Originally posted by midnight Target
Cork doesn't make the bat more resilient, it makes it a little lighter so the player can increase his bat speed.
Actualy, Tahg, I think it's a combination of both. Modern metal bats started out as hollow, but ended up with dents and caving. They had to make them thicker walled to prevent caving but this made them too heavy for good bat speed. Then, the engineers started putting a type of plastic framework inside to prevent the caving, and give the sidewalls more resilience even though thinner, while becoming incredibly light. They got so good at it that high school and college rules were changed to say that the length weight differential could not be more than -5, i.e.32 inch bat, is now a minimum of 27 ounces. But, I have seen bats with as much as -12 differential.
The difference with light bats is hand speed which tranlsates to greater bat speed. That is just the major difference in putting the bat on the ball, especially as kids grow older and face faster pitching but don't have the strength to get the bat around quickly. Yes, bat speed help you hit the ball hard and far. But, the resilience offered by lightwieght metal bats is what makes the metal bats too hot. The thinner the sidewall, the lighter the bat, and the more resilient the inner framework must be. Thus, the compression decompression cycle of the bat hitting the ball, once it has been brought around quickly to the poitn of contact due to it's lightness, is what puts the ball over the fence. For a while, in the late 80's, metal bats would go flat. All the resilience would be beaten out of the inner framework. But, that has been resolved, although I am not sure how. That's why new bats cost so dang much!
Hmmmm, do you think I spent too many years coaching little grunts baseball............
