Meta X

[289nate]

I agree. My soon to be 13 year old gets more balls off the extreme end of the bat and hands. Consistency is coming around for sure. But still too many cringe worthy hard swings well off the end and hands. Her previous Zeno lived a hard life in that regard and the connection eventually gave up.

The Meta on the other hand initially cracked in a spot that was still pretty much the sweet spot. Great bat if it would hold together.

I have seen plenty of old grey ghosts that haven’t cracked. Including one on our team even though it’s pretty much dead as a door nail. Those hold up. 2021 Ghost Advanced? Cracked like an egg.

We are also supposed to be a Louisville, DeMarini and Wilson team. Though no strict enforcement at 12u.

 

[erniekru]

DD and her team swing DeMarini exclusively.. In the 4 years she's been on the team not one broken bat. I'd say that 85% use the CF and the rest use the FNX. Never have seen even one bat break in BP or in a game.

DD averages 1 bat per 8 months or so, usually retired due to age and just wanting a change. Seems strange to me how many broken bats people are willing to put up with.

 

[289nate]

Louisville slugger finally came through and gave me a voucher code for $450. I ordered an LXT 33 drop 10 and ate it on the remaining $50. Her other 2022 LXT is breaking in very nicely. SawI no reason to go with a Metta X even if it is a little hotter out of the rapper with its questionable durability. Hopefully in the near future they will resolve any durability issues.

 

[Westwind]

I had a 2020 34/24 LXT that dd used for about two weeks one summer in the closet. I had cleaned it up and it was ready to be thrown on EBay when spring rolled around.

DD was home from college from school for winter break. At the end of break, she trashed out the 33/24 LXT she brought home from school. I dug out the LXT and she broke it in one session of front toss.

I hate it that LXT’s have such durability issues.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

I got my daughter the 2020 LXT back in the summer of that year. In October, the connection developed a wobble, so we sent it back for a warranty replacement. We got the bat back, and she used it for winter workouts, school ball in the spring of 2021, summer travel ball, and she started using it in the fall season, too. She attended a camp at Springfield University last September when another girl took hers by mistake and left her LXT instead. The one she has now had more marks and chips in it, but it is still going strong.

The bad part for the other girl is my daughter's was stamped with Warranty Replacement, but the other one was not. If the other girl broke it, she's screwed.

 

[289nate]

Dd #2 is on a Louisville/Wilson team. (Dd #1 was on an Easton team, she had a career ending injury the year before the Ghost came out.) They have an older bat as a practice bat and a gamer they only use for warmups and games. By my count, about half LXT and half Xeno none of whatever the “Ghostbuster” is supposed to be.

They break surprisingly few bats, they hit a lot, hit a ton of machine dimples and machine stitch balls. (Gasp! No!) The one weekend they broke a lot of game bats was warming up at Arizona. For some reason the balls provided were bat destroyers. That was off of front toss and live arm pitching.

I see an awful lot of grey ghosts on opposing teams that look like they got dragged behind the team bus…. They ain’t new. It’s not nice and this advice isn’t always taken in the spirit of tough love that it is intended, but I think quality of contact is a deciding factor in most bat breakages. No, 14 year old phenoms are not hitting the ball harder than a 21 year old in a p5 conference who spends every day lifting and hitting for the last three years. I also think sometimes there is a ball quality issue. The thing that absolutely doesn’t matter is hitting a ball when the air temp is down to 49.5*. The other thing that doesn’t matter is hitting a good quality dimple ball.

Hit ‘em like you stole ’em. Wipe the dimple ball marks off ‘em and ‘em back when they break. Insure them if you can. There is no magic here, they all break, it’s a fact of life in 2022. (And it always has been. Good hitters broke the old Easton Stealth too. It was a tank.)

YMMV.

Launchaball it’s the the best new sushi wrap.

 

[dracarys]

We ended up selling ours. DD (14u) never really took to it; we got her Ghost warranty replacement right after the Meta arrived and she always reached for the Ghost first. It probably wasn't even fully broken in, that's how little she used it. She did get the new tie dye Ghost when her Meta sold and she's very happy with it.

 

[lostcreek1]

DD and her team swing DeMarini exclusively.. In the 4 years she's been on the team not one broken bat. I'd say that 85% use the CF and the rest use the FNX. Never have seen even one bat break in BP or in a game.

DD averages 1 bat per 8 months or so, usually retired due to age and just wanting a change. Seems strange to me how many broken bats people are willing to put up with.

People using bats that have a tendency to break will get at least a year out of it. So not much difference between them and you if you are buying a new bat every eight months or so.

 

[erniekru]

People using bats that have a tendency to break will get at least a year out of it. So not much difference between them and you if you are buying a new bat every eight months or so.

OK, theres a huge contingency of people getting way less out of some brands of bats! Buy and swing what you like!

And the 8 months is 1 lesson with dimple balls machine pitched FAST, one lesson with reg softballs, and one more easy reps with me. Used both days on the weekend too. We don't have the option to swing other bats, but I'd say that with the above that is great reliability..

 

[Westwind]

Launchaball it’s the the best new sushi wrap.

I wrap sushi with tea leaves I couldn’t read.

Dogsport giraffes make the best sandwiches.