Titanium vs Composite Bats – A Controlled Field-Test Study!!!


Titanium vs Composite Bats – A Controlled Field-Test Study!!! by Dr. Mark McDowell^a and Dr. Michael V. Ciocco^b *aMark McDowell, Bomani Sports Research, Inc., P.O. Box 81402, Cleveland, Ohio 44181* *bMichael V. Ciocco, Parsons Project Services, Inc., P.O. Box 618, South Park, PA 15129*

In the past year, there has been a composite revolution in the bat industry. Players are often talking exclusively about composite bats when referring to which bat is the best on the market. It is widely accepted that titanium bats were banned several years ago because they far exceeded the performance of aluminum bats and were deemed unsafe for the game within weeks of there introduction into the marketplace. We decided to conduct a controlled field-test study comparing batted-ball speeds between two top performing composite bats and the top performing titanium bat in order to see how the composite bats stacked up against titanium bats. We chose a 30oz. TPS Titanium bat vs a 30oz. Easton Synergy and 30oz. Miken Ultra II bat and present our study based on the typical Class ‘A’, Class ‘B’ and Class ‘C’ player.

Experimental setup and testing procedures:

Rather than rely exclusively on the typical Class ‘A’ player as has been used in the past as the upper limit for bat performance, we expanded our testing to include the typical Class ‘B’ and Class ‘C’ player. All players involved in this testing are Bomani Sports Research, Inc. Certified Bat Testers and have over 3 years experience testing bats at various Bomani Sports Research, Inc. testing events. They represent the most consistent batters in each Class level. We chose the top three classifications in order to get a realistic idea of what to expect from the average tournament level player.

Batted-Ball Speed Measurements: We used two Jugs® Professional Radar guns with an accuracy to within ½ MPH to measure batted-ball speeds. The readings were recorded approximately halfway between the plate and the batter and represent the average velocity of the batted-ball. As an aside, we used two radar guns for this study which allowed us to determine the accuracy and repeatability of the BBS readings using Jugs® Professional Radar guns.

Balls: We used 5 dozen new .44COR/375pqi balls exclusively for this experiment. This ensured that we were using the recommend ball that is currently advocated and will be mandated in the year 2004 by most softball associations. A random sample of the balls were tested by Bomani Sports Research, Inc. and the compression of the balls were found to be within our recommended SAFE range. Much higher performance can be inferred if we were to use 525pqi balls for this testing. We decided not to use high compression balls for this study since it would pose a dangerous and unnecessary safety risk to our pitchers and fielders.

Bats: We used a 30oz. TPS Titanium, a 30oz. Easton Synergy, a 30oz. Miken Ultra II bat, an all-aluminum Multi-walled bat (MW), and a single-walled bat for this test. These bats were chosen to represent the upper limit of performance (Ti, Synergy, Ultra II) that can be expected. Currently, the Miken Ultra II and Easton Synergy are regarded as the top two performing bats in the country and the TPS Titanium bat is regarded as the best performing bat of all time by various sources. The “best” performing, all-aluminum Multi-walled bat was chosen for comparison and the “best” performing single-walled on the market was used as the baseline. Note: The “best” performing bats refer to performance results obtained during actual on-the-field testing conducted by Bomani Sports Research, Inc. – www.bomani.com.

Pitching: We used LIVE pitching for this test in order to duplicate a more realistic idea of the true on-the-field performance of each bat. Three pitchers were used and in order to eliminate any bias in pitching, dozens of readings were taken and only the most consistent (minimum delta) readings were allowed.

Results:

The batted-ball speeds were compared using percent increases in BBS compared to the baseline single-walled bat. These results are summarized in Table 1. As shown, the % BBS increases for the composite bats were more than twice the % BBS increase for the MW bat (12.7% and 13.5% compared to 5.8%).

Table 1. Percent BBS Increase vs. Single-walled Bat Baseline

Classification	TPS Titanium	Easton Synergy	Miken Ultra II	MW
Class ‘A’ average	11.6%	16.3%	16.3%	7.2%
Class ‘B’ average	9.1%	11.5%	15.1%	4.7%
Class ‘C’ average	9.2%	10.4%	9.2%	5.6%
Total average	10.0%	12.7%	13.5%	5.8%

The top-of-the-line composite bats (Easton Synergy and Miken Ultra II) clearly perform as well as or even better than the TPS titanium bat, a bat banned by all the associations for its lethal potential. The % BBS increase in Total average composite bat verses the single-wall bat baseline were higher than the TPS Ti % BBS increase (12.7% and 13.5% compared to 10.0%). In all but one of the Class averages, the composite % BBS increases were higher than that of the TPS Ti. In fact, the Total average % BBS increase for the composite bats exceeded the % BBS increase of the TPS Ti by about 3%, which is a significant difference with respect to performance.

Conclusion: Today’s top-of-the-line composite bats outperform the best/hottest titanium bat ever produced and therefore should be considered just as dangerous as titanium bats.