Meta X

[Jloosh78]

So I’ve been anxiously awaiting the drop of this bat. There definitely is 2 camps from what I’ve seen in my limited softball dad career! The ghost camp and the non ghost camp. Now I can’t explain it but I will give my observation.
my daughter is no power hitter. Bats 7 or 8 on her travel team. But is a solid contact hitter with a great swing. She gets on base with singles and doubles and occasionally legs out a triple.We’ve tried just about every brand on the market and she loves the feel of the LXT. She tried the ghost and just does not like it. Plus the ghost advanced we had broke after 4 days of hitting off a tee and front toss inside. The replacement bat broke after 2 days. As I said earlier she is no power hitter and the bat was babied! To me that’s unexceptable! Needless to say I will never send Easton another dollar.
Now no matter the bat anyone’s daughter uses will not solve a bad swing. If she’s a 9 hitter with a not so good swing a ghost is not going to make her any better!
I also see this all the time. To someone’s point that most teams use all ghosts. There’s 3 types of hitters. Power, contact and slappers. Just based on my daughters team I see a slapper using a ghost and 3 other girls who are no where near strong enough to get the benefit out of an end loaded power hitters bat.
To me this is nothing more than people not doing any research and just being sheep and following the heard. I strongly believe most parents are delusional and believe the ghost will make their kid a better hitter! Now onto the other point of the Meta having exit speeds 5-7 mph slower than the ghost. I don’t believe that for a second. Just about every bat review I’ve seen of a top bat has exit speeds within about 2 mph of each other. I will give the Meta a try since the baseball version is a stud. I know that means nothing but LS has been making a very durable product that hits a ball hard if you have a good swing for years.
And for the people that keep replacing the ghosts for free that’s your choice. But it’s not free. You pay shipping every time to send it back knowing it’s a ticking time bomb waiting ti send back at any time. To me that’s not a great product no matter how hard some feel it makes their kid hit the ball. I’m sure I will get a lot of negative feedback from my thoughts.

 

[Pigskinguru34]

No you are fine and I understand that everyone is different. And actually I will agree there are 3 types of hitters and to be honest the largest group is the contact hitters and to me those are the ones that benefit the most from a ghost. I would concur a slapper with a ghost is probably the worst example of the 3 to use simply because then they are using an overweight bat in an attempt to make weak contact to begin with. The power hitter can use the ghost and get a tad more distance but when it clears the fence by 10+ feet on a power hitter the difference is unnecessary.

Now to the contact hitter. My oldest fit square in this category as she used to always lead team in average, hits, walks, etc. and she fell in love with the blue ghost at 14, coming from demarini the weight was an issue but she stayed down at a 32 her first year, and she fell in love with it because as she said she “ghosted” a good 20 girls in that year. That meant she had a solid hit/line drive that basically was on the infielder before they could even react, actually hitting the fielder 7 of those times. This to me is the greatest benefit of the ghost. If the ball is coming off faster, thus giving the fielder less time to react, it leads to increased base hits.

Now to the durability issue. Yes it is a problem and one where I know Easton has chosen that top end performance comes at a price and they are working to find an improvement but they are unwilling to trade performance for durability at this point. luckily they also have been great with returns and to me that, while frustrating to send back, makes it worth it because it is an easy process and one that I know i get my years use of bats out of. but I can say this, I have a stable of over 60 girls that I follow between my daughters teams and friends teams. over the last 6 months I have seen 22 girls break their ghost advance, a number of them at the connection point. Of the 22, 4 are what I would consider solid contact hitters and only 1 of them I would put in the top 5 hitters in the group. In fact the top 5 hitters (average, ops, slugging) 4 girls still have ghost advanced bats from last fall. Leads me to believe it is mainly mis-hits that are having the greatest impact on the durability issues with the bat, regardless it is unacceptable.

which brings me to here and why I toiled at the thought of the Meta as I know what it is doing in baseball and when LS dubbed it the ghost killer I was intrigued as I would love for a bat to be introduced that gave the performance of the ghost but the durability of xeno/demarini.

so I am intrigued for the Meta but so far from what I have seen (KC and college World Series) it does not show me anything Ghost like. The ball is not jumping off the barrel and getting on an infielder before they can react. Exit speeds are not upper 60’s+. What I see is more Xeno/mantra like in that its greatest results are with power hitters squaring up a ball. To me a power hitter squaring up a ball with any bat is going to get a positive result.

 

[Golfclubgreg]

I am guessing some of the exit speed numbers are not apples to apples comparisons. If you are comparing a 34/24 meta that weighs 24oz against a same size ghost that weighs near 26oz??? Need to swing a drop 8 Meta to actually compare, Just a thought

 

[Westwind]

as she said she “ghosted” a good 20 girls in that year. That meant she had a solid hit/line drive that basically was on the infielder before they could even react, actually hitting the fielder 7 of those times.

I bought dd one of the first ghosts Core got in.

Saw it that first summer. We called it “ghost effect”.

 

[Pigskinguru34]

I am guessing some of the exit speed numbers are not apples to apples comparisons. If you are comparing a 34/24 meta that weighs 24oz against a same size ghost that weighs near 26oz??? Need to swing a drop 8 Meta to actually compare, Just a thought

understand that but also don’t know a 34 etc girl that I wouldn’t put into the power hitter category.

as for apples to apples I can tell you this, at KC I know 4 girls (all use ghost advanced) that tried the meta. both bats 33/23 and their exit speeds averaged 4.5 mph slower with the meta. I get that their ghost advanced bat was likely an ounce heavier but shouldn’t be that far off if you want to argue pop off the bat.

To me, that makes the case it is like the other LS bats in that they are decent bats, just as effective in the hands of great hitters, but not showing the same pop and performance in the majority of your average contact hitters. To me, that is why the Ghost is the best performance bat out there for the masses and why I say the majority of your average contact hitters will be most effective swinging a ghost.

I totally understand this is not the case for everyone as not everyone is created the same.

 

[Golfclubgreg]

It will be interesting to see, you are right on I guess with girls swinging 34's. Probably doesn't matter which top tier bat, just comfort. My boys 2020 Meta baseball bat just continues to get hotter though. At least 10k swings on it as 80% of his team swings it with no damage other than cosmetic. And nice side note, its worth more than what I paid for it originally lol.

 

[Pigskinguru34]

Yeah I do not know any fastpitch over the last 10 years that you can say that about. Also, sounds like your son is a chip off the old block and going to be a beast like your daughter.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

I am guessing some of the exit speed numbers are not apples to apples comparisons. If you are comparing a 34/24 meta that weighs 24oz against a same size ghost that weighs near 26oz??? Need to swing a drop 8 Meta to actually compare, Just a thought

Also, go the other way. If you have someone who likes balanced bats...then in a test, you have to say she would be slower
with a Ghost than whatever else its testing with. So the other bats would register better. Its a game you are gonna
be chasing forever. Now the new 2022 Ghosts are very close...so you cant do the drop9 thought process. Even
the newer ADV batches were closer...sooooo. You would need a scale at every demo

And no, you arent getting a 34/24 Ghost weighing 26oz. Maybe 25oz

And baseball is a different beast with equipment. Heck, lots of players still like one piece baseball bats. The one piece marucci
kills their top of the line 2 piece.

 

[Golfclubgreg]

Also, go the other way. If you have someone who likes balanced bats...then in a test, you have to say she would be slower
with a Ghost than whatever else its testing with. So the other bats would register better. Its a game you are gonna
be chasing forever. Now the new 2022 Ghosts are very close...so you cant do the drop9 thought process. Even
the newer ADV batches were closer...sooooo. You would need a scale at every demo

And no, you arent getting a 34/24 Ghost weighing 26oz. Maybe 25oz

And baseball is a different beast with equipment. Heck, lots of players still like one piece baseball bats. The one piece marucci
kills their top of the line 2 piece.

Sorry Core, just trying to show maybe something of difference. I don't choose sides in bats, I like them all It comes down to what daughter likes. We have tried every type of bat, from heavy end loads to a Demarini slapper (experiment ended quickly lmao), all brands and materials. Shes been swinging a 34 since 12. Just fun experimenting with my daughter, and son with baseball bats for that matter. From what I gather, my DD likes a soft feeling balanced bat so that's where we tend to gravitate.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

I wasnt saying you did....just saying for every girl in a test that swings a Ghost and another bat will come in lighter
so she wont hit as hard so you would have to go to a drop9 or something to be closer, there is the opposite.
Girls that dont like a heavier bat and it could sway the other way so you would need a lighter ghost to get test correctly.

Thats why I said its like an endless process if you're trying to add that into the "tests"

Im not a big test guy...I think every girl has their favorite bat. The one that just fits her perfectly (weight, feel, flex, all that good stufff).
What bat one girl loves, another will hate and vice versa. No rhyme or reason.

But baseball bats are def not like softball...hahaha. I dont put the two together in any way. Thats why I brought up the fact
that the one piece Marucci kills the 2 piece...because in softball...the cheaper bats dont sell.