Mizzou Baseball Quotes & Notes: The end of composite bats??

■ Rules Committee Recommends Moratorium on Composite Barrels (Baseball America)

The NCAA has devised a solution—at least temporarily—to its bat rolling dilemma. Multiple sources have confirmed that the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee has recommended a moratorium on bats that use composite barrels, which tend to over perform near the end of their life cycles and are susceptible to a form of tampering known as "bat rolling." The moratorium will be considered (and likely
approved) by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel at an August meeting.

This is a positive step to address a major issue that has exploded in college baseball over the last two seasons. We’ll have plenty more on the composite bat debate in this week’s On Campus.

■ NCAA moratorium on composite bats is the title of a message board thread at CollegeBaseball.Rivals.com:

chipporter: From a manufacturers website about a letter he received from the
NCAA:

"A memo in part from the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee:

SUBJECT: Composite Bat Moratorium.

This correspondence is being sent on behalf of the Baseball Rules Committee, alerting the college baseball bat manufacturing community to an important action being taken in regard to certain bats that have been used in NCAA competition. After significant dialog and review of research collected during the Division I Baseball Championship, the committee is proposing an immediate and indefinite moratorium on the use of composite barreled bats. The committee believes this action is needed in order to protect the integrity of the game and to enhance the safety of the student-athletes. "

Kendall Rogers: This thing could be the beginning of the end of metal bats...... emphasis of the word COULD.

■ For more details on the concerns of the NCAA, read Baseball rules panel seeks to deter rolling at NCAA.org:

The NCAA, now in its 10th season of restricting the performance level of non-wood bats, has specific standards delineated in the baseball rules book, including weight-to-length ratio, length, diameter and other specifics. All bats also had to pass the “ring test,” in which a ring is slid down the barrel of the bat to ensure it has not been dented or flattened. If the ring stops, the bat has become “out of round” and is not legal. Most of the bats removed did not meet the ring test.

A compression test, which checks how much “give” a bat has using a vise-like device with sensors, was added this year. The give of a composite bat increases as it is hit multiple times, creating a spring-like effect. The compression test can detect the effect created by “rolling” a bat, a process that replicates the effect of a well-used bat.