Maple:
Maple, the hardest wood for baseball bats, is the best choice for two different types of players:
- a player who mainly gets jammed when mishitting, taking the ball on the lower part of the barrel
- the player who has mastered hitting with a wood bat
A maple bat delivers the furthest ball distance, adding 10-15 feet as maximum energy gets transferred to the ball.
Ash:
An ash wood bat is the best choice for a player who mishits primarily off the end of a baseball bat. Ash is not as rigid or strong a wood as maple, allowing it to flex. That flex acts as a shock absorber for the cue-ball shots that may do in a maple bat. While absorbing some of the energy used to propel the ball, it's better to lose a little power than an entire bat!
Birch:
All-over the place when you mishit? Consider birch. It's a bit stronger than an ash bat for the inside mishits and has some flex that a maple bat lacks for the outside mishits. From a wood strength and hitting distance standpoint, it falls in between maple and ash.
It's also worth considering one of our all wood composites as an alternative to the "mishitting all over the place" benefits of birch as the wood composite gives the distance of our maple bats.