Expected Impact of BBCOR Bats on HS Baseball

[Soxfan1]

I was thinking the same thing. High Schools may have to pull the fences in 20 feet. In all seriousness though. The one thing I hate to see is those nice 20 foot high line drives that used to get over the outfielder to the wall for doubles and triples will lose steam and instead of the outfielder having to chase the ball, he'll be able to camp and that takes away a lot. Hitting in the gap will also be effected somewhat if theres any arch on the ball any outfielder with decent speed will be able to run it down. I love good defense and some small ball but I hate to see the loss of free swinging to some degree. I don't think it'll change infield play that much except that infielders will be playing another step or two off the bag than in the past. Pitchers that were average will have decreases in ERA's which can be misleading, SO's shouldn't change though. Good pitchers will still be good pitchers. I don't think it'll have too big an impact on true BIG power hitters, their homeruns will just be 380' instead of 420' and their HR numbers will drop some. If they play at the next level they'll become bigger and stronger anyway. It will have an impact on those hitters that were hitting 10 HR's that were clearing the fence by 5 or 10 feet. I do think it'll cut down on pitchers being injured on those straight back liners which is the best thing about it.

Positioning players is going to be more important. Playing the outfielders too deep will lead to a ton of bloop hits.

[redkuda]

Positioning players is going to be more important. Playing the outfielders too deep will lead to a ton of bloop hits.

 

 

Wonder if we'll see the outfielders actually playing up a bit more to prevent bloops as they should have an easier time going back as the ball should lose steam quicker. You see that in the wood bat tournaments, even when the ball is hit sharp it just doesn't carry as well and tends to slow down quicker. I think it will be similar with the BBCORs.

[10ABaseball]

Positioning players is going to be more important. Playing the outfielders too deep will lead to a ton of bloop hits.

This is extremely true. Saw so many of these last weekend! Truthfully, With the 7 games I've seen this year have yet to see one actually go past an outfielder.

[williamsoncounty]

Youth baseball has been taken from the ogre and returned to the athlete.

[10ABaseball]

Youth baseball has been taken from the ogre and returned to the athlete.

Agreed!

[Gabby]

I have attended several showcases and HS pracitces since the new bats came out. There are almost no homeruns. At Radford, there were 30 really good players, big, fast, strong...no HR's. You see balls hit that would havebeen out last year that are just deep fly balls now.

 

I watched a tournament in Mufreesboro this past weekend. In a three game series, there were 7 home runs hit. I watched Riverdale play (they hit two in the game I watched), and I don't believe they are going to play much small ball. They were huge! They looked like a bunch of college sophmores. Yes, there aren't going to be as many homeruns hit off the brand, but for the good, strong hitters they are still going to hit their share of homeruns.

[Soxfan1]

I watched a tournament in Mufreesboro this past weekend. In a three game series, there were 7 home runs hit. I watched Riverdale play (they hit two in the game I watched), and I don't believe they are going to play much small ball. They were huge! They looked like a bunch of college sophmores. Yes, there aren't going to be as many homeruns hit off the brand, but for the good, strong hitters they are still going to hit their share of homeruns.

That is exactly what I have seen so far in regular season play. Big guys, good hitters will still hit it out.

[williamsoncounty]

I noticed that pitchers aren't jamming the big dudes inside. Yet. They will.

[glock22]

Good story in the Chattanooga Times Free Press BBCOR bats.