Newton's Second Law of Motion - In the Batter's Box

One of the most common questions we field is "How light can you make my bat?" or "I want the biggest barrel possible but it has to be -3!".  Something has to give and the majority of players hink that swinging a lighter baseball bat is the best thing they can do for their performance at the plate.  

 Baseball players need to stop thinking like this. Why?

1) The lighter a wood bat, the less dense the wood.  In order to produce a wood bat that is a -3, we need to start with a lighter wood billet.  The billet is lighter because the wood is lower in density.  The lower the density, the weaker the wood.  If you start with a lower density wood billet, you’re more likely to make a wood bat that is weaker than a wood bat made from a heavier or high density billet.

2). A weight difference of 1 ounce (-2 compared to -3) is virtually undetectable.. A stack of ten pennies is about an ounce. That extra ounce is distributed throughout the bat’s length and not focused on the barrel’s end.  Picture a bat with ten pennies placed on it that are spaced from knob to barrel end.

3) Swinging a -2 wood bat, compared to a -3, will NOT reduce your bat speed.  Remember that some of that weight  is located in the handle and distributed thoughout the bat evenly.

4) A bat that is one ounce heavier has more mass, and is made from harder/stronger wood.  Science and  physics tells us, and proves that the more mass you apply to something (in this case, a bat on ball), the more force you will apply to it.  This is Isacc Newton's Second Law of Motion F = ma.

So, there it is - all backed by SCIENCE! When you are on our custom side of the site, you'll see in the weight drop down "-2 Recommended"; and what you've read above is why.  The stock side of the site we get the bats in between a -2 and -3.  If you’re shopping our Teen and Youth Series, you'll notice the maximum length to weight differential is -5.  Anything greater will essentially be a piece of extremely low density balsa wood.