Im at work, and they block all videos, but ive been very impressed by the High speed videos Fox has shown this year. really cool stuff. i specifically remember a scutaro broken bat that was quite amazing....

These are actually (very large) animated GIFs, and they do have a clip of that Scutaro broken bat.

Cool page, but those GIFs take forever to load. The purpose of an animated GIF is compression. Using 10mb pictures means you're failing at GIFs.

I will say that I've been impressed with Fox's super slo-mo cam.

One thing I've noticed from those super slo-mo broken bat shots is how many players are holding their bat incorrectly. The bat should always be held so the ball strikes it parallel to the grain direction. You may remember your little league coach (if you're old enough to have used a wood bat) telling you to the hold the bat with the label up, for this reason. The third video in the article show's this perfectly - you can see of the bat slabs off, indicating the grain direction is running 90° from where it should be.

One thing I've noticed from those super slo-mo broken bat shots is how many players are holding their bat incorrectly. The bat should always be held so the ball strikes it parallel to the grain direction. You may remember your little league coach (if you're old enough to have used a wood bat) telling you to the hold the bat with the label up, for this reason. The third video in the article show's this perfectly - you can see of the bat slabs off, indicating the grain direction is running 90° from where it should be.

It's possible that none of these players are old enough to have played with a wooden bat in Little League. By the time they get to the pros, nobody's going to tell them, "You're holding the bat the wrong way."

These are incredibly cool. One thing they show is something that I always assumed was true but have never been able to see in real-time: the reason a bat stings the #### out of your hands sometimes is that the bat is rattling back and forth and essentially slapping you over and over. Another interesting thing is the way Scutaro's bat slows down after hitting the ball in the last GIF. That makes sense, but there's usually no sensory experience of having it happen when you play.

By the time they get to the pros, nobody's going to tell them, "You're holding the bat the wrong way."

An ego-less Rookie/A-ball employee who tells new pros how to hold their bat is the new market inefficiency.

Another interesting thing is the way Scutaro's bat slows down after hitting the ball in the last GIF. That makes sense, but there's usually no sensory experience of having it happen when you play.

This is why it's weird to me that more MLB guys don't use those "fan" or "chute" things for their bats, instead of weighted donuts, in the on-deck circle.* The fan / chute forces you to really push all the way through the ball, without altering the bat's weight. The donuts create more momentum, which I'd think would be training you to quit on your swing. The fan/chutes are not new things - there's film of Reggie! using a "fan" on deck when he was in the World Series with the A's.

* Though "They look silly, and nobody else uses them" would be my guesses.

One thing I've noticed from those super slo-mo broken bat shots is how many players are holding their bat incorrectly. The bat should always be held so the ball strikes it parallel to the grain direction. You may remember your little league coach (if you're old enough to have used a wood bat) telling you to the hold the bat with the label up, for this reason. The third video in the article show's this perfectly - you can see of the bat slabs off, indicating the grain direction is running 90° from where it should be.

Too lazy to look it up now, but I seem to recall reading that the advice for maple bats is opposite that of ash for reasons having to do with how they break and/or the composition of the grain, but they still print the label in the same place on both, on the face of the grain.

This is why it's weird to me that more MLB guys don't use those "fan" or "chute" things for their bats, instead of weighted donuts, in the on-deck circle.* The fan / chute forces you to really push all the way through the ball, without altering the bat's weight. The donuts create more momentum, which I'd think would be training you to quit on your swing. The fan/chutes are not new things - there's film of Reggie! using a "fan" on deck when he was in the World Series with the A's.

I'm not. There's a lot of research out there proving that swinging with weights actually decreases bat speed, and batting coaches know it, but on deck circle routines remain more or less sacrosanct. Players don't like to change the habits that got them to the majors (or even just got them drafted), and coaches learn to pick their battles.