Balanced bats with a lower drop weight than -10 are very important as hitters move towards the eventuality of BBCOR, and the CF6 frequently gets overlooked as a viable option. We decided to put one through the paces to see if it deserves consideration, and how it compares to some of the more popular -8 options out there… here’s what we found.
First Impressions
Really nice looking bat. The dark grey and black with black DeMarini logo was subdued and not anywhere near as over the top as some of the graphics seen on numerous model VooDoo’s, and most of our hitters were in agreement that it looked pretty cool.
Material/Design
2-piece composite.
Weight/Size
Size tested was a 30/22. Actual weight… 22.7 oz. (due to the extremely light/balanced feel of this bat, the extra .7 oz. of bat weight doesn’t make it feel any heavier than other balanced -8’s that weighed in exactly as stamped).
Swing Weight
Very balanced bat, and extremely easy to get around. Several hitters said it was the lightest swinging -8 they’ve ever felt, but here’s where we got some difference of opinion. While every single hitter said that it was very balanced and extremely easy to swing, some said that it felt like there wasn’t enough mass in the barrel and it felt like possibly too much of the weight of the bat was in the handle. This feeling was more prevalent with hitters who had been swinging -8’s for some time or hitters who had already moved onto -5’s, and was less common with those who were used to swinging -10’s.
Barrel/Profile
Longer barrel than a traditional profile bat, but less barrel than the benchmark -8 long barrel bats (-8 Combat’s and -8 XL1). There’s certainly more than enough barrel to square up baseballs on the sweet spot, but possibly extending the barrel a bit would give hitters the extra feeling of mass in the barrel that they were saying this bat lacks.
Grip
A big win on this bat. While not Lizard Skins (the most popular grip with our hitters), the stock DeMarini grip had just the right amount of tackiness, was not too thick, and had this great flare that led to an incredibly comfortable knob. Not only did the flare/knob feel great in the hand, it made pinky wrapping/dropping incredibly easy and comfortable. Quite possibly the most comfortable flare/knob setup we’ve seen on any stock bat, it feels like you could take BP with this bat for hours without beating up your hands.
Performance
Extremely solid on balls squared up on the barrel with very impressive exit speed and distance, and quite forgiving on those not squared up. Here’s some of the give-and-take with this bat… there is definitely a nice amount of forgiveness on balls not squared up and a lack of negative feedback going to the hands, but several hitters thought that came with a price of the bat feeling a bit too flexible and that it felt a little numb due to the cancelling out of the negative feedback. This bat would definitely be most appreciated by those hitters looking for that traditional old school 2-piece feel, that puts flexibility and vibration cancelling high on the list of features. Sound was great, with a ceramic-like crack on well struck balls. If this bat were to continue to break-in and continue to get hotter, performance would definitely be in the upper echelon of other high performance composite -8 bats we’ve used.
Durability
Several hundred hits on ours, and nothing more to note than the usual ball marks and scrapes. Really hope the grip holds up well, as it definitely stands out on this bat and makes it fun to swing.
Overall
If you’re looking for a very balanced/easy swinging high performance -8 and don’t mind some flexibility, the lack of FB to the hands, and a little less mass and barrel length than some other composite -8’s currently out there, this would definitely be a bat to take a look at. Performance was very good, sound was impressive, and our hitters who felt comfortable with this bat got some really nice distance out of it. This seems like it would be a great bat for a hitter having a bit of trouble transitioning out of his big drop weight bat (-10/-12), and who is more put off by the bees buzzing in his hands than he is a fan of feedback.
See all our bat reviews.