corked bats - is there really an advantage?

[briancurtin]

alright - so we've had the rising fastball debate a few times on here, and a few posts in a recent thread made me wonder what you guys think about corked bats. legal or not, is there an advantage to using a bat that is properly corked?

im burned out on reading about "scabs" -- mainly the flamewars that are coming with those threads, so i figured i'd change the pace. im hoping this doesnt get out of control, its just a topic about any experiences with corked bats and your opinions on them. once this gets out of hand i'll take it down.

[BigUmp56]

I'll bite.


There are good arguements on both sides of this. One side maintains that the lower mass gained(lower inertia) by corking a bat that increases the bats speed is not enough to overcome the mass/collison ratio provided by a heavier bat. The thought being that the two cancell each other out. If that's true then the only advantage gained is in contact proficiency.

Reducing the mass (lowering the moment-of-inertia) increases the swing speed - which increases batted-ball speed. But at the same time the lower mass reduces the effectiveness of the collision - which decreases the batted-ball speed. Which effect is greater is a toss-up. But since the two effects offset each other, there appears to be absolutely no scientific advantage to using a corked bat - at least for hitting home runs. There would be an advantage to just making contact, however. Because the bat is lighter and can be swung faster, a player can wait a few milliseconds longer before commiting to a swing. This means he can watch the pitched ball travel about 5 or 6 more feet before deciding to swing. For a slumping player this may help make contact with the ball more often. But, a corked bat will not make the ball go faster or further.


The other side will go into in depth detail to describe the optimum advantage in the bats compression/decompression ratio and how the ball with be deflected off of the bat at a higher speed similar to a trampoline effect. However. as I'm of the opinion that this is not true I'll wait to hear others elaborate on the merits of this claim.


SA?


Tim.

[BigUmp56]

Originally Posted by PWL

Anyway, I just use them for the faster pitchers. Yes, they will supply some extra pop being hollowed because of the added bat speed.

How?


Tim.

[greymule]

Perhaps we will see the day when all commercially manufactured bats are tamper proof, with holograms and seals and U.S. mint–type detailing on the surfaces.

One member of our association who plays high-level SP softball says that many players have already prepared for the summer by taking their new $300 bats to machine shops for "modifications."

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by BigUmp56

Reducing the mass (lowering the moment-of-inertia) increases the swing speed - which increases batted-ball speed. But at the same time the lower mass reduces the effectiveness of the collision - which decreases the batted-ball speed. Which effect is greater is a toss-up.

But the force the bat imparts to the baii increases with the square of the bat speed, and decreases linearly with the mass.

So, if the mass is decreased by 10% and the speed can be increased by 10%, the force can be increased by about 9%. It's easy to measure the reduction in mass. It's harder to measure the increase in bat speed.

[SAump]

Apparently, swinging SAmmy thought the extra POP in his batting practice came from somewhere.

[SAump]

I realize this is a wood bat discussion, but I must comment on the metal part of this statement.

"The other side will go into in depth detail to describe the optimum advantage in the bats compression/decompression ratio and how the ball with be deflected off of the bat at a higher speed similar to a trampoline effect. However. as I'm of the opinion that this is not true I'll wait to hear others elaborate on the merits of this claim."

I don't have the equipment to measure BESR. But there must be some kind of truth in it. FED-landia has been putting all its marbles into BESR for the past 5 years or so. Now the movement is to dampen the POWER out of all metal bats. I know the movement started after LSU walloped so many HOME RUNS during one of its many national championship runs. Who wants to pay $300 for a metal bat that carries a ONE year warranty and will lose all the POP in less than two years. Yeah, everybody might as well go back to wood composites.

I know even less about the BESR rating of a wood bat. Perhaps if all hitters were over 6 feet tall and gained another thirty pounds, I suppose a CORKED wood bat would give a scout a much better indication of POWER.

[greymule]

Who wants to pay $300 for a metal bat that carries a ONE year warranty and will lose all the POP in less than two years?

Slow pitch softball teams by the thousands. In big tournaments you often see every guy on a team use the same bat, and they hardly expect to use it for two years. They all know such bats die sometime soon after their first tournament.

Incidentally, I've seen balls hit by such bats do mid-air antics that I would have thought physically impossible. Maybe a human being can't throw a rising fastball, but there are bats that can hit balls that travel over the third baseman's head before he can get his glove up and then hit the ground 10 feet behind him, and liners over the pitcher that veer 20 degrees to the right and sail over the right center fielder.

[Buckeye12]

If I remember correctly, I believe that I read somewhere that the BESR of an aluminum bat and a wood bat are nearly identical only differing in 1-2 MPH. However, the major difference between aluminum and wood is the location of the moment of inertia which is much closer to the handle on an aluminum bat and more towards the barrel of a wood bat. This location allows the user of an aluminum bat to generate more bat speed than he/she could using a wood bat.

[SAump]

From Wikipedia, "In summary, the principle of inertia is INTIMATELY linked with the principles of conservation of energy and conservation of momentum."

PLUS

From Buckeye12, "However, the major difference between aluminum and wood is the location of the moment of inertia which is much closer to the handle on an aluminum bat and more towards the barrel of a wood bat. This location allows the user of an aluminum bat to generate more bat speed than he/she could using a wood bat."

MEANS

If you drill a hole in the bottom of a wood bat and fill it with a much lighter material, such as cork, then you in effect have transfered that initial moment of inertia of a wood bat from the barrel to a location closer to the handle of a wood bat. This new location allows one to generate a FASTER bat speed which translates into a much HARDER collision and transfer of energy and momentum into the baseball.

PROOF: There really is an advantage in a CORKED BAT.