Clubhouse Gas
Casey: We’re trying to take care of you parents who are looking to buy your child some sporting goods equipment for the holidays. Today, we’re looking at bats. There’s a lot of different types of bats so here at Jonquil Sporting Goods, we want to check them out and see what you need to get your kid for the holidays so stay tune to Clubhouse Gas.
We’re here at Jonquil Sporting Goods and we’re lucky enough to be joined by Craig Brooks. Craig thanks for joining us buddy.
Craig: You’re very welcome. Thanks man.
Casey: We’re getting ready for the holidays we’re trying to help these parents out. Kid needs a new bat, kid wants a new bat so the parents are going to go shopping and a lot of times they don’t really know what to get so I was hoping maybe you could give us a hand.
Craig: Nothing to that. If I start I guess at the youngest age group.
Casey: Okay.
Craig: Your Tee ball age child and Tee ball batch you’re really only looking at about 3 sizes. There’s a 24 inch, 25 inch and 26 inch. This is basically any 6 and under player. Really not a lot of technologies on this bat usually more of a price point kind of a $20 to $40 range, nothing too fancy about them, not made to hit pitch baseballs. They will dent pretty easily but their going to be normally pretty light anywhere form say 12 to say 20 or excuse me 12 to 16 ounces.
The lighter the better for the younger guys and you really just want something that they can handle and just get used to swinging and get used to their fundamentals.
Casey: So as a parent coming in to buy the bat their looking probably for just the lightest bat they can find?
Craig: Not necessarily, I mean if he’s a larger kid of course you know mass is going to help but bat speed is the key. And then just tell being comfortable with the bat so you definitely want something that’s very light weight. I would go lighter than not, yeah.
Casey: Alright so then 8 years old, they start throwing the ball at him what are we going to do 7 year old what are we going to do with there?
Craig: Then you’re going to go to usually a little league bat and by little league bat we’re talking about something that is similar in mass size. You want a 2 and a quarter barrel. These bats they can make extremely light. They’re usually— they start at 27 inches and go up to about 32 inches. Tons of different technologies in bats here you can get bats anywhere from 67 to 80 dollars up to 50 to 300 dollars for a little league kid.
Casey: For an 8-year-old’s bat.
Craig: For an 8-year-old’s bat.
Casey: Not my kid but talk to me about this— I hear a lot about the drop 3, drop 8 what does that mean?
Craig: Well the drop is the difference between the length and weight of the bat. So easiest math if you got a minus 10 bat if it’s a 30 inch bat and it’s a -10 30-10 is 20 ounces.
Casey: 20 ounces, okay.
Craig: So if you’ve got you’re 30 inch little league bat and you go find them and minus 12, minus 13 so a 30 inch minus 12 is probably a good average little league bat.
Casey: So what’s a parent looking for here when their going to buy their kid a bat when they’ve got an 8 year old or 7 year old playing little league what are they looking for. What are the specifics when they think about their kid and an individual bat sizing them and fitting that bat?
Craig: Well you definitely want to try and get something light because again bat speed is going to be your number one thing. Every manufacturer out there has from extremely heavy to extremely light but bat speed again I can’t stress that enough that is the key. But it has to do with the different aluminums as far as performance. You’re going to find all kinds of aluminums and that’s where you’re going to get your low point. Your low price points all the way up to the extremely expensive stuff.
Casey: So whatever you are willing to spend.
Craig: Basically, you can go— most bats are made of aluminum probably three manufacturers have now made composite bats and you’ll see a lot of folks out there like for instance the Easton Stealth composite is going to sound funny, it’s going to sound kind of dead almost like a wood bat. Basically, what composite is going to allow for is a little more trampoline effect and out of any bat that you use what you want is a trampoline effect and you want that barrel to actually dent every time you hit it.
You basically want it to give in and then trampoline back out and that’s where your performance is going to come from.
Casey: So it’s adding another level of compression to make the ball go further.
Craig: Exactly.
Casey: But there’s no performance difference in wood and metal?
Craig: We’re not going to say that.
Casey: We’re not going to do that today. Alright so where do we go from there, where’s the next set up?
Craig: Alright as you progress through the league I guess one thing I did want to say about the length to weight as far as the kid goes. If you’re using a little league bat and if you’re buying this for a Christmas present for your son and it’s his first year playing baseball and you have no idea what link to get if he’s a 10 year old kid. Normally on a little league age guys or using little league bats, I like to keep them at the same ending number and by that I mean if he’s 10, he should probably using about a 30 inch bat.
Casey: Okay.
Craig: If he’s 9 he should be using a 29 inch and so on and so forth and that’s stays true for all of the small barrel little league bats up to 11 and probably even 12 as well. From there you get into the large barrel stuff.
Casey: Right. Alright so we get to the big barrel.
Craig: And the big barrels, big barrel bats are not going to be allowed in little league baseball but in most travel ball organizations in certain little in park stuff you can use a bat that’s has a larger barrel size diameter and you’re going to find anywhere from 2 and 5/8 and 2 and ¾ inch barrels. The larger diameter obviously gives a bigger hitting surface but it actually allows for more trampoline effect.
Casey: Okay.
Craig: Just like getting a pole at the same thickness of metal it’s going to be easier to put a dent in larger pole than it is a skinnier pole. So you’re going to be able to get more trampoline.
Casey: Alright.
Craig: Big barrel bats will vary a ton in weight, you can find big barrel bats anywhere from a minus 10 to a minus 3. Minus 3 is what they use in high school but at the younger age using travel ball and what not, you want them to use the lighter stuff. The 9 year old kids, the 10 year old kids again you want the bats gauge. You want to get minus 10, minus 9 and half, minus 9 and you find that in all kinds of price ranges.
Now as they get older when you start talking about your 12-year-olds, you’re 13-year-olds and especially even your 14-year-olds. You’re slowly working up to the high schools which are going to use the minus 3. That is going to be the heaviest bat that’s what required by high school as well as college. If you use as a 14-year-old a minus 10 which in mostly is perfectly legal, the next year as a 15-year-old, you go into high school you’re going to have trouble because your big enough even if you stay at the same length you’re going to pick up 7 full ounces.
So if you can go ahead and adjust slowly get heavier an heavier bats what I recommend highly for a 14 year old child that will be a-5 in that way you can really get a lot closer to that high school weight and that swing that you’ll be using at that age.
Casey: Alright well that is a ton of great information, the best everybody that I can tell you and if you like me and if you get really confused come over here at Jonquil and see some people who knows what they’re talking about they’ll be real good to you but there’s a little bit of information you can use here at the holidays so take care of your kids. So thank you Craig we really appreciate it.
Craig: Thank you sir.
Casey: We’ll see you right back here tomorrow on Clubhouse Gas.
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