Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Thu Jan 25 18:12:40 2007

> "Dennis. No offense as who would not want their kid or those who are being taught to have privy to the best mechanics. But at the lower level is it not more important to have the kids making contact and feeling early success/good about themselves?"
>
> That assumes that they will be able to have the same level of success with a big barrel bat as with a standard barrel bat.
>
> I'm not convinced that that will always be the case.
>
> If you shift the Center Of Gravity of the bat you will alter the Swing Weight of the bat which may hurt the player's batspeed.
>
> The analogy between a big barrel bat and an oversized head racket doesn't necessarily apply.

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Chris. Point taken as nothing is etched in stone with regard to hitting, but there has to be a reason why the 2 3/4 diameter bat hs been limited to 2 5/8 max at the college level. And more often than not greater mass gives enough of a confidence boost in itself. I think we tend to forget about the hitters of the past using heavier bats which were supposedly harder to swing, yet you still had great hitters some of whom had less efficient mechanics. I am convinced that there is so much more to hitting than batspeed. Otherwise everyone would be warranted to use the identical stance, style, and technique. Maybe they should, as I noticed a somewhat striking similarity on Teacherman's site between Ted Williams and Barry Bonds.

In my opinion the more relevent issue is the weight of the bat as opposed to the diameter. But for the most part it is an individual call. Hitters brought up on the big barrel bat could could be just as well off as hitters who use the 2 1/4 model. Likely the primary reason big league hitters don't use the biggest barrell is that the top quality wood comes in too heavy than what they are accustomed to swinging at the lower diameter. With aluminum there are more options.