7/9/2012 - BBCOR Bats Right Move
As each ball cleared the wall at Toms River East High School, I kept thinking to myself, this is not baseball.
As each run crossed home plate in state-record fashion, I kept thinking this is not baseball.
And when the carnage finally ended nearly three-plus hours later with a final score of 29-14 in favor of Manalapan over Westfield in the Group 4 state final in 2011, I left the field with a very bad taste in my mouth when it came to high school baseball.
When two of the top teams in the state combined for 43 runs, 45 hits, 10 doubles and seven home runs you knew there was something severely wrong with how game was constructed and contested.
This wasn’t a fluky thing. No, this was the culmination of the super-charged aluminum bats used in high school ball making the game a freak show and nothing like the beautiful game I grew up playing and watching.
In fact, when Westfield was down by 18, the Blue Devils coach started sending his back-ups to the plate to get an at-bat in a state final and they were going yard.
Ridiculous.
Thankfully, that all changed this year with the state adopting the national rule of using what are commonly called BBCOR bats. Bats that are still aluminum but the sweet spot on the bat is half the size of the old bats so those check swing dingers to the opposite field were a thing of the past from average hitters.
The days of the No. 9 hitter putting up the same power numbers as your No. 3 and 4 guys in the batting order are gone and I say good riddance.
High school baseball games were becoming marathons with football scores. No real baseball fans want to see 14-12 games on a consistent basis. And with innings limitations on pitchers, coaches were going through their staffs like a hot knife through butter.
But the switch to BBCOR may have saved the game for now, and according to several coaches I have spoken with, the next challenge is for high schools to go back to the old days of wooden bats.
In fact, Manalapan made another nice run to the state final again and it defended its title. Final score? Behind great pitching and defense Manalapan topped Hillsborough 2-0 in the Group 4 championship game.
Now that’s baseball.
In an informal poll of some local coaches they all liked the change, especially former Major League pitcher and Hopatcong head coach Chris Buglovsky.
“It was amazing,” said Buglovsky, who made it to the Bigs with the Seattle Mariners. “Being an ex-pitcher and playing half of our games at the Homerdome, and it is called that for a reason, it is great to see the game get back to its original form.
“This season you had to create runs and do the little things,” he added. “It is like I told the kids, it is like going from American League baseball to National League. The games were crisper and more interesting. It was a great change.”
Buglovsky said it allowed pitchers to pitch without fear and trust their stuff. He said too many times a kid would make a great pitch only to get “beat by technology.”
I couldn’t agree more whole heartedly. The old bats were ruining the game. Pitchers are now more aggressive in the count because they know the No. 9 guy wasn’t going to take him deep.
This also forced hitters to become smarter at the plate and look to move the runner from second with a hit to the right side of the field and not swing for the fences.
Small-ball came back in style and teams that embraced that concept were successful. In the long run I think it will make kids better hitters because now they know that check swing is not going to land in the gap, but will end up in the second baseman’s glove.
“I thought it was great,” said Pope John coach Vin Bello, who has had a Murders’ Row batting order the last few years. “We should have played with these bats a long time ago. It makes for more of a true game and it is more like the wood bat.
“I’ve always been a wood bat guy,” he added. “That is something the baseball committee is now seriously looking at.”
That is great news. I know it would be more expensive, but it would improve the game and for safety reasons it is a great idea.
Third base on the turf at Pope John, especially for a visiting team, was not just the “Hot Corner” it was an invitation to a trip to the hospital with the way the ball flew off the bats of the hard-slugging Lions.
And the beauty of the BBCOR bats is that the kids who can really hit, were not affected. Matt Tietz of Pope John, who is heading to Rutgers, and Ryan McNally of Pope John, who is going to Fordham, each had monsters seasons for the Lions hitting over .500.
Jon Kristofferson of Jefferson set the school record for hits this season. And all the guys at Lenape Valley can swing the bat and that didn’t change this season.
In 2011, the teams in the American Division of the NJAC scored 1,187 runs. This year the number dropped to 1,096 and that is no coincidence.
Baseball is a game that doesn’t really lend itself to change, but this one was a major one and it has worked out for the best. The NCAA switched to BBCOR in 2011 and runs per game went from 6.98 to 5.58 and homers dropped to 0.52 the lowest since 1975.
Let’s hope that the BBCOR bats stick around. I know it is not the same to hear the “ping” of the bat instead of the “crack” of the bat, but it is a good start.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
(Below are BBCOR facts that appeared in the Bergen Record).
Bat facts
-- BBCOR stands for Batted Ball Coefficient. Instead of measuring the speed of the ball after it’s hit, BBCOR measures the “bounciness” of the ball and bat, or the “trampoline” effect. When a bat hits a ball, the ball compresses/deforms by nearly a third at high pitch velocities.
-- The bats still are made of aluminum, but the sweet spot on the barrel is about half the size of previous bats. The sweet spot generally is defined as the region about 5 to 7 inches from the end of the barrel, where the batted ball speed is the highest and the sensation in the hands is minimized. Because the BBCOR bats are less flexible on impact than traditional aluminum bats, the sweet spot is, on average, 2 inches smaller.
-- Balls do not jump off the bat as sharply, making the game safer because pitchers and infielders have more time to react.
-- The average nationwide cost of a BBCOR bat is $300, although models are available for less than $100. Wood bats cost between $40 and $200 each. The cost of the former aluminum bats is similar to the new bats, and most players buy their own.
Courtesy of the Bergen Record
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