Performance of hollow metal bats is due to the trampoline effect. In other words, I simply want to provide an explanation, backed up with experimental evidence, why it might be possible for a metal bat to outperform a wood bat. Video data was then analyzed to obtain batted ball speeds. Because the NCAA views wood bats as a “burdensome” or “hardship” cost. Actually, I might like it! I grew up using wooden baseball bats until I reached college baseball. Most college teams can get by with 12 aluminum bats per season, as opposed to more than 5 dozen wood bats per season.[12]. Not all baseball bats are made the same. The balance point for all three of the wood bats is located at the same place - since the profile shapes of the bats are the same and they are all made from solid wood, the balance point is the same regardless of the total weight. The reason why high schools and colleges use aluminum bats over wood is … Professional leagues use wooden baseball bats, but at all levels of amateur play, including college play, players use metal bats. Greenwald R.M., L.H. Greenwald, "Metal baseball bats can outperform wood bats with a similar `sweet spot'," Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting, American Society of Biomechanics. 1, show conclusively that metal bats outperform wood bats. Marucci Cat8 -3 College Baseball Bat. "Any idiot can see that the ball jumps off an aluminum bat faster than off of a wooden bat," said Jim Morris, head baseball coach at the University of Miami. Each player would take several swings with either a wood or aluminum bat (randomly chosen), rest for 10 minutes, then take several swings with the other bat. They found that the width of the sweet spot was nearly the same for all bats (wood and metal) bats tested. Stodden and J.R. Andrews, "Relationship between bat mass properties and bat velocity," Sports Eng., 5, 1-8 (2002) Clemens picked up the broken bat and threw it towards Piazza as he ran towards first. Thus, the bats used in this study are not representative of aluminum bats allowed for use at high school and college levels under current NCAA rules. As previosly mentioned a side effect is the distance and speed that the ball come off the aluminum, while they are not banning them and a previous person commented, they are requiring the companies to make them perform the specifications of wood, mostly to keep people from getting killed. No bat which currently passes the NCAA performance standards will perform as high as the best metal bats in the Crisco-Greenwald study. Apparently a player in the 2003 Women's College Softball World Series also broke an aluminum bat. In a hollow bat, however, the bat barrel compresses somewhat like a spring, when the ball impacts it. The data from the Crisco-Greenwald study should NOT be used to argue against the use of aluminum bats because this data does not represent the status of bat performance under current NCAA rules. Chicago, IL. Only wooden bats are allowed in major league baseball. This means that the ball is not compressed as much and therefore loses less energy to internal friction forces. The 1989 study found that the rebound speed of the ball depended strongly on impact location, and somewhat on how strongly the player was gripping the bat. An aluminum/ceramic composite/graphite composite bat costs about 300 to 400 dollars and lasts approx 8 to 10 years befopre needing replaced. Balls were pitched from both pitching machines and regular batting practice pitchers, but pitchers were found to be more consistent. In contrast to the 1977 study, a 1989 study concluded that metal bats did not outperform wood bats. Just like I pointed out from my early years, metal bats have a way of making the ball fly. You can sign in to vote the answer. By college baseball players? The NCAA is the highest level of amateur baseball where regulations allow players to hit with aluminum bats. 12-17 (2003) Wooden bats are heavier and solid, whereas aluminum and titanium bats are much lighter and hollow. Well, It might seem kind of cool when you first think about it, but don’t we want our pros to really show some skills to muscle a home run? The bars in the chart represent the average and spread for the top 10% (ie, fastest 10%) of all hits across all players for each bat. The study found that the aluminum bat appeared to have a larger COP than the wood bat. Join Yahoo Answers and get 100 points today. Blume, and L.H. Use of a metal bat is somewhat controversial. Because the barrel of an aluminum bat is hollow, the distribution of mass along the length of a metal bat is considerably different than it is for a solid wood bat. This is why most college teams switched to aluminum in the early 1980s, because wood bats would break a lot, high quality wood was harder to find, and so wood bats became more expensive. When a ball hits a wood bat, it compresses to nearly half its original diameter, losing up to 75% of its initial energy to internal friction forces during this compression. The first aluminum bats were heavy and did not perform much differently than wood bats. [10] D.A. Data was collected for each player until 30 line drives were produced within a certain range of locations in the outfield. Greenwald, J.D. Greenwald, "Batted Ball Speed as a Function of Swing Speed and Impact Location," presented at the 2001 Annual SGMA Baseball/Softball Industry Meeting, Chicago, IL (2001). Krahenbuhl, and P. Lu, "Dynamic and performance characteristics of baseball bats," Research Quarterly, A side effect was that the ball goes a bit further off the aluminum bat than it does the wood. This regulation allows the players to have enough time to react to the ball once it is hit. Originally, it was because aluminum bats last a lot longer. Ruchmann, and M.J. Berry, "Effects of bat composition, grip firmness, and impact location on postimpact ball velocity," Med. [10] All other bat parameters being equal, the bat with the lowest hoop frequency will have the highest performance. As aluminum alloy gives the bat a lightweight, well-formed, balanced and sturdy structure which is not easily possible in other forms of baseball bats. In 1987 it cost about $3000/year more for wooden bats than aluminum ones, and that’s only gone up since—for all but the top DI teams, that’s a significant cost, and for D3 teams it could be prohibitive. MLB Trivia: Two different Indians' pitchers has won the AL Cy Young since 2010. Who are the two pitchers? I support the movement to ban aluminum bats from all leagues, just to keep the kids safer. Fleisig, N. Zheng, D.F. The first metal baseball bats that Valesente saw being used in collegiate baseball were Worth bats. 6 shows ball trajectories for varying batted ball speeds. Likewise hitters often find it to be considerably difficult to make the change from aluminum to wood, especially when dealing with inside pitches. One memorable example happened during 2000 World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. Biomech., 17, 241-252 (2001). The results, summarized in Fig. Thus baseball programs get but a pittance, and cannot afford to splurge on wooden bats, which break, and must go with aluminum, which do not. [11] Phil Patton, "Wooden bats still reign supreme at the old ball game," Smithsonian, 15, 152-165 (1990) Instead I would like to look at the physics of baseball bats and investigate the scientific data to support the claim that metal bats perform better than wood bats. Over the past forty years, an overwhelming majority of players have chosen to use them rather than their wooden counterparts. As such, the bat handle is very strong and will not break. Aluminum bats make inside pitches singles and the bats don't break. Penna , and J.J. Crisco,"Differences in Batted Ball Speed with Wood and Aluminum Baseball Bats: A Batting Cage Study," J. Appl. So, it can happen. [5] R.M. The aluminum baseball bat was introduced into college baseball in 1974 as an economical answer to rising costs of replacing the large number of wood bats that were being broken during a season. Omaha puts up a lot of cash and all the teams are endorsed by metal bat makers. A professional baseball player swinging at a ball as hard as they can could be detrimental to the players in the line of fire of a ball hit off a lighter bat. Well, now you know why professional baseball players use wooden bats instead of aluminum bats! A side effect was that the ball goes a bit further off the aluminum bat than it does the wood. Aluminum bats can also be made lighter than wooden bats. [6] J.J. Crisco, R.M. The bottom line: Non-wood bats do lead to higher batted ball speeds and, as a result, to harder line drives and deeper fly balls. Aluminum. Major League Baseball players can't use aluminum bats because wooden bats maintain historical continuity, keep offenses reasonable and improve safety for players on the field. Most noticeably is the fact that the ball will travel farther. In the complete analysis of all of the data, bat M1 was found to perform statistically the same as a wood bat, while bats M3 and M4 were noticeably better and bat M2 was dramatically better. From my analysis of various hollow softball bats I have shown that the frequency of the hoop mode correlates pretty well with performance. The closer the CM to the handle of the bat, the easier it is to swing the bat. Youth and college players can use metal bats. These bats have proven to be better than the traditional wooden bats in many ways. You may be wondering why high school and college baseball players use aluminum bats but league players use wooden bats? They are pretty fun to hit with and i believe it makes for a more exciting baseball game. Originally, it was because aluminum bats last a lot longer. Bats with lower hoop frequency (more compliant barrels) have increased performance. The location on the bat where an impact results in the least sting is not always the same as the location where the ball comes off the bat the fastest. [2] A.S. Weyrich, S.P. Bad side effect: it comes off the bat faster and if yo happen to be the pitcher who gets it with a line drive, that's bad. Sports Exerc., 21, 199-205 (1989) Aluminum is lighter and more durable, and aluminum bats are easier to swing than wood bats of equal size, making them ideal for younger players … Piazza's bat broke and the barrel portion bounced out towards Clemens on the mound. Personally, I might as well have gone to the plate with a wet sock than a wood bat. Because the ball exits the aluminum bat with a higher velocity than would a ball from a wooden bat, there is naturally a greater danger of injury to defensive players. How do you think about the answers? However, as the data in Figure 5 shows, for an impact outside of the sweet spot - especially towards the middle of the bat - the batted ball speeds for metal bats are significantly higher than for wood. ELI5: Why do college baseball players still use aluminum bats? Furthermore, most of the energy temporarily stored in the barrel is returned to the ball, and the energy which is lost in the bat compression is a small fraction of what would have been lost in the ball if it had impacted a wood bat instead. Still have questions? Aluminum bats would be much too light for Major League Baseball. Aluminum baseball bats first came onto the scene back in the early 1970s, and over the years have gradually phased out wooden bats in youth baseball mainly for economic reasons. In addition, the hardness and resilience of aluminum can result in much greater speeds when the ball comes off the bat. [1] F.O. The point I want to make, however, is that Piazza's bat broke. 48, 505-510, (1977). During the Summer of 2004 I was granted access to the five metal bats used in their batting cage study. Penna, "Batting performance of wood and metal baseball bats," Med. Under NCAA regulations, all surplus monies must be funnelled to the football and basketball programs, mostly to be spent on bail bonds or sports cars. The results were an average batted ball speed (for line drives) of 88.6 mph for the wood bat and 92.5 mph for the aluminum bat. Aluminum bats are lighter and hit farther than wooden bats. Federal judge in Iowa ridicules Trump's pardons, Sanders speaks out on McConnell’s additions to bill, After release, 31 teams pass on Dwayne Haskins, International imposter attack targets government aid, Wage gap kept women from weathering crisis: Expert, Trump asks Supreme Court to set aside Wisconsin's election, Dawn Wells, Mary Ann on 'Gilligan's Island,' dies at 82, Pope Francis's native country legalizes abortion, Don't smear all Black players because of Dwayne Haskins, Americans in Wuhan fearful for U.S. relatives, Halsey apologizes for posting eating disorder pic. A total of 19 players (nine minor-leaguers, six NCAA college, four high school) participated in the study, swinging two wood bat models, and 5 different metal bat models (6 bats of each model). Most college teams can get by with 12 aluminum bats per season, as opposed to more than 5 dozen wood bats per season. Aluminum bats are extremely dangerous to infielders because of the speed they generate and the force behind the batted ball. “[The Worth bats] made a pinging noise,” he said. [11] Similarly, college teams which used wood bats often broke more than two dozen during a season. In almost every professional game one or more players breaks a bat on an inside pitch. [14] Robert K. Adair, The Physics of Baseball, 3rd Ed., (HarperCollins, 2002), Metal baseball bats can outperform wood bats with a similar `sweet spot', Batted Ball Speed as a Function of Swing Speed and Impact Location, "Hoop frequency as a predictor of performance for softball bats, So what does it mean that a player using an aluminum bat can hit a ball 8-mph faster than he could with a wood bat? The physics behind the trampoline effect is somewhat complex, though a simple model can be used to illustrate the main concepts, as explained elsewhere on this website. Again, the only published study todate which offers evidence of an enhancement in performance for metal bats due to an elastic property of the bat is the Crisco-Greenwald study. That is why I believe aluminum bats should be banned from high school and college baseball. [1] The study was conducted with six skilled college players during more than a dozen batting practice sessions over a 5-day period. One of the most obvious differences in college baseball is the use of metal bats, which was first permitted by the NCAA back in 1975. Burkett, S.S. Chen, G.S. Plotting the data this way normalizes the results so as to remove the effect of different moments-of-inertia (see reason [1]). Baseball, Tennis, Golf - we'd be better off if they all went back to wood instead of the high tech composites. In comparison to the metal bats used today, Valesente said the quality of the Worth bats was not up to par. Hester and K. Koenig, "Performance measurement of baseball bats," Journal of the Mississippi Academy of the Sciences, 38(2), 7-10 (1993) But there are options for players to consider based on their bat speed and hand strength. July 19-22 (2000). The purpose of this document is not to argue for or against aluminum bats. Bryant, L.N. 2, pp. Specically, the difference shows up in the location of the center-of-mass (CM) - otherwise known as the balance point. Are Baseball fans some of the MEANEST, SNOBBIEST & MOST OBNOXIOUS FANS IN ALL OF SPORTS. Then there is performance. The data also shows that not all metal bats are the same. Messier, B.S. Do the Detroit Tigers have the best front office in basball and can it be believed? Aluminum is superior to wood because it is lighter and can be swung faster, resulting in balls being driven farther. If major league baseball players used them we’d just be watching a game full of home runs. Figure 2 compares the balance points of four 30" youth bats: three wood bats of weights 26oz, 23oz, and 20oz, and an 27oz aluminum bat. [2] In this study balls were shot from a pitching machine towards bats held stationary (without swinging) in the hands of a player. The batted-ball speeds measured in the Crisco-Greenwald study are significantly higher than batted-ball speeds obainted with bats which currently pass the NCAA performance standards. Sci. A second phase of the study attempted to explain the increase in performance of the aluminum bat by comparing the size of the "sweet spot" for the two bats by locating the center-of-percussion. Figure 3 compares batted ball speeds for balls hit with a wood bat (orange dots) and the highest performing metal bat (blue dots) used in their study. 28-38, (Prentice Hall, 1997) Many of the marketing ploys regarding the size of the sweet spot often refer to the perception that a given bat is more forgiving (ie., balls still go far, and bat feels good) for impacts away from the sweet spot. Supporters of an aluminum or composite bat note that it can increase offensive performance, as the speed of a ball off a metal bat is generally faster than off a wood bat. That’s due to one major factor—the weight of the barrel is heavier in wood bats. wooden would be too hard for them to hit it farther, The "ping" that you hear when a ball is hit.....it is a great sound. Is one better than the other? But there's an, ahem, aluminum lining to this story: The process used to manufacture metal bats can be tightly controlled. The data shows an average batted ball speed for wood bats (W) around 98.6-mph, while balls hit with metal bats (M1-M5) left the bat with speeds averaging between 100.3 mph and 106.5-mph, up to 8-mph faster than wood bats. Wooden bats, on the other hand, are "dead", meaning that they absorb a lot of the momentum of the pitched ball, so that the batted ball does not have as much speed. This answer might seem a little obvious, but think about it! Because college players use aluminum bats, they can hit inside pitches for base hits. Crisco and Greenwald defined the sweet spot as the range of locations on the bat barrel for which the highest 10% of batted ball speeds were obtained. [9] J.J. Crisco and R.W. Major league baseball has required that its players use wooden bats, but the aluminum bat has come to dominate the lower levels of baseball, from Little League to the college game. While aluminum bats are common from little league to college baseball, MLB remains steadfast in its use of wooden bats. They were not able to explain differences in this effect between the five metal bats they tested, and so could not explain how the trampoline effect improves performance. The answer is that aluminum bats are banned in the professional league because aluminum bats are easier to use. MLB has begun a program to replace those bats with wood. Aluminum is the material most commonly used for baseball bats from little league through high school and college. Other You'd think with how many players there are in minor league system that come out of college, they'd want to get accustomed to using wooden bats like in the pros. That’s why wooden bats have always be… Wood bats, especially the thin handled ash bats used by a majority of today's players, have a tendency to break upon impact with a ball near the middle of the bat. Many people have argured that the fact that aluminum bats don't break has a noticeable impact on the game of baseball. Because of shortages of quality wood, and the higher cost of good quality bats, most college teams completely switched over to aluminum bats during the 1980's. The issue is … The figure shows that for a given swing speed, the metal bat can potentially hit the ball 5-7mph faster than the wood bat. There is one paper from 1977, when aluminum bats were just beginning to assert their prominence, which concluded that the batted ball speed of an aluminum baseball bat was about 3.85 mph faster than a wood baseball bat. An end-loaded bat can have the same weight as a normal bat, but will feel heavier because more of the mass is distributed towards the barrel end of the bat. This means that baseball players can swing an aluminum bat with much more speed than they could with a wooden bat. It definetly is a money issue, because the aluminum one last longer, while they probably get new bats each season, its better then having to spend for a new batch weekly with wooden breaks. Aluminum is much stronger than ash wood, and the handle of an aluminum bat is a thin cylindrical tube with reasonably thick walls (thicker than the barrel portion). The solid curve is a theoretical prediction from my simple mass-spring model of the trampoline effect, and the data points represent the measured BBCOR values (extracted from the original field study data by my friend and colleague Alan Nathan) for the five metal bats used in the Grisco-Greenwald batting cage study. They are banding them because they cause more injury and for the balls to go farther. Sports Exerc., 34(10), 1675-1684 (2002) The most comprehensive study comparing metal and wood bats under realistic playing conditions that I have come across was published by Crisco and Greenwald. As a result, fewer and fewer younger professional pitchers throw inside pitches than used to be the norm in years past. This advantage is a little tougher to scientifically validate - partly because the "sweet spot" is a term used to mean several different things relating to both the perception of feel and a measure of performance. [12] Julavrits, "Bat Rap," Sport, 90(6), 26 (June, 1999) <<>> Marucci is known for it’s high quality bats and the Cat 8 is … Figure 6. Announcements Prohibited BBCOR Baseball Bats (September 2019) NCAA Bat Testing Protocol Federal Court Dismisses Bat Manufacturer’s Antitrust Lawsuit (Posted 3/25/13) New alloys and treatment processes (cryogenic treatment) even improve the strength of the aluminum further. If bats were lighter, players would be able to swing with a greater force than they are able to with wooden bats, making it easier for professional players to hit a pitch. Therefore, BBCOR bats with lighter barrels do not equal wood in some batting scenarios, they have LESS pop. As pretty much any hitter who has used both metal and wooden baseball bats can tell you, metal bats are vastly superior. A player can go through a wooden bat or more during a single game. This is directly related to the swing weight of a bat - the reason that not all 28oz softball bats swing the same. Why Wood Bats? Most college and high schools use aluminum bats because they dont break and they are on budgets. Russell, " "Hoop frequency as a predictor of performance for softball bats," Engineering of Sport 5, Vol. What I want to do here is discuss experimental evidence that a trampoline effect really does seem to be partly responsible for improvement in performance of aluminum bats over wood. ? The next time you go to a ballgame, sit back and appreciate the sweet sound of a wooden bat! There are no studies showing increase in injury due to use of non-wood bats and the rules currently make it such that the ball rebounds about the same from a non-wood bat ( called BESR rating) as from wood. Bat-Exit Speed Standards Aluminum bats are used in college, high school and little league ball, but they're illegal in the major leagues where hitters must use wooden bats. The bats used in this study were manufactured before the NCAA implemented its current performance limits which restrict the performance of an aluminum bat through (i) the "minus-3" Length-weight rule, (ii) the BESR test (ball exit speed ratio), and (iii) the lower limit on moment-of-inertia. Because of shortages of quality wood, and the higher cost of good quality bats, most college teams completely switched over to aluminum bats during the 1980's. [3] This third study compared four baseball bats: two wood, one aluminum, and one composite. Disclaimer: While the results were not published in peer-reviewed research journals until 2000-2001, the data for the Crisco-Greenwald batting cage study was collected during 1997-1998. There was already some bad feelings between the two players because Clemens had hit Piazza with an inside pitch the previous year, and the broken bat incident only increased the animosity between the two players. The barrel, where the walls are thinner, may dent - or even crack if the walls are too thin, the but bat will not break. This can be explained if the metal bat has a trampoline effect which returns more of the energy to the ball. Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens delivered an inside pitch to Mets catcher Mike Piazza. I measured the frequency of the mode of vibration in the barrel, called the hoop mode, which gives rise to the trampoline effect. 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