Louisville Slugger bats, Exogrid and stiff handle technology

Like Easton, Louisville Slugger bats are among the finest in the game today. I have owned many Louisville Slugger bats, and would be proud to recommend them to any ballplayer. When anyone thinks of baseball bats, Louisville Slugger is one of the first names that come to mind. Why? They have basically been making bats since the game began being played. They continue to make wood bats as well as aluminum and composites.

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Louisville has counteracted Easton’s flex-bat designs, with a campaign that proclaims that "stiff bats" are still the way to go. They claim that the bat will flex at the wrong time, which will reduce power. I’m no physicist, but I’m sure there is some truth to this. However, I do believe that Easton is on to something as well. I’ll let you be the judge on this.

Here is a look into some of the technology used on some of the high end Louisville Slugger bats as of April of 07’.

Exogrid

Louisville 2008 Air Exogrid
Adult -3 Baseball Bat

The concept of the Exogrid technology is to increase handle stiffness without increasing weight. Here is the process. They start with a one-piece aluminum bat. Then they trim metal from the handle in a grid pattern, and insert carbon deposits. A carbon sleeve with unidirectional fibers is then inserted that runs the length of the handle. Then it is all bonded with extreme heat and pressure. The idea of this technology is to strengthen the handle, without increasing the weight of the bat. In the end you have an extremely strong and stiff one-piece bat.

ST+20 Alloy

An alloy is a combination of two or more elements, one of which is metal. This is Louisville’s latest alloy, and they also claim that it is the strongest one in the game today. It is the same alloy that is used in the aerospace industry by Boeing and Airbus. It is 20% tougher than their previous Warrior alloy. Other alloys used in their other bats are the Warrior and Scandium XS.

Stiff Handle

This isn’t so much a certain form of technology, but rather a concept that they emphasize to set them apart from Easton. Since Easton produces a bat that flexes, Louisville has gone the opposite direction and stuck to the design of a stiff bat, and market the concept that it is the stronger model. The stiff handle concept is supposed to drive home the point that a one-piece bat that doesn’t flex is stronger than the ones that do.

The argument is that on the two-piece bats, the barrel is flexing at the wrong time, which is when you are making contact with the ball. This reduces the trampoline effect which they intend. They also claim that a one-piece bat increases the sweet spot of the bat.

To browse and shop for Louisville bats I recommend checking out the selection at Baseball Express.

For more information, click here to go to Louisville Slugger's official home page.

Summary

You can’t go wrong with Louisville Slugger bats. They have always made a quality product and always will. However, like Easton, if you’re looking for a bat that features all of their latest high-end technology, you’ll have to fork over some dollars. A look at Google’s Checkout Stores, shows that the cost for their top of the line Exogrid bat in the adult model, comes in at $330. This is just a hair cheaper than the top of the line Stealth model from Easton, which is $350. The senior league model of the Exogrid is just a little cheaper at $300. You can however, purchase a slightly lower-end model, for example the Air 2X, for $190. The youth bats start as high as $180 for the Catalyst model, and get as cheap as $40, depending on how low you want to go. Among many other things in life, with bats, you pretty much get what you pay for. Make a choice based on your budget.

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