Selecting a Youth Baseball Bat - Choosing The Best Youth Baseball Bat

Choosing a bat for your child in youth baseball can be a bit frustrating! Little League bats can sell for ridiculous prices close to $200!  What size? What brand? Hopefully this article can help.

Youth Bats and Little League Bats
For 8-10 year olds and smaller 11-12 year olds, the Easton Rampage LX45 Youth Baseball Bat shown below is a really nice choice at an affordable price of around $60. In addition to being a favorite of many on our team, I see other teams using this bat as well. It is 19 ounces in weight and 30" in length.  The light weight makes it an easy bat to control.  One of our Little League team's best batters, a smaller 12 year old, even uses it. My 7 year old daughter can even handle this bat well.  For the bigger 11 or 12 year old, a slightly longer (30" or 31") and heavier (20 oz) bat might be a better choice. This bat by weight and age chart confirms my observations. My recommendation would be to go with the 29", 19 oz bat for the 8-11 yr old and switch up to a 31" or 32" in 20-21 oz for the larger 11-12 yr old if needed. You can find this bat at a local sporting goods shop, on ebay at this link, or online at this link.

This is a 30", 19 ounce bat that we use for practice and games. It has a -11 ratio which means the weight is 11 less than the length. A -11 ratio is a good ratio for Little League since -10 to -12 bats are most commonly used. All Little League bats must have barrel diameter of 2 1/4".

T-Ball Bats
For T-ball players, the baseball bat can be any bat designated for T-ball. As a practical matter, one should not invest a lot in this bat since the child is learning more about stance and how to hold and swing the bat then actual hitting.  Simply buy a low priced bat at any department store sized for T-ball as shown below. One could then jump up to the 29" bat mentioned above when the child is ready for youth league (pre-little league) ball at age 7 or 8.