D-I baseball - Aluminum or wood

[bison_baseball]

OK...I'm sure this discussion has come up before but after watching a weekend of college baseball regionals and seing back to back to back to back to back home runs hit in the South Carolina game, the question comes to mind once again if we should be making a switch from aluminum bats to wood bats in D-I baseball. If college players are only getting bigger and stronger and technology is getting better each and every year, it seems like today's players barely have to put a good swing on the ball to get it out. Love to hear ya'lls thoughts on this topic......

Metal bats are a joke. I played with a couple guys from a college in California that told me their hitting coaches told them not to worry so much about making good swings on the baseball, just to make some sort of contact and let the metal bat take care of them, because they had a contract with I can't remember which bat company. There is also the safety factor. A couple days ago a pitcher from the Braves got a line-drive hit off his head by Lance Berkman, but he's fine and he won't even miss a start. If that was an aluminum bat, he probably would have ended up with career/life threatening injuries. I don't like metal bats and I think that the NCAA should make the switch to wood. However, that will never happen because of the money that bigger programs rake in from bat contracts.

[boss]

Wood all the way.

If MN amateur can use wood I think college players can handle it.

Let me just start off by saying this.....I HATE aluminum bats!!! *With the shrinking size of the strike zone and the fact that guys are getting bigger and bigger every year, metal is completely unecessary.

Perfect case in point was the SC, UGA game that was on this weekend where one of the teams hit 5 consecutive homeruns. *Never would this happen with wood.....ridiculous. *Like jd3 said, these guys don't even have to put a good swing on the ball....they're being told to let the pitcher and the bat take care of everything. *

Nothing is more demoralzing as a pitcher than to make a great pitch and have it leave the yard, especially on a shitty swing. *Not only are these pitchers not being rewarded for making great pitches, they're being punished.

Being a former pitcher, I would love to see the NCAA force DI (only) to go wood. *There would have to be something that the wood bat manufactuers could do that would be similiar to what the aluminum ones are doing now (in terms of bat contracts).

IMO, something needs to be done...the score shouldn't always be 10-14, or 15-12--I wouldn't mind seeing a pitchers duel every once and a while. *This complaint is not only for the sake of the game, but also for the safety of the pitchers. *One of these days some pitcher is gonna catch one in the face and be seriously injured or worse.

[89rabbit]

The thing to keep in mind is that Aluminum was not brought into the college game to increase offense, it was to save money. *An alumium bat lasts "forever" as compared to wooden one. *Baseball for most D-I schools is a non-revenue sport. *Even some of the teams that made it to the D-I tourney struggle for funds. *I watched Prairie View A&M take on Rice and the A&M batters were using the same bat over and over again (one batter would hand it to the next as he came to the plate). *I am not a supporter of Aluminum bats, but I understand why they are in the college game.


Go State! *


P.S. The Aluminum bat mfg. can offer contracts because the general public buys aluminum bats (little league, high school, *weekend warriors, etc.). *It is a way for them to advertise. *The wooden bat folks would never be able to offer those same contracts unless you outlawed alumium bats at all levels of baseball. IMHO

[boss]

Aluminum bats now cost around $300.00 a piece and they do not last, especially in the cold weather.

If cost is the issue, which is why they were made, there are now composite wood bats that are pretty good. Baumbats rarely break and perform pretty well. These are about $130.00 each and I would imagine there would be a bulk discount.

Our amateur team has had one now for 4 years and it is still solid. Obviously not getting the use/abuse from a college season but 4 years is a lot of BP.

The team I played on in college rarely had one of last years bats make it into the "new year's" game bats. *What I'm trying to say is that aluminum DOES NOT last forever....in most cases they will barely make it more than two seasons.

We had a system set up where the bats that were brand new didn't even get taken out of the plastic until the first series of the year. *All of the previous years bats got used in "fall ball" and our winter workouts....then they were retired (weren't really all that good anymore).

Like Boss said, brand new top-of-the-line bats (aluminum) run about $300-$350 a piece. *Woodies run about $60-$100 and would more than likely be cheaper than that when ordered in bulk. *Granted it is possible that you will only get one swing out of the bat, but woodies also teach you how to hit better.

I guess I don't understand how college kids swinging a wood bat with a Louisville Slugger trademark doesn't constitute as advertisement...I guess maybe not with the bats themselves, but the contract probably would include gloves, hats, spikes, jerseys...ect. *I think that they could find a way to make it work.

[NDSUstudent]

Aluminum bats need to go, they are both dangerous and not good for the game. I watched a documentary on HBO Real Sports a few years ago where a U of MN pitcher got clocked in the head with a ball going 120 MPH, the ball just comes off of the bat so hot the pitcher never has a chance to get out of the way.

ND high school is switching to wood bats and if the area high schools can afford it I don't see why DI teams can't.

[bisonaudit]

Aluminum needs to go. I don't think that the cost savings are a real factor anymore for the reasons already discussed.

One point that hasn't been made is that aluminum deters pitchers from pitching inside. College pitchers never learn this vital part of the game because they get punished for going in there when the hitter is swinging an aluminum bat.

As a result we've ended up with power hitters standing on top of the plate and diving for outside pitches with impunity.

We have to restore some balance to the game at all levels. Taking the aluminum bat away, and letting pitchers take back the inside half will go a long way to ending the long borring 12-10, 3 1/2 hour, station-to-station, moon ball contests masquarading as baseball.

[bison_baseball]

I think even with wood bats coming into the college game, you're still going to have the same marketing opportunities as you did with aluminum bats. Keep in mind, Easton and Lousville...along with many other major company's make wood bats too. This is also a great chance for small market company's to break into college baseball and get some opportunity to be seen. There are numerous maple bat company's out there that are run by some guy in his garage, and these are some top of the line bats. I know a few teams in the WMBL (Canada's premier wood bat leauge) are sponsored by some of these small market company's and it works out pretty nice for the players and for the teams.