New Bats Ruining College Baseball

We interrupt you regularly scheduled basketball coverage to bring you some disappointing news from the world of baseball…it sucks! And it’s all because of these new bats the NCAA is making teams use this year that are supposedly supposed to make the game “safer” by decreasing the exit speed of the ball off the bat, but have instead only managed to decrease statistics in just about every hitting category.

Homers are down. Batting averages have plummeted. Teams are scoring less runs. Every game is a pitchers duel. Just take a look at these numbers from the SEC this year:

• Homers have almost dropped in half, with 220 homers (through 197 games) last season compared to just 120 (through 204 games) this spring
• Scoring is down as well over the same period — from 8.06 runs per game to just 6.68.
• Batting average has dropped from .313 to .304. ERA has dropped from 4.04 to 3.17.
• Conference teams have already combined for 25 shutouts. In 2010, there were only 33 shutouts the entire season.

via ESPN