5 Things you Need to Know About Baseball Bat Ring Removal

1 What is the Purpose of a Baseball Bat Ring?

A restrictor ring is put into place to stop the barrel from flexing too much. Some associations have stringent exit velocity mandates and a ring in the sweet spot curbs the speed of the batted ball.

2 What Types of Restrictor Rings are there?

             Composite Discs

             Metal Rings

             Composite Rings

             Tubes

             Molded Composites Layers

             Floating Tubes

             Plastic Rings

 

All referred as simply “restrictor ring” or just “ring”

3 Is Baseball the only Bats with Restrictor Rings?

No, some Slow Pitch Softball and Fast Pitch Softball bats also have barrel flex restricting devices. Most of the rings in these bats are actually tubes to stop the bat from flexing to a certain point. These tubes are more prevalent in USA (ASA) type bats.

4 What Baseball Bats have Restrictor Rings?

Most USA Baseball and Bbcor bats have some type of ring in the barrel; although there are some that do not. The bats that do not simply make the wall of the bat thicker to “deaden” the flex of the barrel. For instance, Marucci does not place a ring in the barrel they just make the barrel thicker. Easton does the same thing with their Composite Project Advanced bats but the Easton Maxums, Quatros and most alloy Easton bats have rings inside the barrel on the sweet spot.

5 Will removing the Ring Increase Exit Velocity on a Batted Ball and what about durability?

Yes, the barrel will flex more and increase the “jump” off the bat equating to more pop and gains in distance. There is a little bit of disinformation going around about ring removal and durability. Yes, durability decreases when a ring is removed; obviously because the barrel flexes more and degrades the composite faster.  There are no bats that I have worked on that break right away after a proper ring removal (which are just about all bats that have a ring on the market today). The exception is the double wall bats such as the Easton double wall and the Flipper type bats. If the inside barrel is completely removed the bat will be break in about 30 swings. I do not consider this a ring/tube but a second barrel (but man does the ball jump!). A lot of these bats are getting shaved along with ring removal and are producing great results.  I work on a lot of different bats so I get a ton of solid feedback for the information I am putting out.