Driving me Batty

Anybody else spending beaucoup time trying to figure out what type/size/weight bat to get for their little leaguer? It's enough to drive a grown man crazy, or at least get him fired from his job for lack of productivity....My son just started playing summer baseball for the local Williamsport tournament team. He must have had a great Little League season, so it's all good, right? Well, sort of. You see, the problem is that our Little League season is now a wood bat league. So, the kids spend March through June using the lumber to ply their trade. And they do a damn good job once they get used to it. However, when we start tournament play in late June, we are faced with the dilemma of metal bats. So, your ten year old has acquitted himself well all spring with a 28" Louisville slugger ash bat, what do you do about a metal bat once you go to tournament play? We struggled with this one. Say the wood bat has a minus 3 drop, it's now a 28/25. Do you go to a metal -12.5 DeMarini 28/15.5? It's all about bat speed right? Or do you compensate with a longer bat (bigger sweet spot) understanding that the kid swung a much heavier wood bat with success during the regular season? The brain damage involved in the decision was unbelievable (Youth Sports Crazy, right?), but we ultimately decided upon a 30"/21 oz. metal model from Anderson Bats. The "Techzilla". It's a little heavier than most, but at 30", the sweet spot seems legit, and the added heft gives it a little more power. Well, 5 games in, so far so good. He is scalding line drives like I haven't seen from him before. And, he doesn't seem to be having much trouble getting the extra 2" around on the faster pitchers. Again, it's probably also a question of weighting, and how the bat weight is distributed, but we have been very happy with the results so far. I think the extra 2" is giving him confidence to get on pitches on the outer half of the plate (and we all know that LL umps have a generous definition of "the outer half"). Also, the extra couple of oz's has given him a little additional pop versus an ultra light model. The final question for many might be, does it really make a difference to spend $200 or more on a bat when I can get a $40 model at Wal-Mart that seems just as good? I believe the answer is yes, unfortunately. An expensive bat won't make your kid hit the ball if he doesn't already. But, if your kid is squaring it up and putting the ball in play, a high-tech bat will wring out all the advantages of modern science to put the biggest charge into the ball. Ask yourself, are you a guy who would spend $300 on a graphite driver to help out your golf game? Well, it's the same parallel...