Bat Rolling

[kylejt]

One more thing. Some companies dumbed down their BESR bats to BBCOR by inserting a metal ring, to truss up the insides. Rolling those will probably eff them up, and not produce the desired results.

Again, I don't know if rolled bats are considered altered, or not. I've felt rolled bats before, and you can feel the facets, ever so slight, but they're there.

Me, I'm worried about the end caps being removed. That either means a shaved bat, or one that the ring has been removed. Now that's an altered bat.

[Rich Ives]

If you think rolling a bat isn't altering it you've come under the influence of a mind altering substance.

[kylejt]

I dunno about that. A year ago I would have agreed. But since then the new testing technique is rolling 'til death. Thus, proving that rolling doesn't cause the bat to overperform. Hence, rolling should be legal.

Now, I consider rolling to be akin to a pitcher rubbing up a baseball. Just warmin' it up. (well, maybe not warming it up, as some rulesets have wording prohibiting heating up bats).

p.s. I'm only on my first Blue Moon Pale Ale of the evening.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

If you think rolling a bat isn't altering it you've come under the influence of a mind altering substance.

Rich:

I agree with you completely. Especially about rolling mind altering substances, .

MTD, Sr.

[kylejt]

Fair enough, fellas. How 'bout these other techniques?

Hitting 500 of those hard rubber balls at the cages?

Hitting a "heavy bag" time after time?

Hitting a wooden telephone pole repeatedly?

Backing your car over it, repeatedly?

Don't get me wrong, these are all stupid things to do to a kid's $300 stick. But folks do each of them. And given that it's been proven that rolling doesn't alter the performance characteristics beyond the given threshold, I'm inclined to overlook those rippled bats from now on.

[justanotherblue]

Rolling is cheating, plain and simple. It's altering the bat, now being able to detect a rolled bat is another question all together. Unfortunately, manufactures, coaches and dads, have forgot there's more to baseball than the long ball. Still there's a simple solution, it's called wood. And at $300 a pop, that's a lot of wood bats. Than again, coaches and dad's have forgot or never learned how to hit with wood to begin with.

[MNBlue]

I realize that the bat standards for baseball and softball are not the same, but here is the new terminology for the bat rule in softball:

2012 MAJOR EDITORIAL CHANGES

1-5-1c
Clarified that shaving, rolling or artificially warming the bat barrel are prohibited.

[BretMan]

Originally Posted by MNBlue

I realize that the bat standards for baseball and softball are not the same, but here is the new terminology for the bat rule in softball:

That's actually old terminology that's been in rule book awhile. The "editorial change" is that it was moved from one section of the rule book to another.

Kyle, where are you getting your info on ABI? As I understand the ABI process, it involves rolling a bat only to a degree that simulates the stress that a bat typically sees with normal use. What is being measured is how "hot" a bat might get under normal circumstances, not how much stress it takes to make the bat fail. The intent is to determine if a bat's performance will exceed the BBCOR standard after a given period of normal game usage.

This is to prevent manufacturers from producing bats that perform at the cusp of the standard right out of the wrapper, with the knowledge that minimal use will make the bat hot enough to exceed the standard. To get BBCOR certification, the bat must perform below the standard after any break-in period.

All the ABI testing does is allow the broken-in bats to be tested after a few passes through the roller, as opposed to having to perform hundreds of bat/ball impacts to get to the same point.

[MikeStrybel]

Originally Posted by Marcus521

BBCOR testing actually takes composite bats, rolls them repeatedly until failure, and tests them along the way. If, at any point, they perform over the set limit, they fail. So these bats are "safe", if they're only rolled. You'll see the term ABI, or advanced break in, and that's what this means.

Ah, but the question is, are they considered altered? I've heard both sides of this arguement, but nothing authoritative.

Nothing authoritative? The NCAA, NFHS and ASA all state that bat rolling is illegal because it alters the bat in a way that is unnatural to its intent.

Bat manufacturers state in their warranties that they will not honor a return if the bat has been rolled.

A bat that has been through a break in period via hitting baseballs will look different - the damage to the bat will not be uniform and any resin chipping inside will be more confined to points of impact. IMHO and the others stated above, rolling a bat is cheating.

[Steven Tyler]

Originally Posted by kylejt

One more thing. Some companies dumbed down their BESR bats to BBCOR by inserting a metal ring, to truss up the insides. Rolling those will probably eff them up, and not produce the desired results.

Again, I don't know if rolled bats are considered altered, or not. I've felt rolled bats before, and you can feel the facets, ever so slight, but they're there.

Me, I'm worried about the end caps being removed. That either means a shaved bat, or one that the ring has been removed. Now that's an altered bat.

Seriously?

I've felt and looked at bats I know are rolled and shaved, and I couldn't tell the difference from one to the other. They can take those end caps off, and you cannot tell if they've been off or not.