Methodology
How we score — the whole method, in plain language
The Panel Score
Independent reviewers publish scores on different scales. We convert each to /10 by one published rule and average them:
| Reviewer | Their scale | Our conversion |
|---|---|---|
| Bat Digest | 0–100 + letter grade | ÷ 10 |
| National Pastime Museum | /10, durability-weighted (20% durability) | as published |
| GreatBats (Tier B) | /10 | as published, tier-labeled |
| Baseball Bat Bros | Bat Bro Scale + ordinal rankings | rankings shown as rankings until their current scale version is confirmed — we do not convert what we cannot verify |
Source-count labels, always visible: Consensus 3+ scored sources · Panel 2 scored sources · Single-source exactly 1 — a starting point, not a verdict. If we have captured no scored verdict for a bat, the page says Coverage building and publishes no score at all. A missing number is honest; an invented one would be a lie with decimals.
Reviewers disagree — Bat Digest and the National Pastime Museum score the same BBCOR bat 2+ points apart when one weights durability and the other doesn't. We publish both scores, both links, and a note on why they differ. Tiers: Tier A = independent, scored, stated methodology. Tier B = scored affiliate blogs without a visible testing program — used, labeled, never the only anchor if we can help it, and flagged when they are.
The Players' Score
Players and parents rate bats too — one rating per person, and a bat's Players' Score publishes only at 10 or more ratings. It sits beside the Panel Score, never inside it: the reviewers' verdict and the players' verdict — side by side, never mixed. Players see what reviewers can't: how a barrel holds up in month four. Retailer review corpora (JustBats' five-sub-score customer ratings and similar) inform our coverage, but they are not the Players' Score — that comes from ratings given here.
The legality layer
Every model page carries its certification stamp and status, mirrored from the sanctioning bodies' official lists — USSSA, USA Baseball/WSU Lab, NCAA/NFHS, USA Softball, SSUSA — with dated decertification alerts. Event organizers can be stricter than the stamp (Perfect Game's 2024 Hype Fire ruling is the famous case), so tournament rules get their own layer. Full tracker: Legality Tracker.
What we never do
We don't test bats, accept payment for scores, average a score across model years or drops without labeling it, or publish a number we can't link to its source. When a source contradicts itself, we say so on the page (it has already happened once in our first batch — see the Rawlings Clout AI page).