Published by Kyle Hodge, Lead Product & Testing Engineer
The In’s and Out’s of the 2023 Axe Avenge Pro Hybrid BBCOR
Game Power.
On the common 20-80 scouting scale used across professional baseball today, hitters are traditionally graded via three categories or “tools”: Hitting, Raw Power, and Game Power. At Axe Bat, it’s our mission to build the best bat for the hitter’s swing, and thus, in essence, max out those three tools for every hitter that chooses to swing our product.
The Axe Handle has helped players improve their hit tool since its inception: quicker to the ball, more barrel control, and greater bat speed.
Axe Bat barrels have allowed hitters to unlock their raw power for the previous years, specifically with our 2022 BBCOR line, where we produced bats at the peak of the BBCOR limit – maxing out exit velocities on hard-hit balls – but we were still left with something to be desired.
This leaves us with game power, a hitter’s ability to effortlessly put the ball over the fence, even on a day when they don’t quite have “it” – this was our focus in designing the 2023 Axe Avenge Pro Hybrid BBCOR: providing the widest possible performance zone, and optimally placed sweet-spot for putting balls into orbit, consistently.
We can’t all be Aaron Judge, but the Avenge Pro Hybrid can help us get a little closer.
What’s covered below:
- Barrel Construction of the Avenge Pro Hybrid
- What’s New?
- Comparison to the Axe Bat BBCOR Line
Barrel Construction of the Avenge Pro Hybrid
Our newest hybrid barrel features the following components:
- Precision Variable Blastwall Aluminum Alloy Barrel
- Every millimeter machined to precision tolerance – our Armor Alloy will deliver peak performance hit after hit – more on this below.
- Charged Carbon+ Composite Handle
- A newly tailored composite layup adds stiffness in the optimal regions for hard contact, and peak durability – giving you more whip than a traditional aluminum handle, without any of the energy loss associated with two-piece bats
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Shock Suspension Connection
- Eliminates vibration better than any connection technology currently available in the BBCOR space. Our shock suspension connection completely suspends the barrel of the bat from the composite handle – forcing all vibration waves through our battle-tested high-damping elastomer. Bat sting is a thing of the past.
- Carbon Fiber Composite HyperWhip Endcap
- Our strongest and lightest – allowing us to use every available gram in the locations designed for power
- Your Choice of “Standard” or “Flared” Axe Handles
- Equipped with our “Endogrid” vibration cancelling technology – adding an extra layer of comfort and dampening beneath the bottom hand.
What’s New?
The Avenge Pro Hybrid features the BBCOR debut of Axe Bat’s newest barrel technology: Precision Variable Blastwall.
Utilizing proprietary manufacturing technologies, our aluminum barrels are machined via CNC lathe to meet tolerances not previously possible. All 14-16” of barrel (dependent on bat length) is machined to tolerances as tight as 0.05mm – all to meet the peak performance players are accustomed to when stepping into the box with the industry’s newest hybrid in their hands.
Every size of each Avenge Pro Hybrid model is modeled via computer aided design (CAD) software to not only create product drawings and specifications for manufacturing, but more importantly, to simulate both weight and moment of inertia (“MOI” or “swing weight”) calculations before a bat barrel is ever created. This allows our engineers to iterate countless times via CAD to ensure products are meeting specifications prior to manufacturing.
Upon approval of CAD simulation specifications, the design if off to production, where Axe Bat’s proprietary Armor Alloy raw material is formed, cut, sanded, and CNC machined, as detailed via the process above. Ultimately leading to the strongest, highest performing alloy barrel available.
Combine this aluminum barrel with our newly optimized Charge Carbon+ composite handle, and Shock Suspension Connection, shown below, and you’re left with the highest performing, largest sweet-spot available in the BBCOR market today.
The Avenge Pro Hybrid features many of the same benefits of a typical two-piece composite bat oft-seen around high school or college matchups, most importantly: Axe Bat’s shock suspension connection, but combines those features with a barrel tuned to perform to the true peak value of the BBCOR legal limit.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Avenge Pro Hybrid is offered in both our tried-and-true standard Axe handle, and brand-new Flared Axe handle, giving you the familiarity of a more traditional circular flared handle, while maintaining the Axe handle features that we find to be most crucial to a powerful, tuned-in swing – the best of both worlds.
Comparison to the Axe Bat BBCOR Line
With two new 2023 BBCOR models launching in November, it was a priority to ensure both bat designs still featured constructions that were still accessible, and swingable by all categories of BBCOR player. The 2023 Axe Strato, also utilizing our Precision Variable Blastwall and Flared handle offerings, will feature the lightest swing-weight we’ve ever offered in an aluminum BBCOR bat – the Avenge Pro Hybrid will be slightly heavier, but still a very manageable swing weight for both the high school and college player alike. With a 33” moment of inertia (MOI) of approximately 9550, this model will still be lighter than a few of the most popular BBCOR hybrid bats on the market and will still be far lighter swinging than many popular aluminum offerings over the previous five years. A depiction of the swing weight, shown via MOI values, can be seen below:
This bat is built to deliver the power. While the Strato may feature a slightly lighter swing weight, the Avenge Pro Hybrid will feature the largest possible sweet-spot, and the ability to light up the HitTrax like no bat we’ve made previously, providing Game Power to all fields, on all fields.
Still have a question regarding what bat may be best suited for you? Feel free to reach out via chat or email to an Axe Bat customer service representative!
