It's preference, however, ash is a better performing wood for baseball bats. Maple bats require more water density to be removed from bat in order to make light enough to use. This causes the maple bats to become brittle and break easier. I love the Akadema and rawlings bats best. Both are hand selected.
The use of Ash Bats in the MLB are declining because of the relatively recent rise of the Maple Bat. Maple Bats have become extremely popular since Barry Bonds broke the single season home run record using a maple bat. Maple is a denser wood than Ash, so the Ash bats are more flexible and more likely to break than maple. Although maple bats are more expensive, they usually last quite a bit longer than Ash so the difference in cost usually isn't an issue.
maple
Ash or maple.
Maple, ash, birch
Where does the maple wood come from?It depends on the company. For instance, Louisville Slugger has its own wood production company, but also outsources with a few different timber companies, most of them in the New York/Pennsylvania area. Holman uses a company out of the Catskills, which he says produces better quality maple.Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3540538
They are mostly made of Ash or Maple.
depends on the bat. some popular woods are maple, ash, and bamboo... personally i like maple better. but i have only used maple and ash bats.
Here is a good summary of both Bat TypesHard Rock Maple-Maple bats have become very popular over the past ten years. After Barry Bonds broke the single season home run record with one many players switched to the hard wood to swing with. Unlike ash Maple bats have very little flex but pack a lot of pop. Maple bats are heavier if not turned correctly but are great for training bats as well as a long term bat.Traditional Ash-I call it "traditional" because bats have been made with ash since baseball began in the early 1900's. There is nothing like the feeling of swinging an unfinished ash bat. Ash is unlike any other wood bat in the way that the bat flexes when it hits the ball, letting the ball carry further. Ash bats are great but lack the strength of other harder woods. But if you hit with any wood bat correctly it will last you a ton of at-bats.
Baseball bats can be made of ash, maple, aluminum, or sometimes a foam core with a rubber grip.
Ash tree or Maple tree wood.
White ash from Pennsylvania or New York or maple