CLE802A
06-07-2011, 05:03 PM
Back when Clemson played - and lost - to USC, JackLeg makes a big drama over the bats that USC hit with. But as it turned out, Clemson - under JackLeg's oversight - was using new BBCOR-approved bats by Easton, which were heavily criticized by most if not all of the college programs that used them.
Even USC, which had past contracts with Easton, noticed how poorly the Easton BBCOR bats were performing in the off-season, and switched to Rawlings bats (incidentally, the top ACC team all season - Viriginia - also uses Rawlings BBCOR bats). JackLeg, in all his infinite wisdom, said "huh?"....Clemson continued to use the Easton bats...
Until someone - probably a team manager of video tech guy - was able to point out to the CU coaching staff that there isn't something wrong with the bats that rivals and opposing competitors are using, it's the bats that CLEMSON is using that's all screwy.
So Clemson does something that rarely ANY college baseball program EVER does....certainly not an elite college program: they change bats in mid-season. Even though they still are using Easton bats, Easton got so much grief from their customers that they went back to the drawing board, compared their products with their competitors and noticed that the weight-distribution could be better placed on their bats. They essentially made an exact copy of - yes, you guessed it - the popular 5150 Rawlings BBCOR bat that USC and UVA uses. In it's debut, Clemson pounded out 25 runs and 31 hits against Gardner Webb.
So now at this point, USC has hit a total of 44 home runs with a slugging percentage of .432. Clemson hit a total of 48 home runs with a .460 SLG %. Of course, losing Bradley Jr. - who still to this day is 2nd on the team in HRs - for the season most likely has stunted our power numbers, it certainly places the drama-queen antics of Leggett earlier in the season into a more proper light.
Too bad JackLeg didn't pay more attention to the pitching...
:)
Even USC, which had past contracts with Easton, noticed how poorly the Easton BBCOR bats were performing in the off-season, and switched to Rawlings bats (incidentally, the top ACC team all season - Viriginia - also uses Rawlings BBCOR bats). JackLeg, in all his infinite wisdom, said "huh?"....Clemson continued to use the Easton bats...
Until someone - probably a team manager of video tech guy - was able to point out to the CU coaching staff that there isn't something wrong with the bats that rivals and opposing competitors are using, it's the bats that CLEMSON is using that's all screwy.
So Clemson does something that rarely ANY college baseball program EVER does....certainly not an elite college program: they change bats in mid-season. Even though they still are using Easton bats, Easton got so much grief from their customers that they went back to the drawing board, compared their products with their competitors and noticed that the weight-distribution could be better placed on their bats. They essentially made an exact copy of - yes, you guessed it - the popular 5150 Rawlings BBCOR bat that USC and UVA uses. In it's debut, Clemson pounded out 25 runs and 31 hits against Gardner Webb.
So now at this point, USC has hit a total of 44 home runs with a slugging percentage of .432. Clemson hit a total of 48 home runs with a .460 SLG %. Of course, losing Bradley Jr. - who still to this day is 2nd on the team in HRs - for the season most likely has stunted our power numbers, it certainly places the drama-queen antics of Leggett earlier in the season into a more proper light.
Too bad JackLeg didn't pay more attention to the pitching...
:)