2025 WOOD BAT SHOWDOWN | Baseball Bat Bros

Welcome to the 2025 Bat Bros Wood Bat Showdown. So obviously the wood bat industry is huge. There's a million different bats out there. We picked, I think today we have 13 of our favorite we have ever swung on the channel. However, we had some very specific criteria of what a bat had to do to even get in to begin with. So one, the main thing, if we have had any of our favorite wood bats ever break on camera in the history of Bat Bros, they are not qualified for the showdown. That's a big durability concern with a small sample size if they broke in front of us. So the Delano, hottest wood bat of all time, disqualified. The Bombat, one of the hottest wood bats of all time, broken half, disqualified. The Marucci Rake, a good budget bat, disqualified. We also, all of these bats you see today went through a 30 ball in play, a 30 hit gauntlet off of 80 miles an hour with really hard baseballs. And if it broke, it is not here today. We actually only had two bats break and they were both budget bats, unfortunately. So first things first, the elephant in the room, the Bombat, last year's champion, will not be joining us today because it broke in half. And then my current favorite bat, what I think my front runner is, we are going to give it a first round buy all the way to the championship round, the Louisville Slugger RA13 wood composite. And then we will have three different sets of four bats roughly for our semifinals. And first we have our balanced bats. So we'll start with this. We have the DeMarini The Woods. We have the Sandbat Barry Bonds model, but a slimmed down version, really balanced swinging. The R2K1 with the bell knob there. We have a very balanced bat, the Marucci Francisco Lindor Lindy 12. And lastly, the Dovetail Carbon Fiber Pro XR knob 271. And then we have our other eight bats right here. We will get to them pretty soon. And yes, we do have a torpedo bat. So let's go. So we are starting with our Sandbat here and we are live from one of the newest ballparks in all of professional baseball, home of the Salt Lake Bees, AAA for the Angels here, the ballpark at America First Square here in Salt Lake County, Utah. Absolutely gorgeous. 420 to center, 385 to the gap. It's far, but it's high elevation. Let's see what we can do. All right, let's see here. You're good, bro? Oh my goodness. 96 off the machine. So this knob kind of forces you to choke up a little bit. Even more bat control, but maybe a little less whip. Oh man, that sounds gorgeous. All right, first velo of the day, 101 miles an hour. Oh, hammered that dude. All right, 100 miles an hour, looking good. Get a pull side. Hit well. All right, one hop. 101 again, very consistent. Let's try to get a pull side. Okay. All right. Great outing from the Sandbat. Sweet spot was pretty good, but just super light swinging. That's 102. That's our high. Tons of bat control. By choking up on the bell knob there, again, you're kind of trading extra bat control for a little less whip. A guy like Barry Bonds had no problem with generating his own power. So all right, let's move on to the Marucci. Pretty similar barrel shape, but a nice kind of flared, almost no knob there that Lindy likes to swing. So here we go. Okay, 102 is our high. Oh, this feels so good. 103.7. I think I would swing this type of knob a lot better. That was super light too. I'm just flicking those. We are on the board. This, dude, I think the Sandbat's disqualified. I love it, but I think the Sandbat's out. 102, 380 feet. That's deep on the hands there. Yeah, 98. Sandbat is disqualified, unfortunately. All right, moving on up to our first wood composite of the day. This thing's hollowed out. Technically it is considered a wood bat in amateur baseball. So DeMarini, the woods. This bat is one of our most expensive bats of the day. 300 bucks, but a full one-year warranty. It shouldn't break. So very high expectations if it's going to be that expensive. Sorry, Cam. 102. Wow. I think we have more than that. Dude, this is so flexible and forgiving. I got that way deep on the hands. Jeez. Early on, I'm swinging the Marucci best. I hope that would go. Yes, sir. 101, 398. Let's get one more. That clearly did not go 398. That should hot. Let's go. All right, dude. Okay, 103. I think the Marucci was a little hotter, but those are definitely my top two so far. Moving on to the Dovetail Carbon Fiber. This is like a full regular one-piece wood bat. You just have like a fiberglass carbon fiber sleeve over the handle. So it's $250, which is a lot, but they do offer a full one-year warranty. And I do love that handle there. Let's see what we got. The smallest barrel out of pretty much all our bats today. That stung a lot. All right. Yeah. Ouch. The lightest bat so far, but definitely the smallest barrel. Yeah. 271s are weird. You really got to get the head out. Wow. That was 104. It's like a voodoo one. It's hard to catch the barrel. That might hit the jumbotron. Oh, just in front of it. All right. Into the pen. Okay. 98, 372. I feel very confident in saying these two ran away with it. So a little swing off for what's going to go to the ship. All right. I would be a little more biased towards this bat because I know it's not going to break. However, it is $300. And we also have the Louisville wood composite that is already in the ship. I will also add, this is the only bat today where I have a Vulcan grip on there because this weird textured handle, for whatever reason, pine tar will not stick to this thing no matter what. So I have to grip it up or else it's like weirdly slick. Hit hard but low. High of the day, 106. I mean, last time we swung this, I'm having the same issue. I'm having a hard time finding the true meat of the barrel. Okay. That should go. That needs to go. I don't know, guys. Marucci is looking real good right now. Oh, that's so loud. That's the loudest bat. 107.6. Oh my. It's the Marucci. It's always been the Marucci. How did I do that? It's gorgeous. 107.8. Ladies and gentlemen, our first finalist, I'm pleasantly surprised, the Marucci Lindy 12. All right. So moving on to round two here, we have our mid-loaded bats. So not necessarily end-loaded, but not like crazy light either. Good barrels on these. So starting out, a bat I'm really, really excited about. Could be a front runner. The Chandler Aaron Judge. And you would think that's a heavy bat, but the handle is so thick because it is very large hands. This bat swings incredibly balanced, really whipped. So the AJ99 Maple. We have the Tatis right here, which at least in the retail model, just a slight end load, very reasonable swing weight. An all-time favorite on the channel, the Tatis 23 Maple. And then the Birch version of one of the best bats from last year. We have the RA13 Birch from B45 right here. Pretty looking bat. And then lastly, the Torpedo Bat. And normally this would be a balanced bat, but I did something a little different. I pulled a Cal Raleigh. And this is the one exception we're going to make where we swing not a 33. Because it's a Torpedo Bat, I'm going to swing longer in length and see if that redeems the Torpedo. I'm also this is not a favorite going in. So we're going to see if we can pull off a miracle with this guy, but this is yeah. Louisville TPD1. So let's start with the Victus. I think this, this is also a big front runner going in. Sorry, dude, I'm trying to avoid the L screen. That's like the Lindy with more barrel. 102 backside. This is amazing. 105.5. Oh, yeah. 96. That should get nothing bad to say about that bat 101. All right, our first Chandler of the day. Very excited. The AJ99. Should be real loud. That's that Chris Marucci sound we had. Yep. 107.4. End of the bat. This bat's really good. I can already tell you this bat's really good. 100 miles an hour. That's a good homer. Oh, dude, we might have hit the bottom of the Jumbotron. 104.4. That's so crazy, dude. 107. I think the Victus is out. That was, that was just beautiful. All right, well, let's give the people what they came to see. The torpedo bat. I'm going to be actually pissed if this wins. That felt good. 102.4. All right. Dude, I'm hitting those. 106.9. Oh, gosh. Telling you guys, that's the move with the torpedo bat. You're going to swing one of these. Jeez. Yeah, go up a quarter and a half or a half inch there. 97. Does it have the juice? Not quite. 101.4. Okay, hold that thought. We're coming back to this. 103. All right, now our first birch bat this whole time so far. We have the B45 birch RA-13. Dang. This group of four is unfair. These are all a little too good to be going against each other. They're all so good. I hate that we're going to have to eliminate three of these, dude. 100. 103.3. Hit that really hard. Let's see. 105.9. The velos are a touch lower than our last two maple bats there. Man, I'm hitting those. 103.7. A little bit down. Okay, I'm going to get one more swing with each because this is too close. All right, Victus. This is on the outside looking in right now. Well, that's a good way to answer. I thought that was going to be a little better. It feels great. 105.3. All right, old Aaron Judge. Again, more balanced than you would think. That sounds just a little different. 107.6. Really got under it. Oh, God. That's it so far. Okay, the torpedo. Dude, that swings it. 104.4. It's somehow still heavier than the rest though. 103.5. I don't know. All right, B45. We need 107 at least. 106.3. It's a little softer. I need one more. One more with Aaron Judge. I just want to make sure. Suck the hands in. This is amazing. All right. I feel pretty safe saying that the Chandler Aaron Judge is going on to the ship. One thing I really want to emphasize here is that wood is wood. This is all coming from trees. I truly believe that Louisville Slugger, Victus, Chandler, Sandbat, Rawlings all have access to the same quality of wood. I fully expect the vast majority of these bats to perform pretty dang similar. In the wood bat industry though, what I'm looking for is simply outliers. Are there any bats in this mix of 13 bats today that is going to stand out and be noticeably different from the rest of the pack? Because most of your bats, again, are going to be pretty much the same thing. Considering durability, pop, flexibility, sweet spot, is there something that is really going to stand out today? That's all we're looking for. I'm not trying to tell you what brand is the best quality. That's not what this is about. We got another Chandler. I think, honestly, another favorite. These guys do. I know I just said they're all the same. These guys make hardwood. This is the Chandler Pete Alonzo and our only axe handle of the day. Moving on. Another wood composite. This one's funky. We have a bamboo core and a maple exterior. This one has a really good warranty. I want to throw that out there as well. If you break this in the first, I think, three months, you can get a warranty. The Rawlings Wood Composite 243 for a new one this year. We have also another funky wood. We have the Beachwood Mine Bat, European Beachwood. This is the power model. Then another bat that we've seen do numbers in these types of showdowns in the past, the American Batsmith Compressed Birch i13 right here. This one's uncupped as well. Let's go. The Rawlings. This is a bat we haven't swung in a long time. I'm excited for this. We're going to start with this guy. Again, I think we haven't even cracked 108 yet. This is going to bang, folks. 97. Okay. This thing's swinging me, boys. Time to be stronger. 102. That needs to go way out. Oh, yeah. 102. I hope for a little more out of this. I hammered it. 101.1. I don't know. I don't think the Rawlings is going to do it. Okay. To verify that, let's go straight to a bat that I think might do very well. The American Batsmith i13 Birch. That's that shotgun sound. Yeah. 105. Jeez. 101 backside. Just missed that. Take those. 98. 107.7. That's up there towards our high. I don't think the Rawlings is going to make it. That's 105. Yeah. That's one of our best bats so far. That's our highest velo of the day. 109.1. American Batsmith, man. They do birch very well. All right. This Chandler Axe bat is going to be interesting. We'll save that for the end. Let's move on to the Beechwood. I think this is a sleeper, guys. I really like this bat. Sounded a little soft there. 101.5. Okay. I got that pretty good. Just a little under it. Let's see. Yes. All right. So, it definitely does sound a little bit softer. That was only 96. I do love this bat, though. It's only 100 bucks, and I think there's like a three or six-month warranty. So, a really, really good value here. I just don't know if it's going to compete with the high-end Birch and Maple. All right. 100. I feel like on those, it just sounds a little weird. Got all of it. Come on. 105.3. I cannot, in good faith, tell you this is better than the Batsmith. Unreal value, though, for a six-month warranty, 99 bucks. So, this is going to be between the Chandler and the American Batsmith. Can we have a birch bat finally? Let's see. All right. 109 is going to be really tough to beat with an axe handle, but we're going to have a lot of bat control. This can win with lower exit velocities if I'm just catching unreal barrels. That barrel is very, very big. 103. Dude, I like it so much. Oh, man. 104.4. For how big of a barrel that is, I can control the barrel so well. Oh, man. I really wish this was in a different part of the bracket. 101. This just turns me into a contact machine. Okay, we're going to get one more with this, one more with the Batsmith. That's 102. A lot of barrels. The velo is way down, though. Trying to unload on one. 105.8. Oh, that's three miles an hour. Okay, Batsmith birch. This thing is very good. Look at the bat. Jeez. 99. Dang it. See, I have less bat control with this. 107.8. God. Last one with the axe. That hits so hard. It sounds different. Yeah, that one's good. It's 101. Ladies and gentlemen, without a doubt, the American Batsmith is joining the final four. So our final four, we have the Chandler Aaron Judge, the Marucci Francisco Lindor, the American Batsmith birch I-13, which is pretty close to an RA-13, and then the Louisville Slugger wood composite RA-13. I'm pretty thrilled about this. Let's find out which one deserves it. We're going to absolutely swing out of our shoes right here. Okay, we're going to start with the Louisville wood composite because we have not yet swung that today. Maybe it disappoints us. Maybe it lives up to the hype. All right, so what this bat really has going for it, it's just not going to break, and it's not going to sting your hands. And when we look at an outlier in the wood bat industry, without even taking one swing with this bat, that is a huge outlier. And yes, it's more expensive, but this Aaron Judge bat is $220 retail. I think it maybe has a two-month warranty. If you break it after two months, you're cooked, man. You got to buy another $220 bat. This, I think you could probably swing this for about three seasons and still be chilling. So this has a huge advantage going in. I would like to see it do at least as good, at least as good as our best bat here. So $109 is our top deal so far. That's lofty though. $109 is pretty up there. All right, big hacks here. No way we did our first hack. Oh, the Louisville. The Louisville, $102. I got that a little end. Oh, babe. $103. Oh, the barrel is so forgiving. Way down on the hands for $99. Nothing but barrels so far, folks. $105. Okay, I hit that pretty well. Dude, I don't think this is the hottest bat here. $104. I think this is going to get outdriven. So there's a lot we're going to have to consider. This might get interesting. All right. We kind of know what we're getting with these next three bats. We'll keep it pretty short, but Marucci Lindy 12. Let's just get one really good one. Marucci 103. God, that sounded so good. All right. Aaron Judge Chandler. That took one swing. Well, I picked the right bats. I picked the right bats. That was $105, and that was an excuse me swing. Hold on. We're going back to that. Let's go to the birch bat. All right. Almost broke. Just missed. Nice. Perfect. Perfect. $107. So a little better than the Marucci. The bat control was worse though. That is worth considering. Big hacks. I got blisters everywhere, but that's all right. Perfect barrel. Absolutely. $105. This definitely, I think, is on the outside looking in, especially against our regular wood bats in terms of velo. It's not like it's way lighter or anything either. The swing weight's honestly pretty comparable, especially to the Aaron Judge. I think it's probably not going to be the Marucci, but I mean, we're nitpicking. It is one of the best wood bats I've ever swung. So all right, let's move on to the Aaron Judge Chandler. Wow. Good start. Hit it. Are you kidding me? How'd it hold up? Oh, it took it like a champ. Holy smokes. $106 for $430. Oh, the Chandler, guys. The freaking Chandler. Okay. RA-13. I think it's honestly between the Chandler and the Louisville. This needs to put up a good below. I don't think it has it. $104, it just flexes so much. $106. $103, too. It's not as hot as the Chandler, bro. I can't in good faith say it's as hot as the Chandler. I'm going to give a very nuanced, annoying answer. Oh, it's so good. I didn't even get that perfect. $105. Oh, I love hitting with it. Last one. Best sound of the day. $107. All right. It is very imperative that you listen to what I'm about to say because it's not as simple as, this is the best bat in the world. Go spend $220 on a bat that might break. So the first thing I want to point out, the margins between even the bats that didn't make it to the finals. We got the Axe Chandler, the Victus, the B45, and the bats that won is very, very slim. You can make arguments for just about any bat here. Again, I'm nitpicking. We are looking for outliers today. And I do think these were the two outliers. I will say, if you want the answer to the question, what is the most electric sounding, hottest wood bat in the game? I think I probably said this last year, too. I think it's Chandler. Chandler Maple. And if you want a good long barreled balanced turn model, the AJ99 is incredible. The RA13 is unreal. The RH7 is amazing. The Axe Bat Pete Alonzo. I mean, I have nothing but incredible things to say about Chandler, obviously. However, again, you are paying $220, if not more, if you're customizing it. I don't even know what the prices are right now. That's just last time I checked. For a bat that might break your heart. This is made of a tree. They do not have any technology that is going to prevent this from breaking on a really good sinker inside or a good cutter outside. Broken bats are a part of the game. No true one piece wood bat company can avoid it. The outlier for the Louisville is that it can avoid it. And it is $300, but you will not break this bat. If you do break this bat, I will be very impressed. I will repost it on Instagram. But I don't think you will break this bat. So with that said, if I were playing a full wood bat season for amateur, we'll say like a PG wood bat summer circuit, just for an example here. Personally, 100% I would swing the RA13 wood composite. Fully understanding that I might get, you know, one and a half to two and a half, maybe even three miles an hour or less of high end exit velocity with it. But I'm only going to have to buy one bat and it's going to feel like a metal bat. I'm going to have just a ton of barrel to work with. I'm going to feel very comfortable and confident in the box. I'm not scared of getting jammed. I'm not scared of breaking my bat. The switch to wood bat is very mental. It's scary to really commit to those inside pitches. And this completely cures that for me. I can hit off of 90 to a hundred miles an hour without any fear with this bat. I can't say that about this. However, if you want the hottest wood bat, I think Chandler probably makes it. If you want the smartest purchase, I'm getting a wood composite. I might even get a bomb bat before I get this, but I think this is going to make me be the best hitter possible and especially the most comfortable hitter possible. And it's a very good economic decision in my opinion, but a quick shout out as well. I think our highest exit deal of the day was the American Batsmith Birch. Without a doubt, I think without question, the best Birch wood I've ever really swung on the channel. It was just a little bit heavy. It's uncupped. The barrel was kind of controlling me a little bit. I bet some of you in the comments might be chirping that this probably should have won. Again, we are nitpicking guys. I just felt like I could get this through the zone a little better because the handle's thicker. It's a little more balanced. It's cupped, but best Birch in the game. From what I found as well, I'll throw this out there. Birch seems to be more durable than maple and this is cheaper. So again, I could see an argument why, Will, you should have picked this over this, but this was doing something to me emotionally. I'm swinging one of these. I might swing a bomb bat if they can figure their stuff out, but if you hung with us this long, thank you so much. Much love to the Bees. Beautiful freaking ballpark. They sat here and watched me hit for four hours pretty much. So love you guys. We'll see you on the next one. Thanks for hanging out.