Aluminum, Composite, Wood explained

You have four options when it comes to bat material: Aluminum Alloy, Composite, Composite/Aluminum combo and Wood.

Aluminum

An aluminum alloy is an aluminum based metal with different additives to allow for more durable and thinner bat walls. Most aluminum bats began, some 30 years ago, in a 7046 Aircraft Aluminum. The Aluminum was strong but heavy. Since then, after the invention of an even better Alloy called 7050 Aluminum, most major bat companies have created their own special blend by adding proprietary portions of, among other things, zinc, copper and magnesium and scandium. They name these special blends with catchy titles like X10 or THT Scandium Alloy. These companies continue to produce the older 7050 and 7046 alloys bats at a lower cost while their feature bats are the 'special blends'.

Higher quality and stronger aluminum alloys allow for thinner bat walls. Thinner walls allow for more control over the bat's weight distribution as well as increases in trampoline effect. Among the newer high end aluminum, with each company's special blend, it is very unlikely there is a superior alloy.

Composite

Composite bats use the same aluminum shell as aluminum bats but have woven graphite on the inside. These graphite fibers can be sorted and pointed or thinned to help control swing weight, trampoline effect, flex and sting dampening. Because of these benefits (especially the trampoline effect) composite bats are highly regulated in little league, highschool and college play. Composite bats also tend to cost more than aluminum bats.

Wood

As of this writing wood bats are making a serious run. The newer BBCOR rules, which force highschool and college aluminum and composite bats to mimic wood bats in trampoline effect, force the consumer to consider wood bats. If there is no longer any benefit to swinging an aluminum or composite bat, they should ask, why not put on the big boy pants and swing a wood bat?

Wood bats do break easier than either aluminum or composite and going through four or five bats in a season might make you question your budget, but there is absolutely nothing like dropping a big bomb with a maple stick. And only the dead don't like the smell of pine tar on a summer afternoon. Plus, swinging a wood bat is cool.