The Baseball Bat Bros

Will and Cam's favorite BBCOR! Probably the single most well-rounded BBCOR in the game right now. The Voodoo One has registered some of our highest exit velocities, and it's one of the easiest swinging bats out there - a combo that is extremely hard to come by in the BBCOR space.

Pros: excellent power for its swing weight / easy to control / great feel for a 1-pc

Cons: tough to find & always sold out, much smaller sweet spot than some 2-pc hybrids and composites, and a few infrequent durability issues are being reported with the knob/end cap.

The Voodoo One is currently our all-time BBCOR exit velo record holder at 102.3 mph (Hittrax).

JT's favorite BBCOR! This is a fun one to hit with - barrel on barrel on barrel. Pretty much maxed out in terms of BBCOR pop and sweet spot, but the heavier weighting of The Goods makes it more of a pure ‘power hitter’ bat as opposed to a bat like the slightly lighter-swinging Nox and Select Pwr. Durability has been a somewhat frequent concern though with The Goods and its connector piece.

Pros: very powerful / huge sweet spot

Cons: expensive / heavy / durability issues (telescoping handle)

You can think of the Select Pwr as a lighter-swinging "The Goods" with a tiny bit less barrel and a tiny bit less power. The Select Pwr has an incredibly comfortable feel on contact and you'll immediately notice the unique sound of the Select Pwr (sounds somewhere between composite and alloy).

Pros: impressive power for its swing weight / great feel / cool sound / good for any player

Cons: expensive / occasional durability issues

The Nox is one of our 2021 BBCOR front-runners and ideal for a guy looking to put up some power numbers. However, this is going to swing a little bit lighter than a bat like The Goods or Cat9 Connect, making the Nox perfect for players that consider themselves a power-leaning ‘versatile’ hitter. Very similar to the Select Pwr.

Pros: solid sweet spot, good power, and a tad lighter than most other "power" bats.

Cons: occasional barrel rattle, a bit endloaded, a little bit harsher on the hands than the Goods or Select Pwr.

The best composite BBCOR we've swung in awhile. The ADV hype reminded us a lot of the XL1 and S1 from back in the day with a very forgiving barrel, a great sound, a manageable swing weight, and impressive exit velocities for a 2-pc composite BBCOR bat.

Pros: pretty good at everything / forgiving barrel / hot out of the wrapper

Cons: expensive / not as durable as alloy / lower exit velos than our Top 4 bats

Ladies and gents; one of the best contact hitting bats of the year is a one-piece alloy!! The Vandal does an excellent job at combining a somewhat forgiving sweet spot with a very light swing weight - while retaining more power than a lot of composites. For those of you who don’t know, the Vandal is essentially a Marucci Cat9, but the last 10% of the bat is composite which makes it swing much, much lighter.

This is an excellent bat for moving up to BBCOR for the first time.

Pros: light / durable / easy on the hands / impressive sweet spot for its swing weight

Cons: not super powerful, not super impressive on mis-hits

Paul's favorite BBCOR and our favorite Axe Bat BBCOR so far! This essentially felt like "The Goods" with an Axe handle - but it's lighter and has a softer barrel. The sweet spot was massive, the swing weight was very manageable, but the exit velocities weren't quite there to put this bat above some of the other 2-pc hybrids. Although this is a 2-pc hybrid, it functions a lot like a composite contact-hitting bat.

Pros: huge sweet spot, easy to find barrel, light for a 2-pc hybrid

Cons: lower exit velos than most other 2-pc hybrids, and it's quite spendy.

Legitimately one of the top power-hitting BBCOR bats of the year, but also cheaper and more durable than a lot of the others. This bat was super fun to swing as it performs incredibly on mishit balls or off-balance swings. It hit the ball as hard as anything we’ve swung, and it is a rare 1-piece alloy that doesn’t have the annoying loud ping sound. Also one of our favorite grip/knob/taper feels. This is a very endloaded bat though so make sure you're very comfortable with an endloaded drop-3 swing weight before you decide to go with the Nuke.

Pros: cheap / durable / great power / excellent on mis-hits

Cons: heavy / occasional hand sting

*The 2022 version of the Meta is just a repaint - no changes to the tech.

A contact hitter's dream. However, the Meta is gonna be slightly nerfed compared to it’s 2019 and 2020 versions - a tiny bit more swing weight and it lost some sweet spot towards the end of the bat in our opinion. It retained its power, but that’s likely just because of the added swing weight. The sweet spot towards the hands is still the biggest in the game and you’ll actually likely get the most pop out of this bat on hits towards the hands. Because of this, hitters almost get rewarded for being late on faster pitching. Being a composite barrel, you’ll have break in the barrel before you can expect this bat to live up to its full potential (and it takes 500+ swings to break in).

Pros: huge sweet spot / easy on the hands / great for younger hitters

Cons: not very powerful / not great off the end / expensive

While this bat is likely to be overshadowed by the Voodoo One and The Goods, this is one of the only light-swinging 2-pc hybrid BBCORs on the market and will be great for a kid who wants the Voodoo One but doesn't like how it stings their hands.

The Voodoo is a bit heavier-swinging than the Voodoo One, it has a more forgiving barrel than the Voodoo One, but the exit velos are a little bit less on the Voodoo 2-pc.

Pros: Light-swinging, easy on the hands, tons of pop if you get perfect/perfect, looks SO dang cool.

Cons: Not a great sweet spot, lots of handle flex, expensive.

At only $109 and $89, the Stringking bats are about $200 cheaper than most other BBCOR bats out there. And it is easily an above-average BBCOR baseball bat. The Metal Pro was getting us consistent exit velocity readings in the upper-90's - rivaling most $300-$500 BBCOR bats. It will not have a sweet spot quite like the Goods, and it won't have a swing weight quite as light as the Voodoo One, but the power is definitely there. If you just need an affordable bat that will get the job done, the Stringking is hands down your best bet right now.

The only difference between the "Metal Pro" and the "Metal" is allegedly that the Metal Pro ($20 more) will have slightly better durability long-term. They felt the exact same when we swung them.

Ladies and gents, this is the hottest bat in all of baseball for 2021.

The swing weight is very manageable, the sweet spot is unrivaled, and it has an electric feel and sound. We haven't heard of any durability issues yet either.

The Cat9 Comp -5 is our all time exit velo record-holder at 109.4 mph (Hittrax).

This bat is also available as the regular Cat 9 Composite as well as the "Cat 9 Composite PASTIME" (same bat with a different paint-job).

Swing Weight: slightly balanced

Break-in Period: none required

Price: $350

The glorified "CF". The new USSSA Zoa is essentially a lighter, stiffer, and better-sounding version of the CF. It's also a little bit hotter out of the wrapper.

While we didn't love the $500 BBCOR version of the Zoa, the USSSA version is LEGIT. One of the best sweet spots in the game, and very impressive exit velos.

Similar to the CF though, it sounds like this bat will be a tad fragile in the -8 and -10 space. We've actually never encountered durability problems with a DeMarini in -5, but those issues will come up much more frequently with the thinner barrel walls of the -8's and -10's.

Swing Weight: slight endload

Break-in Period: none required

Price: $400

At first, we weren't super impressed with the USSSA Meta, but after about 200 to 300 swings of break-in, this bat came alive. It's one of the few composite bats in USSSA that truly requires a significant break-in period.

The Meta seems to put it all together: a balanced swing weight, excellent pop, and some pretty solid durability for a composite bat.

This is one of the lighter bats in USSSA, so it's great for jumping up to a larger size for the first time. It also has a much higher-pitched sound than some of the other composites (but that sound gets better over time).

Swing Weight: balanced

Break-in Period: ~250 swings

Price: $350

The Cat9 Connect is the most popular -5 USSSA alloy bat out there right now - and for good reason: the barrel is very hot, it's durable, it sounds and feels fantastic, and the sweet spot is huge for an alloy bat.

If we were playing travel ball, we'd probably be walking around with a Cat9 Comp and a Cat9 Connect in the bag (warm weather/cold weather).

Swing Weight: slight endload

Break-in Period: none required

Price: $300-$330

If you're looking for an alloy USSSA with the most power, The Goods is gonna be your best bet. While it's a bit more endloaded and has a slightly smaller sweet spot than the Cat9 Connect, The Goods registered our highest exit velo ever with an aluminum-barreled bat (104.8 mph).

Swing Weight: endload

Break-in Period: none required

Price: $300

Oddly enough, the USSSA version of the Marucci Cat8 1-piece alloy is noticeably better than it's new version; the Cat9.

Solid durability, excellent barrel forgiveness, easy to swing, affordable, and very impressive power for a 1-pc USSSA alloy bat.

Swing Weight: balanced

Break-in Period: none required

Price: $230-$250

Bat Bro JT's custom turn model: a 271-L barrel (a larger-barreled version of a 271) with a flared no-knob. You can get this bat either cupped or uncupped, but JT prefers the uncupped version. Each bat is hand-turned and comes in this custom gold-splatter paint job with the Bat Bros logo and JT's signature.

This bat swings pretty light so it's easy to make into a -3 swing weight while still maintaining very dense wood. The JTBB9 is also available in -5 and -8 swing weights.

Warranty: 45-day

Price: $180 with promo code BATBROS10

Bat Bro Will's custom turn model: a high-density i13 barrel with a flared no-knob. Our favorite version of this bat is a cupped -3 birch with extra compression (trust us on this one).

This is going to have a slightly heavier swing weight than the JTBB9, but the BBi13HD will have more barrel.

The BBi1HD is available in any drop weight, and American Batsmith also offers a Youth -5 version of it on their website.

Warranty: 30-day

Price: $160