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?slu...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.