My understanding is it saves on the cost of bunch of broken wood bats. I do also know these metal bats these days are darn expensive too, though, so who knows.

(03-28-2015 03:17 PM)JMUDunk Wrote:  My understanding is it saves on the cost of bunch of broken wood bats. I do also know these metal bats these days are darn expensive too, though, so who knows.

I believe this is true. The average MLB player according to an article from '09 that I found breaks about 40 bats a season. We play about 1/3 the game so that would be about 13 bats per player and there's 34 players and a good wooden bat is about $80, that's over a $35k year expense. No way most college programs could afford that.

(03-28-2015 03:12 PM)DoubleDDuke Wrote:  IMO, there's just no reason why these strong young men should be using a mettle bat. You see these games that are like 14-9 and it's just stupid. On a side note, most people don't understand that women's basketball is smaller than a men's basketball. It makes some sense because overall, women tend to have smaller hands. Thing is, same rim. So when people say "Why are the women so much better at shooing free throws?" they don't even take into account that they're shooting with a smaller basketball with the same rim.

Did not know this. Thanks for sharing.

(03-01-2015 02:06 PM)Bawlmer Duke Wrote:  Spanky has sucked the life out of the program and losing against Big South and MAAC competition is no longer a surprise. Longwood picked 9th in Big South preseason poll while Canisius was picked #1 and Quinnipiac was #5 in the MAAC preseason conference poll. I'm fairly certain we only have 1 tournament this season too.

UNCW and CoC schedule better opponents or play in multiple tournaments.

Looking over the last few years, wins against the Big South are not as common as losses.

Metal bats are one of the worst things that ever happened to baseball.

Brian

The new BBCOR bats eliminated much of the "gorilla ball" that dominated college baseball for ~20 years. You still won't see any broken bats on pitches that break inside, but they won't turn into doubles hit off the handle either. Homerun production dropped so much (particularly at the college world series) with the new bats that the NCAA switched the ball this year to increase run production. The new ball has lower seams which reduces drag during flight but doesn't drastically change the velocity off the bat = dead pitchers.

Purist may love the wooden bat, but I'm pretty sure we have the technology to make a durable aluminum bat that mimics most of wood's properties without the cost and safety issues associated with shattered lumber.

As for Spanky, who is going to replace him? I hope the plan isn't to promote the assistant coach. We need some young/fresh blood that's willing to recruit outside of Rockingham county.

Unfortunately, for me, one of the biggest problems with metal bats is the sound of the ball coming off the bat. It is the crack of the bat, not the ping or ching off the bat.

Hate the sound of the ball off a metal bat.

Purist I am. Wood bats and grass fiels.

One of the problems that cropped up early with metal bats was that it prevented pitchers from learning to pitch on the inside half of the plate. With a wood bat it would result in a broken bat and a soft dribbler up the line. With a metal bat a good hitter could muscle a good shot down the line for a double without breaking the bat. So pitchers learned to stay away from inside pitches. You can see the fallout from that in the majors today when pitchers can't work inside and every time a pitch gets close inside the batter freaks out and words and gestures get used. Batters aren't used to close inside pitches since they never had to face many of them in college ball due to the pitchers avoiding the inside part of the plate.

And don't even get me started on the old artificial turf fields!!!!!!

Even when I played softball for a few years while working I used a wood bat. Was the only one who did. Took a lot of ribbing over it. But for a singles hitter like me it was fine!!

Brian

Completely agree about the sound. When I try to watch college baseball and hear that pinging sound I cringe. I't just not the way baseball is supposed to be. ESPN had a special on this whole thing where they were analyzing pitchers getting hit in the face on balls hit right up the middle and how ridiculous metal bats are. I don't know the financials enough to evaluate that, but it seems to me that everything considered, baseball should be played with wood bats all the way from little league up. A 20 year old using a metal bat is ridiculous.

(03-28-2015 10:28 PM)HooDukeVooDuke Wrote:  As for Spanky, who is going to replace him? I hope the plan isn't to promote the assistant coach. We need some young/fresh blood that's willing to recruit outside of Rockingham county.

Amen. This is a prime job, and hopefully Bourne and the Pres will hire someone with the energy and coaching skills of the new softball coach.

Speaking of the a new baseball coach and staff, whoever get hired to replace Spanky will miss an entire recruiting class. 2015 baseball high school prospects finalize their college choice by May 20th. I imagine we will announce the new coach sometime in June or July.