Precious Metal

Well the whole metal vs. wood debate has produced significant mileage for the Defensive Specialist. It could be that we’re flogging a dead horse but the comments and emails keep dropping in offering opinion both for and against. There’s nothing like sparking a healthy debate! Anyway, the Defensive Specialist’s old pal – The US Correspondent thought he’d chip in with some thoughts on metal and wood. Here’s what he had to say:

DS,

Just read the blog and have a couple random opinions about wood vs. metal although not necessarily pertaining to the subject you broached.

I was curious if you've debated before on why the NCAA* stays with metal. The typical response is that schools have bat deals with the major companies, it’s cheaper, etc. Don't all the major companies that supply metal bats, also make wood bats? Sort of kills that answer. The answer I came across this summer has to do with wood bats as a product. There simply is not enough good wood to go around. The discrepancy between a quality wood bat and a poor wood bat is higher then the discrepancy between a high quality metal bat and a bottom of the barrel model. The basis of the argument then would be that the high powered schools of the baseball universe (Arizona State University, Florida State University, Louisiana State University, etc) would be able to afford to pay for the high quality wood bats, where lower tier schools would most likely have to settle for lower quality wood bats (Rawlings Ash Big Sticks come to mind).

*Governing body of division 1 college baseball in the US that uses metal bats.

Therefore wood bats might actually create a larger gap in the competition rather than bringing it closer together (this flies in the face of proponents of wood who argue that the competition would be narrowed). Obviously part of that equation is that better schools with more talented players would be able to handle a wood bat compared to smaller school with less talented players. So now the more talented schools are armed with better equipment. The gap will become even larger.

I also wanted to comment on an observation that metal bats "eliminate the inside part of the plate". That statement is untrue in my opinion, if anything metal bats force pitchers to get to the actual inside part of the plate, pitching to wood bats gives amateur pitchers a false sense of what the actual inside part of the plate is. Pitching middle-in jams an average hitter with wood, where they can handle that pitch with metal. But a pitch truly on the inside corner might be the best weapon against a metal bat. Look at most college baseball coaches hitting philosophies and they would likely say to be able to handle the outer half fastball, because that is where people think they have to pitch because they are pitching to aluminum. 

The Defensive Specialist wanted to test the US Correspondent on one of the areas that had been hotly contested – that a youngster throwing 82 mph would get slaughtered and not have enough fastball to actually go inside on hitters. The US Correspondent had a theory on that too!

What do you mean they don't throw hard enough to get in there!? I say soft tossers have a better chance then anybody! Logic tells you that for a soft tosser to have success he is going to get a lot of roll overs (5-3, 6-3 putouts). So what's your approach as a hitting coach to a right-handed spinner who throws 80mph doo doo or a left handed pitcher with a change? I'm assuming you’re telling your guys to stay back and drill the ball through the middle of the diamond or stay in the "off gap".

So I think it is more important for the "soft" tosser to prove they can get on the inner half! Or else you have hitters who can comfortably stay back and dive to the outer part of the plate. The soft tosser has to make the hitter inside conscious or that hitter just sits away and eliminates one half of the plate. If they show they'll go in it makes the off speed stuff that much better. On the flip side soft tossers have to pick their spots when they go in, it’s obviously easier to turn around 83 than 93. I bet if you pulled up a video of Jamie Moyer when he's dealing he is effectively commanding the inside half with his fastball. Tom Glavine lived on the inside half.

The hard thrower occasionally gets burned on the inner half because bad hitters are so geared up for the FB that sometimes that's the only pitch they can run into. Clear the chest and turn and burn and hope it hits the barrel.

Location Location Location!

An interesting take from the US Correspondent although the Defensive Specialist isn’t so sure he’d like to sit and watch some 18-20 thumber try and go in on a decent hitter. The results could be catastrophic. Mind you, it is interesting thinking about approaches to pitching against metal bats. An anonymous reader did comment this week that they actually looked forward to the challenge of bearing down and really going after some of the better hitters, knowing full well that they had to be on their game in order to compete. It did sound like the commenter knew how to handle himself on the mound, which is one thing. The key point to remember in all of this however is the impact that metal bats will have on the younger players coming through. Yes, metal will undoubtedly help the young hitters, but what about the young hurlers. Those without the experience or mental capacity may not be able to bear down against the bigger bats in the line up and that’s when the fireworks begin!

In other news, a couple of ABL logos have drifted out into the open market. You may notice that nothing has shown up for the Perth Heat. The simple reason behind this is that kids have been on school holidays so there hasn’t been an available 6 year old to draw it just yet.