Ask any coach, player or parent about bats and the resulting conversations will remind you of the kitten roundup. What’s legal/illegal? Do we need to buy new bats? Can I use a minus 7? Is BESR certified still good? Hey, wait…no you can’t use a minus 7 unless you are hitting fungos but that’s a different issue.
While 2011 was a transition year, starting this year with the 2012 season, high school and college baseball have completely switched bat performance standards from BESR to BBCOR alleviating the confusion about what bats they can use. Now it’s quite simple, for non-wood, if the bat is permanently labeled “BBCOR .50″, it’s legal; NOT labeled, NOT legal. While rules vary slightly by association and level of ball, in general, if the batter steps in the box with an illegal bat, and is discovered by anyone before the first pitch to the next batter, the batter will be declared out and any positive outcome of that at bat will be undone. In high school, to add insult to injury, the coach will be restricted to the bench after the first offense as it is ultimately his/her responsibility that players are legally and properly equipped.
So what exactly are these “beezers” and “BBs” anyways? This certification change-up represents a fundamental shift in how performance is measured. BESR stands for“Ball Exit Speed Ratio” which measures how fast the ball comes off the bat. BBCOR stands for “Ball-Bat Coefficient of Restitution” which measures the “springiness” of the ball and bat or the “trampoline effect” if you will. With out going all math and science on you, BESR was simply considered not an accurate enough measurement and opened the door for the confusing list of exempted bats. Think about the difference between jumping up and down on a hard wood floor and doing the same on a trampoline; you get difference results that has to do with how energy is lost or absorbed; this is what BBCOR measures. The result is a more balanced performance from bat-to-bat and player-to-player and a narrowing of the gap in performance from wood to non-wood which addresses both competitive and safety concerns.
Got all that? There will be a test later. One important item to note, you’ll never damage your game bats when taking batting practice with the MaxBP mini-wiffle pitching machine! You’ll get the advantage of taking cuts with the feel of your game bats with no worries of wearing them out. Just another benefit of using our fantastic portable machine (Bet you didn’t see that one coming – remember, look fastball but be ready for the curve).
MaxBP wishes everyone a great weekend on the diamond or in the cages. As always, check out our specials at the link below: http://store.maxbp.com/category_s/48.htm