What I Know and Remember About Baseball - Hot Bats

Banjo hitters are always on the look out for hot bats to get them out of the cellar. What they do not realize is that getting on base at a higher frequency outweighs the over the wall thrill of crushing the baseball.

At the amateur level the playing field was leveled by having bats certified. The figures and ratios for these different levels of certification were designed to protect defensive players. Once the batter puts the ball into play, the defender only has their glove, skill and ability to keep them out of harms way.

Yet even with these protections there are fatal results. Most notably was a promising college pitcher that for what ever the reason was not able to protect himself from the ball being struck. Sadly, a line drive to the forehead resulted in a fatal injury.

Ball Exit Speed Ratio (BESR) is required to be listed with all non-wood bats used in the NCAA which is the limit of the liveliness. Certification process is performed by the University of Massachusetts at Lowell Baseball Research Center. UMLBRC is the official certification center for non wood baseball bats used in NCAA and NHFS leagues. Manufacturers previously were allowed to certify their own bats but his was eliminated in 2006. BESR is a mathematical prediction based the physics by applying the law of conversion of angular momentum to the ball-bat interaction.

Which is completely a mouthful but if you want all the nitty gritty equations, you can find them at the Baseball Research Center web site which is hosted by the University of Massachusetts - Lowell. All the technical information about how the BESR gets its name and what procedures are taken to certify bats are in the White Paper there.

Every year the marketing experts will tell you that theirs is the best bat for the buck. It is their job to convey to the public why theirs is the best and why you should have no issues with spending upwards of $400 to improve your game.

Marketing folks tend to pass over the fact that all non-wood bats require proper break in and temperatures to perform to the levels established in the lab. Add to this that batting cages are great for swing development they do little if noting to facilitate bat break in. Batters must simply hit real leather covered baseballs to break in new baseball bats.

Most baseball bat owners do not need to worry about varying weather as it is the select few that travel outside their dominate weather region. The accepted rule of thumb is never use composites under 65 degrees. So, for those in the northern states, wood and metal a better as they can handle the temperature ranges. Also, what may be a killer bat for a player that uses it in Arizona can be a complete dud should they travel to western Washington as the coastal air is heavy and generally cooler. This combination reduces ball flight via friction and weight in the ball while in tandem reducing the sweet spot on the composite and metal bats.

Manufactures look for ways to improve performance while attaining the BESR ratings. Backroom machinist have developed ways to "juice" or "roll" metal and composite bats to gain several feet of ball travel. All in the name of gaining a mechanical advantage over the opposition.

The scary part of shade tree bat modifiers is they may be creating something that is so un-safe it verges on dangerous. Not being a metallurgists and changing the way a baseball bat is shaped or designed to respond to high velocity impacts can lead to serious injury. Everyone in the vicinity of the impact is now at risk. Batter, Catcher and Umpire are all relatively close to where a 9 ounce ball traveling upwards of 75 miles per hour collideswith a 28 ounce bat rotating at 70 miles per hour. That is a whole lot of energy being redirected in an instant.

Worse yet would be the change in ownership of the bat. If an individual wants to modify their bat and place themselves at risk is one thing, but to sell it off at a garage sale to an unsuspecting baseball player is ludicrous. No conscientious person would hand someone a live grenade minus the pin. Not knowing when, how or to what extent a bat will fail is not different.

Player bat selection needs to be made on the basis of feel, comfort and confidence. These three things must be present at the approach to the plate, waiting at the plate, through the entire swing until the bat is released from the hands as the player make progress to fist base.

Lighter is generally better and the player can develop greater rotational velocity. Changes in mass do affect the response of the ball. Do not sacrifice sure footedness and balance for weight. Players may have short term or inconsistent gains with heavier bats. Trading for higher batting averages will always outweigh the occasional home run.

So, what makes for a hot bat? Hot bats are those that each player individually selects which provides for the best possible batting average at their skill level. Be it wood, metal or composite, if the player can consistently make contact with the ball from various pitchers, you indeed have a hot bat.