Posted by: Jon (jonwilliams@fuse.net) on Thu Mar 31 05:59:02 2005

Pete, those are all good bats and any would probably serve your purpose. I'm partial to the Demarini with the Stealth as my second choice. But as long as the prices aren't too different, your son would probably be the happiest picking out his own brand/color. Once you find the brand and specs you want, you might want to search the web and particularly Ebay since I've found much better prices than at my local sporting goods store.

I've had 7 or 8 maple bats made for my sons (from Sam Bat) and I was able to get a -5 for my youngest son (he's 6 in machine pitch) but the only way they could get it that light was to make the barrel less than the standard 2 1/4 inches. We use it just for practice and warming up since he can't get it around for the 40mph machine speed in his league. It's not the end of the world if your son's bat has a slightly smaller barrel, especially if it's just for practice.

Best wishes Pete.
Jon