News & Information — Louisville Slugger

Learn about the 2024 Louisville Slugger Meta softball bat technology and improved durability.

Designed for all types of softball players – whether you’re setting the table at the top of the order, clearing the bases from the cleanup spot or turning over the lineup from the 9-hole – the 2024 Louisville Slugger Meta Fastpitch Bat offers enhanced durability along with the high-end performance hitters crave. New upgrades for 2024 improve durability while maintaining great feel and excellent performance, according to Jeremy Yim, Louisville Slugger’s Senior Manager for Research & Development.

“The barrel is responsive, and the cantilevered inner wall design still gives it one of the largest sweet spots in the game,” Yim said. “In exit velocity comparisons, the 2024 Meta continues to be one of the top performers across a wide variety of players.”

Updated Internal Structure

New for 2024, Louisville Slugger modified the Meta Fastpitch Bat with extra internal safeguards, solidifying the barrel structure without sacrificing feel or performance.

While fortifying the bat’s internal structure, Louisville Slugger engineers maintained key components of the MASH™ Composite Barrel to keep its signature sound and performance. The low-compression gapped wall barrel is constructed with a cantilevered design to offer a balanced feel with a recognizable sound on contact.

“The sound is very similar to the current model and was not affected too much by our changes,” Yim said. “The loud sound is driven by the ball impacting the outer wall, and then the outer wall crashing into the inner wall.”

Thanks to its gapped wall design, the Meta Fastpitch Bat delivers strong results right away, and repeated use in batting practice and games helps the composite barrel achieve peak performance.

Among all 2024 Louisville Slugger fastpitch bats – including the Meta, Xeno and LXT – the Meta is the only bat with a gapped wall barrel to create a distinct sound and flexible feel through the swing.

The 2024 Louisville Slugger Meta FP is a two-piece composite fastpitch softball bat with an XTV™ Connection System allowing for independent movement of the barrel and handle. Meta’s two-piece construction helps absorb vibration on contact, mitigating hand sting while offering players the responsiveness needed to adjust their swing.

Louisville Slugger’s F2X™ End Cap appears atop the MASH Composite Barrel. Flush with the end of the barrel, this transparent end cap design maximizes the bat’s profile without sacrificing swing speed or control.

Who Should Swing Meta

Available in a variety of lengths across four distinct weight drops, there is a Meta Fastpitch Bat for nearly every high school, travel ball and college softball player. Hitters can choose from (-11), (-10), (-9) and (-8) weight drops – and each version of Meta offers a balanced swing weight. While elite slappers and younger high school hitters may prefer the lighter Meta (-11) for total barrel control, softball’s strongest players can rely on the heavier Meta (-8) for dominant performance and home run swings.

“The Meta Fastpitch Bat is very versatile and swung by a variety of players,” Yim said. “It is especially suited for players that can benefit from the larger sweet-spot and more flexible, vibration-dampening connection.”

All models of the Meta Fastpitch Bat deliver an easy-swinging profile with a touch of weight targeted toward the end of the barrel. This weight distribution helps to create a balanced swing while also empowering players to drive the ball for base hits.

“Given the opportunity, everyone should try out the 2024 Meta Fastpitch Bat to see if the sound and feel fits their swing,” Yim said.

SHOP 2024 META Fastpitch Bat

Originally Posted on Slugger.com

Learn about the design process behind the Louisville Slugger Atlas Baseball Bat.

Re-imagined for explosive performance, the Atlas BBCOR Baseball Bat from Louisville Slugger offers an expanded sweet spot and decreased vibration, game-altering characteristics in a one-piece alloy bat. To create the final Atlas BBCOR Bat, Louisville Slugger engineers developed an innovative bat design process – optimization through digital simulation.

BASEBALL BAT OPTIMIZATION THROUGH DIGITAL SIMULATION

The barrel profile and wall thickness of the Atlas Evoke Alloy Barrel was driven by thousands of computer simulations modeled  to mimic the BBCOR certification test. These simulations mirrored how different barrel profiles would perform in a true baseball environment, allowing engineers to test thousands of designs in a matter of weeks instead of years.

“We literally did thousands and thousands of design iterations using the computer to come up with the optimum performance profile for each bat length,” said Louisville Slugger Director of Engineering James Earley. “What this computer simulation did for us, is that it accurately mimics the BBCOR performance canon test.”

Through thousands of computer simulations, Louisville Slugger engineers can discover unexpected designs and reduce the bat design timeline. Engineers then build samples of the best designs for further real world testing.  

“It takes a week or two to get new samples rather than a month or two,” Earley said. “It’s like the design process on steroids.”

“It’s an intersection of really advanced computer modeling along with traditional playtesting,” said Louisville Slugger Product Manager Joe Cmelik.

Through traditional play testing, the Louisville Slugger research and development team further refined the thousands of digital designs into the final Atlas barrel profile – the Evoke Alloy Barrel with a massive sweet spot and peak alloy performance.

“We were able to manipulate the wall profile so that every spot on the barrel has great performance,” Earley said.

The optimized wall thickness across the barrel ensures Atlas delivers elite performance and solid feel, no matter where players hit the ball.

THE RESULTS – EXPANDED SWEET SPOT AND PEAK PERFORMANCE

Thousands of computer simulations identified the highest performing wall thickness in each spot along the Evoke Alloy Barrel. To create this optimal wall thickness and expand the barrel’s sweet spot, the production process uses automated lathes that are programmed to machine the barrel from the inside, resulting in an ideal barrel profile.

The final iteration of the Evoke Alloy Barrel offers a balanced swing weight while packing an enormous punch, ensuring all types of players can be a threat at the plate.

VIBRATION DAMPENING

Unlike other one-piece alloy designs, the Atlas BBCOR Bat includes technology to mitigate vibration and prevent players from getting rung up on a mis-hit. Located between the top of the handle and the base of the Evoke Alloy Barrel, a honeycomb-shaped Tuned Mass Damper absorbs vibration on contact.

As vibrations pass from the barrel to the handle, the Tuned Mass Damper prevents them from reaching a player’s hands. With this innovation, players get an unbelievable feel with every swing – no matter where they make contact.

A SPD™-GEN2 End Cap is the finishing touch on the Atlas, designed to complement the Evoke Alloy Barrel for unmatched performance and feel. The premium LS PRO Comfort Grip™ offers a perfect mix of tack and cushion, ensuring all players can take advantage of the balanced yet potent swing weight.

Learn about the Mash Composite Barrel, the VTX Connection and other tech of the Meta fastpitch bat.

Introducing the 2022 Louisville Slugger Meta Fastpitch Bat, the stick crafted to deliver a massive sweet spot, an unmistakable sound and a softer barrel. With Meta, Louisville Slugger debuted its new Mash Composite Barrel, a carbon fiber composite design engineered to offer leading performance. The Mash Composite Barrel boasts two distinct barrel walls, and the inner wall features a cantilevered design, a structure in which the inner wall is supported at the taper. This cantilevered, two-barrel construction allows for a longer sweet spot that generates incredible performance across the entire barrel.

Mash Composite Barrel of Meta

Jeremy Yim, Manager of Engineering for Louisville Slugger, likened the barrel’s two walls and cantilevered construction to a diving board.

“The movement of the inner wall allows the outer wall to flex even more than it would otherwise,” Yim said. “Our gapped wall design basically combines a trampoline and a diving board together to store and return energy during impact.”

This Mash Composite Barrel technology allows hitters to get a better response from their bat throughout the sweet spot.

VTX Connection of Meta

The two-piece construction of Meta is paired together with Louisville Slugger’s VTX connection system. This all-new connection, designed to complement the Mash Composite Barrel, helps to deliver improved energy transfer while reducing vibration.

James Earley, Director of innovation at Louisville Slugger, said the VTX Connection system of Meta creates a premium, smooth feel with little to no vibration, even on mishits.

“The feel of the bat inspires confidence with every swing,” Earley said. “You can swing your hardest without any fear of hand sting.”

For more than 135 years, Louisville Slugger has been synonymous with America’s Pastime. Hall of Famers, Most Valuable Players and World Series champions have swung the best wood in the game over the years – and right this moment, we’re already writing the next chapter in the game’s history.

Louisville Slugger By The Numbers

22 Steps: The number of steps in the process of making raw wood into a genuine Louisville Slugger

.366: Ty Cobb's Career Batting Average - The Highest in Major League History

80%: Percentage of Hitters in the National Baseball Hall of Fame who were under contract with Louisville Slugger

50 oz: At the onset of his career, Babe Ruth swung a monster 50 ounce bat, the heaviest Louisville Slugger model ever turned.

100-120: Number of Louisville Slugger Bats ordered by Pro Players Annually.

5,000 Bats: Peak output capacity for the factory - Usually reached during Spring Training each year.

12,602: Number of plate appearances Derek Jeter had in his two decade career, all of which came with his holding a Louisville Slugger P72 turning model.

19 Seasons: The number of consecutive seasons Tony Gwynn hit over .300, spanning from 1983 to 2001.

120 feet: Louisville Slugger Museum in Louisville Kentucky is home of the Worlds Largest Baseball Bat standing at 120 ft tall and 68,000 pounds (made of steel).

5,000 - 8,000: Number of billets in each batch that's shipped to the factory.

1,800,000: Number of wood bats that leave the H&B Factory Annually.

The 135+ year history of Louisville Slugger all started with a 17-year-old playing hooky from work and choosing baseball over butter.

An apprentice in his father’s woodworking shop, John A. “Bud” Hillerich headed out one spring afternoon to take in a Louisville Eclipse game, the city’s major league team. After seeing Eclipse superstar Pete Browning break his bat that day, Hillerich offered to make the slumping slugger a new bat at his father’s shop.

He had made bats before. An amateur ball player himself, Hillerich had crafted some lumber for some of his teammates – as well as himself. But now, with Browning – known as ‘The Louisville Slugger’ – at his side giving direction on what he sought, the 17-year-old handcrafted the bat that launched one of the most iconic brands in history.

Browning, a three-time batting champion who finished his 13-year career with a .341 average, debuted the new bat the next day. He snapped his slump, collecting a trio of hits and setting in motion a chain of events whose effects are felt still today.