Ball Exit Speed Ratio

Watts and Bahill book is one of my favortie books and from an engineering/ physics standpoint seems to treat the subject of batspeed and weight and exit speeds with the most sense.

First off... Realize... some of the rules are made because some people LOBBY for them...based on information they have.... not necessarily correct. Last year the NCAA in Omaha used BESR rated bats... I really didnd't notice a big drop off in HRs and run production...

Ok lets' get to specifics.... Smaller diameter... smaller surface to hit the ball.... Fairly simple..... But as Ol Ag mentioned also less trampoline effect....

Now the weight issue.... I forget off-hand the book and author..(Adair?) but MLB sponsored a study to be done on bat wieght and hitter the ball farther... And that study concluded simply LIGHTER is BETTER which really kicked off the proliferation of all the new TECHNO wonder bats... But if you've read "keep your eye on the ball...." you are seeing a study that was done which not only looked at the physics of a collision between a bat and a ball but also accounted for the physiological aspects of the batter swinging a bat...

To try to state it in simple terms... The relationship between how fast a human body can swing a bat and its weight... is not always a linear relationship... and is not strictly a matter of MASS.... Watts and Bahill tests showed that most major leaguers have very little difference in swing speed with differnt weight bats.... I beleive this is due to the fact they are highly trained athletes with muscle memory and the fact the human body can only swing a bat so fast so as the weight decreases you have deminishing returns....

Watts and Bahill tests also show that for MAXIMUM EXIST speed.... Lighter isn't always better.... in fact it depended on the individual and for most MLB players they tested they conclude that the "IDEAL" weight was between 32 and 35 ounces... So anyway... they use a lot of physics and math to prove their study.... I know that kids that play Travel ball in San Deigo... All use relatively heavy bats... My 11 year old is swinging a 23 oz bat.... and has already hit numerous Home runs over 200' or more fences as a 10 yo....

NOW BESR is a term the rule makers use... BAT EXIT SPEED RATIO.... The rule makers are trying to limit the "Trampoline effect in bats.. to be approximately equal to that of wood bats.... Thus they made the new BESR rating.... which means the manufactures now must test a smaple of the bats they produce.....

So now the bats are supposed to have little or no trampoline effect, are supposed to heavier and smaller.... All to reduce the OFFENSIVE Barage we seen recently......

My only question is why do they still cost $200 or more... Theorically, you could just use the hot bats from 5-7 years ago... CU31 and still make a very good durable bat... that should very easily meet or even surpass the standards.... And they only cost $50 back then... Inflation hasn't been that high...