Does A Baseball Go Further When Hit With A Metal Or Wooden Bat?

The debate regarding wooden and aluminum bats involves many factors, including safety and performance. Daniel Russell, a physics professor at Kettering University in Ohio, says that high performance metal bats can help a ball travel 50 feet farther than a ball hit under the same circumstances with wood. Several factors contribute to aluminum's better performance.

Trampoline Effect

The trampoline effect happens when an aluminum bat makes contact with the ball. According to Russell, when a baseball hits a wooden bat it compresses to about half of its original diameter and then loses up to 75 percent of its original energy. Aluminum bats do not have this same effect because of the design of the bat. According to a 2007 article in USA Today, with a metal bat the bat is compressed by the ball which makes the bat act like a trampoline spring and drive the ball. This means that less energy is lost at the point of impact and the metal bat hits the ball harder.

Exit Speed and Distance

The trampoline effect means metal bats have a significantly higher batted ball speed or exit speed when compared with wooden bats. A 2002 study by Joseph J. Crisco, Richard M. Greenwald, Jeffrey D. Blume and Lorraine H. Penna of Brown University, which was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, examined minor league, college and high school players swinging metal and wood bats. This study found that wooden bats had an exit speed average of 98.6 mph, while metal bat exit speeds ranged from 100.3 to 106.5 mph. This higher exit speed means that a ball hit with a metal bat will travel farther than one hit with a wooden bat. Russell performed a study that showed fly balls hit with a 98.6 mph exit speed like wooden bats would travel 388 feet. Meanwhile, Russell showed that balls hit with metal at 101.5 mph would travel about 410 feet, while a ball hit with a metal exit speed of 106.5 mph would travel around 440 feet.

Bat Swing Speed

The design of metal bats distributes the weight differently than wooden bats. The barrels of metal bats are hollow, which makes them lighter. According to Russell, wooden bats all have the same center of mass or balance point, which is located on the barrel near the sweet spot. Russell says that metal bat balance points are located more than 1 inch closer to the handle of the bat which means it feels lighter and will be easier to swing. The effect is that wooden bats feel top heavy, while aluminum bats are lighter at the end, which allows the barrels to quickly be whipped through the swing.

Sweet Spot and Durability

The sweet spot of the bat refers to the point on the barrel where the ball comes off the bat the fastest. All bats including wooden bats have sweet spots, but metal bats are much more forgiving because of their material. Missing the sweet spot on a wooden bat can lead to a broken bat or weakly hit ball, but with metal bats even missing the spot can lead to a hard hit ball. According to Russell, the width of sweet spots are similar in both metal and wooden bats but batted ball speeds are significantly higher for the metal bats. Russell also notes that batted ball speeds outside of the sweet spots are much higher on metal bats.