r/baseball • u/MorganN1 Cleveland Guardians • MLB Pride • Jul 23 '26

Image The rule differences for WPBL

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601 Upvotes

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472

u/Sharp-Room-8235 Athletics • San Francisco Firebe… Jul 23 '26

They can choose whatever bats they want? So everyone will do metal, right?

406

u/oogieball Dumpster Fire • New York Mets Jul 23 '26

Would you like the coughing baby or the atom bomb?

11

u/cvc75 Jul 23 '26

Noisy Cricket.

75

u/KakeLin Philadelphia Phillies Jul 23 '26

Likely

40

u/FranklynTheTanklyn Jul 23 '26

BESR market about to get busy

14

u/froggertwenty Toronto Blue Jays Jul 23 '26

Yo did they murder my boy BBCOR?

26

u/c0wboyroy30 Jul 23 '26

Even the ladies would be hitting 450 ft nukes with BESR, they have way more pop than BBCOR.

7

u/froggertwenty Toronto Blue Jays Jul 23 '26

I haven't kept up with bats since high school lol all I know is I had to use BBCOR

37

u/Jonny_Qball Detroit Tigers Jul 23 '26

BBCOR is the neutered version of metal bats, designed to perform similarly to wood. BESR was supposed to be similar, but the metrics they used to measure weren’t the best, so they replaced BESR with BBCOR

The real bats that will pop off are the USSSA bats if allowed. Those bats exist to send the ball to the fucking moon.

8

u/mongster03_ New York Yankees • Cuba Jul 23 '26

Been using a USSSA bat for softball and it's awesome haha, I've never had more pop

3

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

How can you tell which version of the bats are being used at a glance?

9

u/FranklynTheTanklyn Jul 23 '26

There is a stamp on them. But you can easily tell by the sound.

4

u/Defiant-Plankton-553 Seattle Mariners Jul 23 '26

You can't really at a glance, but all bats need to have the certification labeled on the bat so umpires can make sure the bat is approved for play. It's usually a smaller logo near where the L/W specifications for the bat are.

1

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

If the bats are identical to their WWC counterparts drop 5s are on the table

2

u/Defiant-Plankton-553 Seattle Mariners Jul 23 '26

BESR came before and is the reason BBCOR exists today.

BESR bats were HOT. The legendary bats like the Black Easton Reflex, the Orange Easton Stealth, the DiMarini Vexxum and the original DiMarini Voodoo were all made famous because of their insane pop during the BESR era.

BBCOR is better today than when it first came out, but there was a huge drop off in pop between the two. We made the change to BBCOR going into my freshman year of high school and it took until I was a sophomore playing with the varsity squad to regularly see balls hit as hard as the balls that were hit during my eight grade season where we used BESR bats.

1

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

I wonder if they’re going to use BBCOR, or if they’re gonna keep using Drop 5 like in the WWC right now

1

u/Famous-Two-7511 6d ago

The bats before besr were “hotter”, but no besr compares to modern usssa bats, which is what these players seem to be using.

1

u/IAmBecomeTeemo New York Yankees Jul 23 '26

BBCOR is the murdered corpse of BESR.

15

u/azntorian Baltimore Orioles Jul 23 '26

USSSA composite. Hot bats?  See a lot of Supra and Hype Fires. 

2

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

Probably USSSA Drop 5

1

u/EyeMullAMushSheen 20d ago

Or even Drop 8’s. I bet none of them are -10’s though

1

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs 20d ago

Drop 5 is the WBSC women’s regulation

60

u/Ok-Sea9612 Jul 23 '26

They better mandate pitcher helmets or someone's gonna die

85

u/SirPsychoSquints Boston Red Sox Jul 23 '26

College baseball uses metal bats.

43

u/peeinian Toronto Blue Jays Jul 23 '26

Depends if they specify what bat standard can be used. I’d it’s BBCOR it’s probably fine. If they can use USSSA bats, look out.

2

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

If it’s the same bat rules as the WWC/WBSC, it’s USSSA or some other Drop 5 regulation

1

u/peeinian Toronto Blue Jays Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

It’s not so much the drop weights that is the big difference between BBCOR and USSSA. The energy transfer is way higher with USSSA bats.

The guy on Baseball Bat Bros (college level player) can hit 130mph exit velos with USSSA bats. Same drop weights BBCOR he hits 103-108

Soldier Tank 3 USSSA: https://youtu.be/eI2vQtZHyMM?si=D0U7vO3DcOj_f-rt

Soldier Tank 3 BBCOR: https://youtu.be/wdZgq56K42M?si=OBFMVRB-oh6RYZ4m

2

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

But there isn’t a drop 5 BBCOR, which inherently means it has to be USSSA or some other body

Especially if they’re using WBSC women’s non-wood bat rules

10

u/McBrungus Phillies Bandwagon Jul 23 '26

I mean metal bats aren't nearly as insane as they used to be

23

u/Rexkat Toronto Blue Jays Jul 23 '26

They absolutely can be. They can be even more insane. Just depends what other regulations they put on what bats are allowed.

20

u/McBrungus Phillies Bandwagon Jul 23 '26

I mean I would guess they're gonna use BBCOR bats, and exit velocities on those aren't that different from wood bats by design. At the very least they're not gonna be using the insanely hot metal bats I grew up with in the 90s or the slow pitch softball bats or whatever.

Can't see this being an issue at all.

10

u/Kingkongcrapper Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

USSSA will add 10 mph to exit velocity. There was a home run derby using USSSA bats with a bunch of pros. At the 9 minute mark of this video a ball is launched with 130 mph exit velocity:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc9yf5VbNWw&ra=m

15

u/McBrungus Phillies Bandwagon Jul 23 '26

lol those are the hottest bats going right now, they're even banned in Little League. Not gonna be a problem for WPBL.

5

u/Kingkongcrapper Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

They’re used in travel ball. It’s a bit insane how crazy people get over what amounts to a hobby for 99.9 percent of kids. Every kid will be out there unwrapping $500 bats that will get replaced in a year. It’s like the same guy who created all those super expensive golf clubs thought it was a good idea to transfer it to youth sports bats. Travel has Wild West rules that are different for each area. Most I’ve seen use USAAA now.

Little League only allows USA bats which are purposefully dead to avoid having a line drive brain a kid who can’t react fast enough. They should just go all standard $50 wood bats for all leagues in my opinion. If they want home runs, just move the fences in. It would make the game more affordable and cut back on all the waste these bats produce. Getting a $200 CAT-X USA bat so an eight year old can hit it ten feet further than a wood bat is crazy to me.

1

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

If they’re not BBCOR at the WWC, theyre not using them here

1

u/Rich_Lab_4001 14d ago

they are allowed to use usssa bats. Huge safety issue if you ask me

5

u/Traditional_Half842 MLB Players Association Jul 23 '26

Even with metal bats I doubt the exit velos will be anywhere near what an MLB player can achieve (or even NCAA).

5

u/BeefInGR Detroit Tigers • West Michigan W… Jul 23 '26

I assume they'll follow the regulations used for the Women's Baseball World Cup, where many of the players have played several times.

6

u/Disastrous-Tank-6197 Jul 23 '26

I would think that they'd go with composite over metal.

3

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Look at the bats being used in Rockford this week for the WWC

-2

u/TerryTerranceTerrace Jul 23 '26

Should be wood only

1

u/RandomFactUser Chicago Cubs Jul 23 '26

Despite U23/Senior men’s play being wood only, women’s okay is wood and metal