Jake Adams & The Woodpeckers

I’ve always felt the transition from aluminum/composite to wood should happen in college, not the minors. It’s just too expensive for a high school to buy 50 or 100 bats in a year, but a college could do it.

That said, they have reeeaaallly deadened aluminum bats in the past few years to where the launch speeds are comparable. Still a bigger sweet spot though.

Yes, still much easier to hit with aluminum, even though the BESR is similar. I remember them doing the following change to the bat, which trickled down to HS, which no longer allowed teams to put up video game numbers.

What Is The Maximum Allowed Value For The BESR (ball exit speed ratio)? When bats were first tested in 1999, an initial lot of baseballs was used. The tests were conducted by using a pitch speed of 70 mph and a bat speed (at a point 6 inches from the end of the barrel) of 66 mph. Under these conditions, the best major league wood bat yielded a BESR of 0.728, which the NCAA then set to be the maximum allowed value.
 
...which no longer allowed teams to put up video game numbers.
The most important part to me though is pitcher safety. Before they altered the bats those things were fucking death machines.

Not only was there zero reaction time, but when it hit you square in the face and ruined your life, it was going 20 mph faster on top of it.

Hitters getting stronger, pitchers throwing faster, and bats getting livelier was total Russian roulette for pitchers.
 
The most important part to me though is pitcher safety. Before they altered the bats those things were fucking death machines.

Not only was there zero reaction time, but when it hit you square in the face and ruined your life, it was going 20 mph faster on top of it.

Hitters getting stronger, pitchers throwing faster, and bats getting livelier was total Russian roulette for pitchers.

This was from today at Wrigley ... scary.

 
The most important part to me though is pitcher safety. Before they altered the bats those things were fucking death machines.

Not only was there zero reaction time, but when it hit you square in the face and ruined your life, it was going 20 mph faster on top of it.

Hitters getting stronger, pitchers throwing faster, and bats getting livelier was total Russian roulette for pitchers.
Agreed. I know a lot of schools don't even keep school records anymore, because nobody is going to beat the records set with 2 3/4", -5 bats. They were ridiculous. I even know of a school that started new records when the bats changed, which may sound ridiculous on the surface, but it's not any different than when the hurdles change heights or when things got switched from yards to meters, etc. Not sure if there's a -5 to -3 BESR/BBCOR conversion, though. ;)
 
If MLB players had aluminum bats. the pitchers would need to pitch from 2B. :)

They should try adding an aluminum bat round for the HR derby. That would be fun to watch... Might need to get the kids off the outfield for that round though. :D
 
If MLB players had aluminum bats. the pitchers would need to pitch from 2B. :)
They should try adding an aluminum bat round for the HR derby. That would be fun to watch... Might need to get the kids off the outfield for that round though. :D
I remember a video on YouTube a while back where they had a bunch of MLB power hitters try aluminum bats for funsies, I don’t remember who all was in it but I know Ortiz was one of them.

Basically, they destroyed the bats right out of the gate and after one or two solid hits they were useless. They cracked and started to fold up almost immediately.
 
Jake finished with a .248 .311 .446 line in the minors but his AA numbers were a little better .255 .306 .520. Hopefully he can make some adjustments this off season, he's gotta make more contact to have any hope of ever reaching the big leagues.
 

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