The 2007 DeMarini Juice is a 1.20 BPF bat that has been designed from the inside out to be a high performance stick. There are no plans to offer it in an ASA version.
It uses DeMarini’s patented “Half & Half” technology: the 100% composite Juice consists of two distinct pieces, a barrel and separate handle fused together at the top of the taper. By creating the bat in two pieces, DeMarini is able to use different materials, formulas and processes that allow for the best characteristics for each piece. While it is made of a composite barrel and composite handle, they are not the same: the barrel is designed to flex and rebound at impact, propelling the ball; the handle is stiffer, tuned to get the barrel through the hitting zone quickly and get the most performance out of the barrel.
The barrel features new “Stacked” technology, a 100% composite barrel made up of four distinct walls. Each wall is of a different thickness and set up in a specific order, then the barrel and handle are tuned to work at maximum efficiency. The result is an extremely heavy barrel that is primarily sweet spot.
The “Flex Tuned” Evolution Composite handle helps lengthen the sweet spot by eliminating sting and speeding the barrel through the hitting zone. The handle also flexes before and after impact, effectively increasing swing speed with no additional effort.
The Juice is the first DeMarini bat to feature “Clutch,” a revolutionary 12-spoke end cap and knob designed to focus energy and return it back to the barrel.
It features DeMarini’s bat rotation index on the barrel and Wilson’s “Positack” moisture-absorbing composite textured grip. Positack reduces vibration and hand fatigue for better feel and control.
It is available in 26-28 and 30 ounces. It is green and white with silver, orange and black graphics.
We hit the 27 oz. version.
This bat doesn’t look or feel like any bat we’ve ever seen.
Upon seeing the Juice for the first time, player reactions ranged from considering it the coolest looking bat on the planet to considering it the strangest looking piece of equipment ever designed for the softball field. But the reaction upon picking it up was unanimous – they couldn’t wait to hit it.
As a rule we don’t like to deal with absolutes – it lacks credibility to say something is the “first” anything, the “most” anything or the “greatest” anything. But the Juice tends to elicit comments that contain those adjectives.
For one thing, it is the first bat to feature four walls in the barrel. It also has the most pop of any DeMarini composite to date. After that, various testers also considered it the most end-loaded of the 2007 bats, the most difficult bat of that group to get used to, and eventually the easiest of the group to use.
Of course, individual responses may vary.
One tester, Sarah Blankenship, summed up the feelings of the majority of testers this way: “The Juice is a great bat for a hitter that is willing to sit back and let the bat do the work. You can even ease up a little on your swing and still get all the pop and power the ‘silly stick’ has to offer.”
That’s really the truth. The Juice – or “Silly Stick” as it is nicknamed on the barrel – tends to draw as many comparisons to a high tech golf driver as it does other bats. The handle is unbelievably thin; the head – I mean barrel – is oversized and contains most of the bat’s weight. And during the swing you can actually feel the Juice flex. And just like with a golf club, a smooth, complete swing will be rewarded while an overswing may produce ridiculous distance but more likely will result in a pop up or some other mishit.
This is not a bat for someone who simply hates end-loaded bats. It is also not recommended for hitters who are trying to avoid home runs.
It received some of the best scores and glowing comments we’ve ever read at batreviews.com, but they were hardly unanimous. It is such a different kind of bat that some testers didn’t like it for any number of reasons including the weighting, the quiet sound of impact, the jarring color and graphics or the non-traditional shape. The scores submitted by those hitters led to the overall scores for the Juice being lower than many players who have hit it can believe.
If you have the chance to try the Juice, do it. It is unlike anything you have hit before – including the DeMarini Evo line – and it may be just what you have been thirsty for.
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