BATLAC Backspin Technology
9-3-09 Sandlot Stiks announces the launch of its new proprietary “GREEN” bat coating.
Over the past several years, Chris Corso founder of Sandlot Stiks, a small wood bat manufacturing company based in Chico, CA has been putting his expertise in wood coatings to work by developing a new waterborne coating specifically designed for wood baseball bats.
Mr. Corso has announced the launch of the most revolutionary development to the wood bat industry since the introduction of Maple bats to the market in the late 1990’s.
“With all the latest developments in the wood bat industry over the past ten years or so, all the focus has been placed specifically on designing a better construction of the wood bat. We have taken this one step further and developed a better coating to go with a better wood bat “says Corso. With the help of Matt Ceriani of the Edmonton Capitals Professional Baseball Club and Mac’s Professional Baseball School in Chico, CA, Mr. Corso has developed BATLAC TM H2O waterborne topcoat with “Backspin Technology” designed specifically for use on wood baseball bats.
“The flight of a baseball is directly impacted by the way the ball spins after it comes off the bat. Studies have proven several key factors control what makes a ball travel farther when hit. Bat speed, undercut (where the ball is contacted in relationship to its center), ball exit speed, trajectory, and backspin. The pitch of course also helps determine how far a ball can be hit. It has been proven under optimal conditions a seventy-eight MPH curveball can travel farther than a ninety-four MPH fastball when hit. This is due to a higher rate of backspin. The spin of a curveball is augmented when hit with backspin by up to 800 RPM. A fastballs spin must change direction when hit in order to create backspin. A bat surface with a high coefficient of friction will help create more backspin thus helping the ball lift, travel straighter and with less wind resistance, resulting in more distance.”
“Conventional wood coatings available to the general public are not designed for this type of application. In fact the majority of clear waterborne and solvent borne high gloss topcoats being used today by bat manufacturers are designed for furniture, cabinets and general wood purposes. These coatings are formulated to reduce the coefficient of friction, in turn creating a poor backspin or a knuckleball effect caused by the ball slipping off the bat. This kind of action kills the flight of a baseball because there is more drag on the ball during flight” adds Corso.
“BATLAC H2O TM is designed specifically to increase the coefficient of friction of the bat surface and help create backspin on a batted baseball.”
Preliminary studies were performed at Mac’s Professional Baseball School in Chico, CA. Jon Macalutas’ 7000 square foot indoor facility is set up with five professional style batting cages which incorporate IRON MIKE TM pitching machines that will throw baseballs consistently in excess of 90 MPH. Corso’s initial studies were performed in these cages to test bats coated with BATLAC H2O TM in a controlled environment for more accurate results.
“Initially I wanted to test the durability of the coating then I noticed the ball marks on the bat. The labels of baseballs were being transferred to the bat almost perfectly from the ball. That’s when I knew I was going in the right direction with this coating. The coefficient of friction of the coating was performing so well it was taking the ink off the baseballs.”
Corso’s two biggest concerns regarding his new coating were that the surface of the baseball was not to be damaged by a coating that would leave scratches or cuts, and it had to be a waterborne “Green” coating. “I didn’t want a coating that used a textured surface like sand paper to create the high coefficient of friction, it had to look like and feel like a regular clear topcoat, and that’s what we have created. It was challenging but we made it work, and to top it all off it’s an environmentally safe waterborne coating. When you work around dust and wood, the last thing you want hanging around is a bunch of flammable liquids.”
After the preliminary tests were performed at Mac’s, Sandlot Stiks bats coated with BATLAC H2O TM were sent to the Edmonton Capitals for catcher Matt Ceriani to test in actual professional games throughout the 2009 season. The result… “I put up the best offensive season of my 13 year career at age 32. Sandlot Stiks new bats are simply the best I’ve ever used” says Ceriani. Ceriani posted a career best .312 batting average with 4 homeruns, 12 doubles, 37 runs batted in, a .375 on base percentage and a .420 slugging percentage in over 200 at bats for the Capitals this season. Ceriani has used Sandlot Stiks almost exclusively throughout his career and has noticed the difference since swinging the new BATLAC H2O TM version. “I’ve always loved Sandlot Stiks, but the ball just comes off better now; it really carries when you hit one good.”
Chris Corso, a professional hitting instructor and former professional baseball player, helped the Chico Outlaws Professional Baseball Club of the independent Golden Baseball League to their best offensive season in 2008. Corso took over the reigns as hitting coach from Outlaws manager and former hitting coach Jon Macalutas. Macalutas himself used Sandlot Stiks during his own 8 year professional career as a player; not to anyone’s surprise the team used Sandlot Stiks bats in 2008.
The Outlaws ordered 80 Sandlot Stiks for an 86 game schedule; the team used just 70 of those bats all year. “Individual players in the MLB have been known to go through over 100 bats a year on a regular basis for a 160 game schedule. We used 70% of that for an entire team in over half the amount of games, that’s impressive” says Corso.
Mr. Corso is also an expert in the development of wood coatings and has worked or consulted for companies such as Alternative Materials Technology, Chemcraft Coatings, TTC, and most recently Precision Technical Coatings. Combined with fifteen years of developing and manufacturing wood baseball bats, the perfect combination has arrived for the best performing wood bats on the market…Sandlot Stiks.
Over the past several years, Chris Corso founder of Sandlot Stiks, a small wood bat manufacturing company based in Chico, CA has been putting his expertise in wood coatings to work by developing a new waterborne coating specifically designed for wood baseball bats.
Mr. Corso has announced the launch of the most revolutionary development to the wood bat industry since the introduction of Maple bats to the market in the late 1990’s.
“With all the latest developments in the wood bat industry over the past ten years or so, all the focus has been placed specifically on designing a better construction of the wood bat. We have taken this one step further and developed a better coating to go with a better wood bat “says Corso. With the help of Matt Ceriani of the Edmonton Capitals Professional Baseball Club and Mac’s Professional Baseball School in Chico, CA, Mr. Corso has developed BATLAC TM H2O waterborne topcoat with “Backspin Technology” designed specifically for use on wood baseball bats.
“The flight of a baseball is directly impacted by the way the ball spins after it comes off the bat. Studies have proven several key factors control what makes a ball travel farther when hit. Bat speed, undercut (where the ball is contacted in relationship to its center), ball exit speed, trajectory, and backspin. The pitch of course also helps determine how far a ball can be hit. It has been proven under optimal conditions a seventy-eight MPH curveball can travel farther than a ninety-four MPH fastball when hit. This is due to a higher rate of backspin. The spin of a curveball is augmented when hit with backspin by up to 800 RPM. A fastballs spin must change direction when hit in order to create backspin. A bat surface with a high coefficient of friction will help create more backspin thus helping the ball lift, travel straighter and with less wind resistance, resulting in more distance.”
“Conventional wood coatings available to the general public are not designed for this type of application. In fact the majority of clear waterborne and solvent borne high gloss topcoats being used today by bat manufacturers are designed for furniture, cabinets and general wood purposes. These coatings are formulated to reduce the coefficient of friction, in turn creating a poor backspin or a knuckleball effect caused by the ball slipping off the bat. This kind of action kills the flight of a baseball because there is more drag on the ball during flight” adds Corso.
“BATLAC H2O TM is designed specifically to increase the coefficient of friction of the bat surface and help create backspin on a batted baseball.”
Preliminary studies were performed at Mac’s Professional Baseball School in Chico, CA. Jon Macalutas’ 7000 square foot indoor facility is set up with five professional style batting cages which incorporate IRON MIKE TM pitching machines that will throw baseballs consistently in excess of 90 MPH. Corso’s initial studies were performed in these cages to test bats coated with BATLAC H2O TM in a controlled environment for more accurate results.
“Initially I wanted to test the durability of the coating then I noticed the ball marks on the bat. The labels of baseballs were being transferred to the bat almost perfectly from the ball. That’s when I knew I was going in the right direction with this coating. The coefficient of friction of the coating was performing so well it was taking the ink off the baseballs.”
Corso’s two biggest concerns regarding his new coating were that the surface of the baseball was not to be damaged by a coating that would leave scratches or cuts, and it had to be a waterborne “Green” coating. “I didn’t want a coating that used a textured surface like sand paper to create the high coefficient of friction, it had to look like and feel like a regular clear topcoat, and that’s what we have created. It was challenging but we made it work, and to top it all off it’s an environmentally safe waterborne coating. When you work around dust and wood, the last thing you want hanging around is a bunch of flammable liquids.”
After the preliminary tests were performed at Mac’s, Sandlot Stiks bats coated with BATLAC H2O TM were sent to the Edmonton Capitals for catcher Matt Ceriani to test in actual professional games throughout the 2009 season. The result… “I put up the best offensive season of my 13 year career at age 32. Sandlot Stiks new bats are simply the best I’ve ever used” says Ceriani. Ceriani posted a career best .312 batting average with 4 homeruns, 12 doubles, 37 runs batted in, a .375 on base percentage and a .420 slugging percentage in over 200 at bats for the Capitals this season. Ceriani has used Sandlot Stiks almost exclusively throughout his career and has noticed the difference since swinging the new BATLAC H2O TM version. “I’ve always loved Sandlot Stiks, but the ball just comes off better now; it really carries when you hit one good.”
Chris Corso, a professional hitting instructor and former professional baseball player, helped the Chico Outlaws Professional Baseball Club of the independent Golden Baseball League to their best offensive season in 2008. Corso took over the reigns as hitting coach from Outlaws manager and former hitting coach Jon Macalutas. Macalutas himself used Sandlot Stiks during his own 8 year professional career as a player; not to anyone’s surprise the team used Sandlot Stiks bats in 2008.
The Outlaws ordered 80 Sandlot Stiks for an 86 game schedule; the team used just 70 of those bats all year. “Individual players in the MLB have been known to go through over 100 bats a year on a regular basis for a 160 game schedule. We used 70% of that for an entire team in over half the amount of games, that’s impressive” says Corso.
Mr. Corso is also an expert in the development of wood coatings and has worked or consulted for companies such as Alternative Materials Technology, Chemcraft Coatings, TTC, and most recently Precision Technical Coatings. Combined with fifteen years of developing and manufacturing wood baseball bats, the perfect combination has arrived for the best performing wood bats on the market…Sandlot Stiks.