 3rd and constantly imagining a shot off the dome. Stronger players with faster bat speeds with better bats is just a bad idea. Bring the fence in if they are worried about stats.

Seems like a better idea than when I was in little league and we played with really soft balls in tee ball to increasingly harder balls (baseballs pervs) and finally actual baseballs in high school.

[dmiles]

My kid's first varsity game was last night here in Cent. Fla. Colleges are going to BBCOR this season whereas HS we still have one year that we can use a BESR bat, so I picked up a Voodoo for $199. That gives us one more year for the BBCOR thing to work itself out.

First thing was he hit a ball that missed going out by a foot foul of the left field pole. I am thinking if he'd been using that hot-ass Easton Stealth that was just banned that the ball gets a little deeper and hooks around the 320 pole instead of in front of it. Personally I am excited about this because now the kids who've learned a good swing mechanic will do fine, but the fast-twitch kid without a lot of skill who just pushes his hands out there really fast won't be getting as many hits.

One other thing we always practice with wood. My opinion on wood is if you buy en bulk you can get pretty decent sticks for $50-$60 pop. Maybe $80. He's never broken the 34 Maple bat in practice, but I would assume in a game you'd break a few. Also we might see the return of the "team bat" since nowadays everyone has their own $350 bat. What's the point? Anyway if I spend $350 on an Aluminum bat, that means I can buy 4-6 wood bats depending on what I decide to spend. I wouldn't be surprised if going to wood doesn't cost more.

[gotribe31]

My kid's first varsity game was last night here in Cent. Fla. Colleges are going to BBCOR this season whereas HS we still have one year that we can use a BESR bat, so I picked up a Voodoo for $199. That gives us one more year for the BBCOR thing to work itself out.

First thing was he hit a ball that missed going out by a foot foul of the left field pole. I am thinking if he'd been using that hot-ass Easton Stealth that was just banned that the ball gets a little deeper and hooks around the 320 pole instead of in front of it. Personally I am excited about this because now the kids who've learned a good swing mechanic will do fine, but the fast-twitch kid without a lot of skill who just pushes his hands out there really fast won't be getting as many hits.

One other thing we always practice with wood. My opinion on wood is if you buy en bulk you can get pretty decent sticks for $50-$60 pop. Maybe $80. He's never broken the 34 Maple bat in practice, but I would assume in a game you'd break a few. Also we might see the return of the "team bat" since nowadays everyone has their own $350 bat. What's the point? Anyway if I spend $350 on an Aluminum bat, that means I can buy 4-6 wood bats depending on what I decide to spend. I wouldn't be surprised if going to wood doesn't cost more.

Plus you can buy 3 wood composite bats for the price of 1 metal. And those composite bats are really, really tough to break. I've used the same one in the cages for 3 years now.

[Erie Warrior]

Colleges are going to BBCOR this season whereas HS we still have one year that we can use a BESR bat

Check with your league, NFHS has changed the rule on composite bats
http://www.vhsl.org/news/1022101287759090_news.html

The Virginia high school league has outlawed composite BESR bats, and that came from the national federation.

If a kid gets caught with illegal equipment here, he gets ejected from the game and gets an additional 2 game suspension. The umpires told us last night they will recheck every bat if there's a home run or long fly ball. They ain't joking around about those bat rules.

[dmiles]

I didn't realize VA was going the way of Cali, but there are a small subset of BESRs allowed for one more season even out there I think. For the rest of us they are allowing Composite handle, as long as the Barrel is not composite. Essentially we are using last year's NCAA bats.

"Anecdotally" I heard home runs were way down in the fall leagues over at say UCLA. However another guy I talked to who's kid plays at a small college here in FLA. said last weekend there were several homers hit with BBCOR. I think it's going to depend on the boys really, if you can smack one out with Wood, I am guessing BBCOR isn't going to matter that much other than to reduce the home run total. And maybe cause a few more flyouts.

[Bayou Tribe]

LSU opens this weekend at home against Wake Forest, weather is great, may catch a couple games. A couple of buddies have been to scrimmages and they say the difference in the bats is very noticeable. Only saw a few hit out between the two 7 inning games, which I'm sure is going to piss off some LSU fans who are still longing for the Gorilla Ball days.

[Larvell Blanks]

^ how is watching a game in the new "Box"?

[Spin]

A very nice change IMO.

And who knows, it might be easier to recruit pitchers into colleges now that they know they have a chance to put up better numbers than a beer league slow pitch tosser...

That was always one of my pet peeves with college ball.

[Bayou Tribe]

^ how is watching a game in the new "Box"?

Man, it is a sweet setup. 2 to 2.5 times more chairbacks, everything else is bleacher-back. Plenty of legroom all around, cup holders throughout, great HD video screen and scoreboard. Much more in terms of concessions (number of stands and selection) and bathrooms. Parking isn't a problem, and they have done alot to celebrate the past all americans and title teams in terms of plaques, statues, and the rotunda in the front of the stadium. If you are ever in town around baseball season, give me a shout and I'll meet you down there. It's got to be one of the top 2 or 3 best venues in college baseball, if not the best (I've heard great things about South Carolina).