Help please with TPX

[xavier]

I am looking for a bat for a 55 pound 49 inch kid in coach pitch. I found a local shop discounting all 08 bats so I was hoping to get in on a good deal.

The choices I have brought it down to are the green catalyst x-1 (16 oz) $150, black omaha composite (16oz) $95, maverick 18 oz $59 - all of them are 28". That is the shortest bat that they have that isn't marked tee ball. How is the performance and are they fairly durable?

[stlbats]

I would say the green catalyst is the best. My team has one and so far it has been durable and has tons of pop. I have not seen the other 2 TPXs you mentioned used.

Thanks

[xavier]

thanks for the response. It is good to know it stands up as a team bat.

[Arc]

Go with the smaller bat, I have seen the TPX Omaha 27/15 and the combat Throttle 27/14 and my son likes the throttle better. It seems to have more pop both are good bats though. Just be carefull of how long it is. My son is 4'4 and around 63 pnds and jhas truoble with 28 inch bats.

[dear ol dad]

Any of those bats will be fine. More importantly you would be better off with a 27"bat in my opinion. Lets face it you ARE going to purchase another bat next year. Get him the best one for NOW

[LLdad]

You're looking at some pretty big sticks for a boy that small. He could probably do ok with a 28" 15oz, but 29" 16oz is a lot of bat for him. I last did coach pitch when my son was 7, and didn't have a single kid swinging a bat over 27". I bought him a 28" 15oz Catalyst when he was 8, and that worked well for him through age 9 (this year).

I bought a Omaha Composite for him at the end of the season and for All Stars (29/16). Most of the team fell in love with it right away. I also socked a Jugs machine ball over the 300' practice field fence with it for what it's worth.:-)

Getting back on topic, I suspect your kid will be ready for a new bat for minors the year after next. I'd stay south of the $100 mark for his coach pitch season. There are, or at least were, some nice alloy bats out there with -13 weight drops. He doesn't need a composite bat for coach pitch. Save that money for the next go-round.

[2ManyBats]

I love the Post.

Until this past season I "Coach Pitched" to my 2 son's teams for the last 5 years. I hit alot of swings in my time, and I also had to play the "Bad Guy" when I asked the other coaches on our team to take bats from players and have them use Shorter and Lighter bats. In most every case it worked .... and the kids Had better Control, Better Bat Speed, and Better Form ( Bat Head not dropping while coming thru the zone )

So back a few years ago .... here's what we used to be either the best hiting team or at leatst at the top of the class. We started with Reflex, moved to Tri-Shell 888 and then Tripple 777 ... All Easton. ( These were "Almost" Top Shelf Bats back then )
The Team average over 34 hits per game for over 5 years .... alot of the innings we maxed out the runs per inning on teams without even trying. We just hit better with 28" and 27" bats ! Rarely using 29 & 30" bats.
( Now we have Easton Stealths, some CXN, Demarini Vexxum, LS Catalyst and Worth AMP )

Then we got a 2-piece bat Easton CXN Connection ... I think this bat change my sons and made them even better or at least more confident at the dish. The Vibration on hits seemed to go away. via the 2-piece construction. They both stopped using gloves because of less vibration ( this was found by accident - forgot gloves for BP )
and they were also hitting better .... yes they eventually went back to gloves... but I've notice that the oldest one will go gloveless whenever he needs to get back on track or to avoid a slump.

The Best Coach pitch bat is the one the players feels the most confident with and does the best with in BP & games. We alway had and still do today offer 2 options for our sons. But they know thru BP that they can hit with both without any problem.