Field performance of non-wood collegiate baseball bats

Abstract

Non-wood baseball bats are widely used in college as they are generally considered to outperform wood baseball bats. However, the field performance of non-wood baseball bats has not been previously reported. The aim of this study was to determine the field performance of non-wood baseball bats. Non-wood bat performance was then compared to previous studies of wood bat performance. During the 2024 season, 3164 hits at a Division I baseball field were analyzed. Pitched ball speed, batted ball speed, bat impact location, and bat speed were computed. Mean bat speed was 64 mph (29 m/s). Mean impact location was 4.3 inches (0.11 m) from the tip of the bat. These bat swings resulted in a mean batted ball speed of 83.5 mph (37.3 m/s). At a bat speed of 63.6 ± 2.5 mph (28.4 ± 1.1 m/s), the top 2% batted ball speeds were 102.1 mph (45.6 m/s), as compared to 92.9 mph (41.5 m/s) with wood baseball bats. The sweet spot for non-wood bats was located 2″ to 10.5″ (0.05–0.27 m) from the bat tip. This width for non-wood bats was substantially greater than the sweet spot for wood bats, which was located from 3″ to 7.5″ (0.08–0.19 m) from the bat tip. This field study found that modern non-wood bats used at the collegiate level substantially outperformed wood baseball bats in terms of batted ball speeds at a given bat speed and the width of the sweet spot.