Two Tone Maple Bats-2009

[gamer35]

I was wondering why so many players went to two tone maple bats with natural handles during 2009, but it seems as though it is now mandated by MLB:
*All bats must conform to slope of grain wood requirements. Slope of grain is a term that quantifies how straight the grain is on the wood.
*All manufacturers must place an ink dot on the tangential face of the sugar maple and yellow birch bats before finishing. This enables the slope of grain to be viewed easily.
*The orientation of the hitting surface on sugar maple and maple bats should be rotated 90 degrees. To facilitate the change, all manufacturers must rotate the logo they placed on bats by 90 degrees.
*The handles of sugar maple and yellow birch bats must be natural or clear to allow for the inspection of the slope of grain in the handle.
*Manufacturers must track each bat they supply.
*Officials from each manufacturer must participate in an M.L.B.-sponsored workshop on engineering properties and grading practices of wood.
*M.L.B. will visit manufacturers regularly to audit each company’s manufacturing processes.
*Random audits of bats will be conducted by M.L.B. at ballparks.
*A third-party bat certification and quality control program should be established to certify new suppliers, approve new species of wood, provide training and education to manufacturers and address non-compliance issues.

This should be useful in identifying maple game bats from BP bats as only maple bats with natural handles can be used in game action.

[OaklandAsFan]

not 100% sure of this, I swear Giambi is using all black M9's occasionally right now.

Brian any chance Jason has given you any insight as to why he chooses to flip back and forth between the maple and the ash?

[treant985]

Can anybody provide better definitions than MLB did of things like 'slope of grain' or 'tangential face' (I didn't know a bat had a face). Also, does this mean that yellow birch is now allowed in MLB games?-->

"*The handles of sugar maple and yellow birch bats must be natural or clear to allow for the inspection of the slope of grain in the handle."

BTW, it doesn't say that rock maple bats have to have a clear handle--only sugar maple (and yellow birch).

The 90 degree rotation rule seems interesting, although probably useless...does this now mean that players are hitting what used to be equivalent to the front/back barrel, instead of the left/right barrel? Couldn't players just rotate the bat back 90 degrees in their hand?

[treant985]

not 100% sure of this, I swear Giambi is using all black M9's occasionally right now.

Brian any chance Jason has given you any insight as to why he chooses to flip back and forth between the maple and the ash?

Here's a pic from 4/12/2009 of Giambi using an all-black M9:

20260

[brianborsch]

Breakin' the law! Breakin' the Law!!!!!

[sctizzle]

Looks like it still says New York Yankees under his signature....

[Birdbats]

I noticed Ryan Ludwick had one AB with an all black Rawlings with the old logo -- so it likely was a maple bat from last season. Other than that, the maple bats used by the Cardinals have conformed to the new rules. As long as players have bats left over from last season, you could see a contraband black maple slip in here and there.

I also noticed David Freese using a B45 yellow birch bat, so they must be legal. B45 is a licensed/approved bat maker.

[treant985]

Well the OP only mentioned sugar maple and yellow birch as requiring a natural handle. Unless there's an omission or if rock maple counts as 'sugar maple,' then rock maple bats don't have to have a natural handle.

[bigtruck260]

Well the OP only mentioned sugar maple and yellow birch as requiring a natural handle. Unless there's an omission or if rock maple counts as 'sugar maple,' then rock maple bats don't have to have a natural handle.

Jeff - saw the birch Freese bat...pretty cool.

As for "Rock" maple...IS there a difference? Isn't all Maple - 'sugar maple'...and ROCK HARD MAPLE is the description from LS?

Interesting stuff.

Isn't it possible to see grain with only a light coat of dark stain?

[treant985]

As for "Rock" maple...IS there a difference? Isn't all Maple - 'sugar maple'...and ROCK HARD MAPLE is the description from LS?

Maybe so. I don't know much at all about wood 'species.' I just thought it was weird that one of the OP's lines said "sugar maple AND maple" bats, which made me think there must be something about 'sugar maple' that MLB isn't liking.

[treant985]

Also, it seems like if MLB had a rule that ALL maple bats had to have natural handles, why do they let guys like Giambi and Ludwick use all-black ones? You know that umps could pick that out pretty easily, or at least the other team's manager will (George Brett...).

[OaklandAsFan]

maybe the umps don't notice the big M9 across the branding, as far as the manager goes I highly doubt you will see many managers complaining about things like that because their own players could be doing it also. Same reasoning about pine tar, it is only supposed to be 18inches but some people START the pine tar farther up the bat than 18 inches.

[treant985]

Or maybe there's a grace period or something, so players with bats made before the rules don't have a bunch of lumber they can only use in BP. Who knows...

[Jags Fan Dan]

I was wondering why so many 2 tone bats, now I know! I love discussions like these.

[tigerdale]

this is all great info...........thanks to everyone!

[treant985]

Has anyone noticed players holding the bats with the logo's facing the pitcher, instead of facing towards the hitter? Just watching the Cubs/Cards game, it looked like several Cardinals hitters were doing it. Maybe Jeff can confirm. Obviously the idea to rotate the logo 90 degrees won't be very effective since the players will just rotate the bat back 90 degrees, leaving the logo facing left or right, rather than straight up.

[brianborsch]

Without being Nazi's about it, I don't ever see MLB managing this well. To me, it seems unsustainable. Its obviously not consistent since players are not following the rules.

And regarding how a player rotates a bat? Who's going to manage that? What's going to happen if the player doesn't do it? Will you take away the hit? Have they trained the players how to do it properly? To me, its all just BS. Adjusting the slope of the bat so that it is less likely to break, that's more concrete. But this other stuff cannot be maintained.

Just go back to the old style bats where the handles were a lot thicker. You'll get less breaks then.

[Birdbats]

Has anyone noticed players holding the bats with the logo's facing the pitcher, instead of facing towards the hitter? Just watching the Cubs/Cards game, it looked like several Cardinals hitters were doing it. Maybe Jeff can confirm. Obviously the idea to rotate the logo 90 degrees won't be very effective since the players will just rotate the bat back 90 degrees, leaving the logo facing left or right, rather than straight up.

You're absolutely right -- players know the logos have been moved 90 degrees, so they're just holding the bat differently. Or, the same, depending on how you look at it (just the logo placement is different). I know a couple players from years past had center brands rotated 90 degrees. Yogi Berra was pretty famous for doing it. I've seen Tom Nieto bats from the '80s like that. The scientists say the ball will travel just as far with maple if you hit with or against the grain, but that the bat breaks differently. Not sure the players are convinced.

[BMH]

Rock Maple and Sugar Maple are the same thing.

Where the rules came from...that is an interesting story.
http://www.rockbats.com/strength.html

Basically a wood products engineer who worked for the Forestry Service that decided to make bats one day. He also happened to be in the right place at the right time since MLB first went to the Forestry Service for answers. Luckily he's never played baseball and his company only made Pro bats one year...but he had all the answers.

We cannot control how players hit with the bats or if they use bats from a previous season. That is and will be MLB's problem and not ours.

[treant985]

Sounds like ash might be on the way out along with maple: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090417&content_id=4309208&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb .

So what's next: yellow birch?