Bat Digest Family: It doesn't surprise me that the original CAT design has less vibration than the X2. The tuned mass has to be located at the end where the damping is to occur, in other words your hands. The buzz from an end capper excites the bending vibration in the bat because you are hitting at an anti-node. The sweet spot is the node (part of the wave that doesn't oscillate) so you transfer most of the energy to the ball and don't use it on the handle buzz. It's similar to the dampers they put in high-rise buildings. Look up Taipei 101. The disadvantage of the knob location is that it will reduce the swing weight while adding to the scale weight. I'd be curious to see what the swing weights are between the two versions. It seems like Marucci is killing off the best feature of their bats for younger hitters and spinning it with some end cap damping marketing nonsense. Maybe they are trying to hold price in an inflationary economy. It's a shame if they do this change to the USSSA bats. The BBCOR version would probably benefit since HS hitters aren't bothered by buzzing.
Bat Digest Famliy Did I make a mistake? I got an Icon 2025 -5 32. Normally, I swing a -5 32 27 Oz CatX Vanta Single Piece. It's harder for me to find the barrel with the compsite two-piece, but I feel great with one piece. Maybe I should have gotten a cat 2x instead 🤔 of an icon bat
The Icon, being a two piece composite bat, needs to be worked in a little bit before reaching the max performance. We think that around 100-150 hits with the bat will work it in pretty good.
Great review my Grandson(11yrs) has been using a Cat7 -10 (4HR). We are looking to purchase a new bat and he loves the Cat-Bats so what’s your thoughts about an -8 for 11 year old kid would it be to heavy ?
