WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The issue of broken bats and whether maple is more brittle than ash usually raises outrage in a big-league clubhouse to the level of a shoulder shrug.
That is, until one goes sailing into play and comes within a half-turn in mid-air of shish-kebabbing an infielder, as it nearly did to Boston shortstop Nick Green recently in a game at Washington.
What made it enough to grab the attention of Marlins players a day later was not merely that the bat came at Green — so did the ball. To avoid being lanced, Green had to take his eye off the ball hit by Elijah Dukes to deflect the barrel with his right forearm. The ball slipped between his legs into left field.
The maple bat pierced the ground and stood menacingly like a lawn dart.
"It's tough to make a play when the jagged end of a bat is coming at you," Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla said.
The play marked a year since Major League Baseball commissioned a study to investigate how often bats break and what manufacturers can do to limit the danger to infielders and fans, who on occasion have been hit by flying maple or ash.
"It's the fans you worry about," said Marlins infielder Wes Helms, who winced when he saw the replay of Green's close encounter. "It's definitely more dangerous for a bat to fly into the stands than a ball."
The three-month study led to stricter guidelines for bat makers and to a "CSI"-like program to autopsy the shattered bats this year. The preliminary results: Through May, there had been a 20 percent reduction in bats breaking into more than one piece, according to an MLB spokesman.
But that the latest fractured bat was made out of maple only fueled the evidence, scientific and anecdotal, that maple bats tend to "blow up" more often, as Helms put it.
The study, which looked at 2,232 bats in all, found that maple bats were three times as likely as ash bats to break into more than one piece. MLB says there has been no talk of banning maple bats.
Maple bats are 20 percent harder, but there is no conclusive evidence to suggest maple bats send balls farther or have a better sweet spot than ash bats. But many players feel they do. And psychology plays a big part in hitting.
"My decision to use a maple or ash bat isn't based on whether it's going to break or not," said Marlins outfielder Jeremy Hermida, who said he uses maple bats about 90 percent of the time. "Bats are going to break. That's just part of the game."
Then again, he's not an infielder. Pitcher Chris Volstad said he rarely pays attention to the debate — that is, until a pitcher has to duck to keep from getting clobbered by a broken bat.
"You think about it," Volstad said. "But once the game starts, you try to put it out of your mind."
Carlos Frias writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: carlos(underscore)frias(at)pbpost.com.