Maple Bats

[Sheffield11]

It hasnt happened yet, but im sure that MLB will eventually ban the use of maple bats. How do you guys think this will affect the value of current players maple bats being that you will never see them use them again?

[Vintagedeputy]

I think we will see maple banned here in the very near future.

On a related note, I met a guy not too long ago that made an unbreakable polycarbonate (plastic) bat. It was sweet! I wonder if they could use that in the Majors?

[Jags Fan Dan]

I don't think they will ban maple bats until they have a solid alternative in hand. Right now, from what I have read, no one can supply enough ash bats to fill the void. I think what may happen, at least initially, is there may be a mandatory thickening of the handle to try to curb breakage. If that doesn't work, plan B may be the banning of the maple bats.

[Sheffield11]

Do you guys ever see Sam Bats breaking the way other maple bats do? because cant remember ever seeing a sam bat breaking that bad. It seems ever night that johnny damon breaks a maple BWP and i also see a ton of marucci bats breaking. maybe all maple bat makers will have to make the same quality bats as Sam bats.

[CampWest]

I think maple is on its way out. MLB does have handle thickness requirements and they could increase those, but players currently shave handles down from the the manufacturing minimums - post production. Same thing would continue to happen. MLB would need to proactively police the thickness requirements for all bats. They dont do that now, so not much reason to suspect they'd do it in the future.

[Jags Fan Dan]

Do you guys ever see Sam Bats breaking the way other maple bats do? because cant remember ever seeing a sam bat breaking that bad. It seems ever night that johnny damon breaks a maple BWP and i also see a ton of marucci bats breaking. maybe all maple bat makers will have to make the same quality bats as Sam bats.
There was a recent article (on Yahoo I believe) and in it the founder of Sam Bats was lamenting the poor quality of maple some of the other companies were using.

[Jags Fan Dan]

Here it is:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-samholmanmaple061208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[eGameUsed]

One of the issues with Maple is that you can't detect flaws in the grain as much as Ash. There are other hardwoods available such as Mahogony and Hickory.

Another issue could be the curing of the wood. Any wood not cured long enough will be weaker than a properly cured wood. Many of the small time bat companies (i.e. Marucci, BWP, etc.) are probably churning bats out faster than the wood can cure.

[cjclong]

We were at the Yankees/Astros games in Houston last week and Johnny Damon broke three bats in two games where the barrel flew out into the infield. The Yankee announcers were talking about Damon's broken bats recently and said Damon broke about 40 all last year and he already has broken 50 this year. And Damon is one of those guys who uses all different brands of bats. I remember when you never saw a bat shatter and a piece go flying and now you see it constantly. Players use smaller handle bats now, but sometimes you see the barrel break apart. Its getting to the point where it is really dangerous. May be one of those things where someone has to be hurt before something is done.

[CampWest]

Obviously its only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured by a maple bat.. This is from last nights Royals-Rockies game.



http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/2008/baseball/mlb/06/25/umpired.injured.ap/p1.brian.onora.jpg

[BMH]

Most manufacturer's have their Maple dried to 6% or below. What this does is make the wood "harder". We've gotten in several samples from competitors and this seems to be the case for most of them. We still Kiln dry our Maple to about 11%. this gives the wood a little more flex but some players complain about our wood feeling soft compared to say Marucci.

No one has hard numbers on who's bats break the most. I imagine people will see ours breaking the most because of shear volume. We produce almost 60% of the Maple bats for MLB. The other 40% is made by 31 other companies.

SAM has breakage issues as do the rest of us. He does have higher quality control standards than most other companies and I think that is something that should be considered. On the other hand most players are waiting 6-8 weeks for a SAM bat and I don't think that is something players tolerate. That is why SAM isn't as widely used as they were in years past.

I expect to have handle diameter minimums, a reduced weight drop (-2.5), more moisture content and possibly smaller barrel diameters to be introduced before an outright ban is considered.

[eGameUsed]

Hey Brian! Could you shoot me an e-mail at eGameUsed@comcast.net. I lost your e-mail and have been trying to contact you on some info you previously sent me. I am hoping you can easily resend.

Sorry for interrupting the thread!

[cjclong]

Both Derek Jeter and ARod use Louisville Sluggers and I don't recall seeing their bats break and fly apart. Do they get better wood (I've heard ARod made a point of checking his), is it their hitting style or something else when they never seem to have a bat shatter and someone like Damon does all the time.

[eGameUsed]

CJ,

Both Arod and Jeter use Ash bats. Typically ash doesn't shatter and will get a standard handle crack or grain separation on the barrel.

[CampWest]

Hey BMH, has Louisville looked into or considered Birch as a possible wood for major league use. I believe its gained some traction in some independent leagues.

Would love to hear your thoughts on birch? strengths and weaknesses?

Thanks

[skyking26]

I had trouble sleeping last night and watched a program about 3 am regarding maple breakage. As we all know it is getting bad. Shards of knife-like bats stuck all over the field like spears. Something will happen; when is the key. I don't know if we will see an "end" to maple usage when it is all over, but if we do uncracked maples in our collections should raise the values...

[thomecollector]

I've noticed the Jim Thome has been using what appears to be a Blonde M356 lately. It also looks like an ash bat. Because there is no M9 logo on it. He has been doing it for about 2 or 3 weeks. BMH , any comments ?:D

[thomecollector]

OOPs ! Wrong picture. Sorry!