Why wood bat?

I have attended a couple of wood bat tournaments this year and I hear a lot of negative comments about them from players and parents. I see the negatives, but struggle to see any real reason to have them.

1. It costs parents additional $$$ when Junior has his $300+ bat in the bag, but must play with a wood bat ($45-$125 to replace). If Junior borrows someone else's bat and breaks it, then you still have to pay.

2. 95% of all participants will never play in real wood bat competition (Major League or Minor League)

3. The game is reduced to many flared singles and routine ground balls with an occasional gap shot. Most outfielders cheat in and often steal clean singles over the infield that would be hits if the outfield was playing normal depth.

4. Parents find the games to be boring and the players often are not pleased with the results.

5. I can't remember hearing any player say, "Wow, I can't wait to play in that wood bat tournament". Instead it's usually, "Oh, no. It's a wood bat tournament"

I know some see it is a test of what a player can do with a wood bat, but since most are angling for the chance to play in college, it seems to me that what they can do with their normal metal bat is what counts. If colleges revert back to wood bats, then it would make perfect sense to me, but to mess up good baseball for the novelty of playing with a wood bat is costly and significantly reduces the pleasure of the game, for participants and spectators alike.

Am I missing something?

 

I agree with you, but my kid loves playing with wood.

 

Nothing like the lumber....

To me the beauty of the game is with wood since that is the way the pros play it. That ping of aluminum and the fake power is awful to my ears and eyes.

 

For Safety Reasons,

I feel like they will one day have to tone down these new aluminum & composite bats. It's really dangerous for pitchers! There is no reaction time for a pitcher to get out of the way because of the explosiveness of these new bats. Pitchers are finishing up their delivery & then have to dodge a missille coming right at their head sometimes. It's dangerous if your pitcher doesn't have quick reflexes!

 

Professional scouts are universally disdainful of metal bats because they produce hits that wouldn't take place if wood were used. Because of this, they much prefer to see prospects hit with wood. As a result, they've insisted for some time that the national-level showcases use wood; so that they get a more accurate read of the player's ability to hit the ball squarely with the bat consistently.

From the college recruiter's perspective, a player who hits the ball cleanly and well with wood will hit even better with the metal bat's larger sweet spot in their hands; so, the college recruiters don't really lose anything by a showcase's decision to use wood.

Perhaps to give themselves more credibility in the eyes of scouts, more and more regional showcase tournaments have adopted wood over the last few years. While it's the colleges that take most of the high school players (by far), attraction of pro scouts is high on the list of every showcase's objectives. As long as that's the case, you're going to see them specify wood.

 

Low & Slow

This must be list day... I like it!

No. 4 Honestly? It ain't about the parents... it's about the players and the scouts watching them. Having gone through this, my advice is, on the hot days of showcase ball, find a shady spot, get yourself a cool drink and make as many friends with the other dads doing the same thing.

Some players hate 'em, some players love 'em. For hitters, the college coaches are looking at the kid's mechanics, not necessarily the results. The pro guys are doing the same thing, with a little more emphasis on pop and foot speed. For most of these kids their real power is still a few years away.

I will say that there was one thing that did surprise me, and it was probably due to cost, at the WWB tournaments they used high school grade baseballs. When one of these gets squared up by a hitter with a wood bat and some power the ball ends up shaped like an egg!

No. 5 Most pitchers love wood bat tournaments... my son was just as proud of the bats he broke as of the strike outs he got!

The only time I heard any grumbling from the players on the Dirtbags team my son played with was in a tournament where they used wood and the other teams didn't. In the end though, they knew it was just a tune up before going to East Cobb.
If your kid starts feeling a little down at one of these tournaments, just take him to "Hooters" after a game... it will get his mind on something else!

 

IMO yes your are! When I coached our Travel team EVERYONE on the team wanted to play a wooded bat tournament.
All (most that I have watched) the summer leagues that college players play in are wooded bat leagues.
If you watch a Wood Bat Showcase Tournament (17 & Up Age Bracket) you would not be bored with the results.
IMO the players that aren't pleased with the results probably couldn't hit!

That's the way the game should be played ... Wood!!!!

 

I'm betting that you're neither pitcher, nor pitcher parent.

 

Bottom line on using wood bats

Let's throw out parents, pro scouts, fans, and college coaches and think about only the player for a minute (which is what we should think of most of the time, but that is a bigger issue and a much longer post). The bottom line is this, if you play a lot with a wood bat you will be come a better hitter. If you work to be better and pay attention to your ABs, hopefully have them videotaped so you can watch yourself in game, you will learn to have a better swing. As stated earlier, you can do a lot wrong with a metal bat and still get a hit, but wood is really unforgiving. Play with wood long enough and really observe your ABs when using it then you will get better. I know of a kid that was drafted out of high school, played pro ball for a season, and then came back to swing with his HS team. He grabbed a metal bat just for fun. After creaming every ball thrown to him he grabbed his wood and stated "hitting is too easy with metal." He did not mean it to downgrade anyone or as an arrogant statement. It was simply a comment that showed hitting with wood is much harder. Swing wood for an off season and then go back to metal during your hs season...the results will be unbelieveable.

 

I knew this subject would get some good responses...

Been kinda slow lately on TBR....I thought some strong opinions would come forth on this subject.

1. I know it's much more difficult to hit with authority with wood and I agree it's a good training aid, as someone suggested

2. Sorry, SouthernNo1 you missed your guess. My son is a high-achieving pitcher on the showcase circuit and made All State last year....he loves pitching in wood tournaments for the reason GMan13sDad stated as it allows him to pitch inside more and shatter some of those bats with pitches on the handle or a good changeup drawing a hit off the end of the bat.

3. I agree that a scout could draw a better opinion of a wood bat swinging hitter, assuming that there were any scouts attending. The dirty little secret of showcase baseball is 90% of the games are not attended by any scouts. Scouts are usually at the premier site (host field) and usually just for the premier matchups and for the games between teams contending for the crown in if bracket play is being used. There is usually just a smattering of family members at Sprayberry HS when all of the action is at the three fields at East Cobb. Since our team is just 16U I understand why it works that way and I know if you want to get seen in the premier games you need to compete and advance to those matchups.

4. Maybe if we had all of the fielders use the old five-finger gloves from back in the thirties then scouts could better judge their fielding ability, because if they can field with those then they ought to be totally awesome fielders with a modern glove......just kidding! Same logic though!

Nice to see a little friendly debate.....