Sooner or later one of these is going to impale someone (player or fan)-and then we will see composite bats in the majors.

Proposal for a rules change: bat shatters -> batter automatically out, dead ball. This will, I concede, occasionally work to the detriment of the defense on what would have been a double-play grounder.

On first glance I thought that was ridiculous, but what's the main reason why they break so easily? Because the handles are too thin. Thickening the handles will reduce bat speed somewhat and thus long balls, tho we may already be in the middle of a correction in that regard already anyway.

Okay, fine. Alternate rule proposal: bat handles must be at least $MINIMUM_BAT_HANDLE_THICKNESS thick. Exact valued TBD.

Sooner or later one of these is going to impale someone (player or fan)-and then we will see composite bats in the majors.

A bat has already left a Pirates coach with a scar and nerve damage in his face.

"My advice to fans, no matter how your good seats are, if you're not going to be locked in for 27 outs on each side, you either should be in the outfield or behind the net," Anderson said.

"I don't want to call people stupid, but it's not smart when families bring kids and sit right behind the dugout. People buckle their kids [into cars] and keep them from harm's way, and then they come to a baseball game and let them sit [close]."

This drives me crazy. I often sit just past the 3rd base dugout, and am quite close to the field. It's line drive alley. Somebody gets bonked almost every game, because they aren't paying attention, and I see parents with babies on their laps not even paying attention to the game in the first row!!

Cesar Izturis just reached base thanks to a shattered bat in the Cards-Dodgers game. His bat blew up on a tapper to first, but Saito never made it to the bag in time to cover for the out because he was too busy dodging pieces of Izturis's bat on the way.

#3 that is exactly the issue. The hitters are trying to get an edge by decreasing bat weight. #7 thank you for the insight.

Knowing Selig, they'll do nothing about this until there's a career-ending injury, at which point they'll pass a rule that doesn't fix the problem and creates another one.

I've heard some talk about creating a minimum width for the bat handle. The thin handles are playing a part in this, along with maple bats and probably some other factors of physics that I don't quite understand. I can't imagine the hitters would react favorably to a rule that would force them to use thicker handles.

Of course, the only player seriously injured by a broken bat was before there were maple ones - Steve Yeager was nearly killed in the on deck circle by shards of an ash bat in 1976. It led him to invent the throat protector for catchers, because he needed it after that, what with the nine pieces of ash that had to be surgically removed.

I'd thought that one of the reasons for Maple was that it was less likely to break than Ash. Although, if it encourages players to order slimmer handles, that would counteract any advantages of Maple.

Knowing Selig, they'll do nothing about this until there's a career-ending injury, at which point they'll pass a rule that doesn't fix the problem and creates another one.

One thing is certain, Selig gets criticized for nearly anything he does. Had he banned Maple bats last year, you would have heard cries that he was clinging to the past or didn't understand or whatever..

Selig was very proactive and out in front of many issues in baseball. I remember when he successfully took over the umpiring from the leagues and then he added Questec (the precursor to Pitch Fx), or whatever it was called. Players like Schilling, for example, would have nervous breakdowns over the sight of a Questec machine in a park and the media lapped it up. Everyone pointed at Selig as some idiot. Good heavens, we wouldn't want to get objective data on balls and strikes and pitch type now would we. What a horrible idea! (sarcasm)

Geremmi Gonzalez killed by maple bat. Oops, wrong thread.

how many on here objected to either questec or going to one umpiring pool? if anything it was the half assed nature of going to questec that caused problems (not fitting all parks with it, keeping the information confidential even away from the managers and gm, not incorporating a grading system with teeth) Schilling was an idiot and was roundly criticized on here for being an idiot for opposing Questec as hard core as he did.

not fitting all parks with it, keeping the information confidential even away from the managers and gm, not incorporating a grading system with teeth

A good reason for not fitting all parks w Questec was to run a real experiment with a control. Even if you simply "turned off" the machine, there is indeed a lab-coat effect.