Looking for the best youth baseball bats ever made? Like we could ever know that. But we’ll take a stab at it. We’ve spent at least 300 hours now in the cage, game or talking to players looking at every single performance based youth, senior league and big barrel on the market we can get our hands on. We’d guess somewhere close to 250 bats. (You can see our other Bat Reviews here).
#1 BZ3-Z CCore Easton Redline -5 Z2K Era
Some may argue over this as the first pick, but if the order of the top 5 best youth baseball bats were to be decided on secondary market value, then the Redline ZCore (Price Check)—with the now famous SC500 aluminum/scandium alloy—is the winner. It’s drop 5 or drop 8 and should be categorized as an adult/middle school bat. It is a full aluminum single piece bomb-dropping fool. It is, as you can imagine, banned in high-school and NCAA.
This is the only bat we can find that actually appreciates in value. It has become the Michael Jordan Rookie Card of little league baseball bats–often fetching well into the thousand dollar for a used bats. It is, at least these days, very difficult to find. Even ebay searches like this often turn up nothing.
They are said to last forever (at least by those trying to sell it), have a pop that would impress your grandmother, and, for those willing to get out a small bank loan to purchase a little league bat, will hit your favorite pitch somewhere into the Pacific Ocean.
#2 Combat B1 B1YB1
One possibly overlooked top 5 best youth baseball bat ever to make this list is the one that put Combat Sports on the map. The Combat B1 (Price Check) is the perfect bat for those who don’t like Easton but want a bat with some pedigree and straight up bomb dropping pop. It was produced in both a drop 10 and drop 12 with, from what we have gathered, the drop 10 the better driver (although both superb). It is also very hard to find but when you do a search like this how to do it.
The bat is a one piece composite design with such thin walls it has some durability issues. Those durability issues, however, are also what make it an expensive find as well as an absolute slingshot at the plate. Combat followed up the B1 with a more durable (and still very poppy bat) Combat B2 (b2yb1) and while some will claim the B2 drops bombs like the B1, no combat bat will ever live up to the mystique and hype that made combat a household name among little leaguers.
As smooth swing and enormous sweet spot create activity in the opposing team’s bullpen faster than any bat ever made.
#3 2006/2007 Anderson Techzilla
Like the Combat B1, the original version of the Anderson Techzilla (Price Check) was (and is) a verifiable bomb dropper. A double-walled two-piece 2 1/4 alloy bat with enough pop to make a sailor blush put this bat squarely in the top 5 best youth baseball bats. You can still buy them used for around $200 and we suggest, like the Combat B1 and B2 above, its worth every penny.
Some claim that no other bat has ever been able to ‘release the kracken’ like this hero maker. There probably isn’t a good reason it sits below the #3 Combat other than Combat did a better job branding their success with the subsequent B series bats.
This bat swings like a hot knife through butter and if the game was on the line and I at the plate with two outs and the bases loaded, there are few other friends I’d want in my grip than this sweet swinging lady with a punch like Ali. The techzilla makes a bad hitter good, a good hitter great and a great hitter the king of the league.
#4 2016 Combat MAXUM
The 2016 Combat MAXUM is the largest barreled baseball bat in existence and, as such, the distance you can hit a ball along the length of this bat is UNBELIEVABLE. The bat could row you from a stranded island in the pacific. There isn’t a bat on the market whose barrel length comes within 2 inches. The 2016 Combat Maxum makes it as hard to miss as any bat we’ve ever swung.
If there’s anything to complain about it’s the potential sting on a mishit (as one piece bats tend to do) but such a little price to pay to be the king of the hill when it comes to a bat who takes no prisoners in opposing team’s bull pens. This one piece composite is a merciless attack on pitchers prone to hang their curve ball or put a fastball on the inner half. It is unashamed leather smashing goodness.
#5 2015 DeMarini CF7 Drop 5
I am sure we will take some flack for putting a contemporary bat on this list, but the problem is we’ve actually hit with all these. And the DROP 5 CF7 (Price Check) is worthy of it. The 2015 Drop 5 DeMarini CF7 is an amazing stick and we just can’t stop thinking about this bat.
It’s smooth on contact. Butter like drives in the gaps are one-hopped to the wall. Hanging a ball in the zone and the bat nearly crackles at the ball before driving into the stratosphere. The bat has a middle range balance point on the barrel and is an earth shattering blast at full contact. It’s hard to miss with its over extended barrel.
Since we first hit with hit we were convinced that any little leaguer who can swing this bat should swing this bat.
Since it is not held back by BBCOR standards we think its the biggest hitting baseball bat you can still buy new in wrapper today—especially if you get the 33 inch length. It is an unashamed grizzly bear bat made to destroy baseball, home run records and pitcher’s confidence.
Honorable Mentions
Louisville Slugger TPX Triton
The Triton (Price Check) is a bit of an unconventional choice and probably not on most people’s top 5 best youth bats ever made, but there is something about this triple wall composite bat that makes me smile every time I hear it drive a ball in the sweet spot.
When you hit the ball dead on, the Triton sounds like the ball may have been laced with an explosive ordinance. It’s sound is a combination between a solid wood hit and a civil war cannon exploding. The pop is followed by this strange post-nuclear explosion hush as everyone wonders if someone on the field just got shot.
Expect two things if the ball is hit on the sweet spot of this bat: (1) the opposing team’s coach will want the umpire to inspect the bat because he thinks it is filled with gunpowder and (2) the ball will travel, the best anyone a the park will be able to tell, an estimated country mile. Crazier even still is these bats can be picked up used for a pretty reasonable price considering the five bats above it on the list.
Should have maybe made the list: DeMarini CF3 (Price Check), Miken Freak and the original Louisville Slugger ExoGrid fans have reason to be upset they didn’t make the top five best youth baseball bats. Those three bats are solid and if you can get any of those bats from between 2008 to 2011 in decent condition for less than $150 you should count yourself lucky. None of them have, in my opinion, quite reached the status of the Easton Omen at #5 (although that CF3 Black is close) but if you can get one that is worked in and has some life left it can be a bomb dropping fool for you. And there you have it, the Top 5 Best Youth Baseball Bats ever made.
Easton Omen & Easton Stealth
You simply can’t leave Easton’s dynamite combo of two-piece full composite bats which changed the game forever: the Easton Omen XL (Price Check) and Easton Stealth XL (Price Check). These bats are the predecessor to the XL, S and MAKO series from Easton and, without the regulation that keeps the XL1 and S1 series at bay, the Easton Omen is an absolute force at the plate with a swing as smooth as lake placid. Only look as far as their price on ebay to see how loved they really are.
Few bats have a good enough feel and swing weight distribution to be a good fit for any hitter like the Omen or Stealth and anyone who has hit these knows exactly what I mean. These two also had their run at the Little League World Series fame and performed admirably.
Read original story here: justbatreviews.com
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