The 2008 Mattingly Beast -10 is a 100% composite multi-wall bat that is unlike any other bat on the market thanks to V-Grip™ Handle Technology.
V-Grip technology ensures proper hand alignment. Proper hand alignment delivers faster bat speed, creating more power to drive the ball farther. The V-Grip allows the batter to maximize the power of the swing by placing the bat in the proper position in the hands during the swing and keeps the bat from turning in the hands during the swing. The Mattingly V-Gripis specifically designed to keep the knocker knuckles aligned and shift the bat away from the palm and into the fingers - correctly “power-loading” your energy forcing your grip to be in perfect alignment every time for perfect follow-through.
The Powerload Composite Sweetspot barrel is made of Xtreme Weave Carbon to provide maximum performance and durability. Direct Power Transfer technology stiffens the handle and taper for maximum energy transfer to the flexible barrel. A Locked-N-Loaded II end plug holds everything in place.
It has a Akzo Nobel Sikkens™ high-quality paint job for a lasting and superior quality finish.
It is available in 31”/21, 32”/22, 33”/23 and 34”/24.
We hit the 32” model.
This is a truly unusual bat.
Sure, the barrel is lively and the sweet spot is large and the performance is great. But none of those are things that anyone who sees the Mattingly Beast is going to ask about. They are going to want to know about that grip.
The Beast features the V-Grip that is part of every Mattingly baseball, softball and slow pitch bat. The handle has two flat sides that come to a point, with the third side being a semi-circle connecting the other two sides. It can only be held one way.
The idea is to keep the knuckles aligned, a hitting technique taught by New York Yankee great Don Mattingly. Its purpose is to control the bat while allowing the hitter to generate maximum bat speed with minimum effort. The Mattingly website describes it thusly:
“Without the proper grip, high-quality scientifically engineered bats alone do nothing to enhance swing performance. Place the V-Grip™ bat in your hands incorrectly by setting the bat back in the palm of your hand and then swing the bat. It will end up out in your fingertips where it should be placed to swing the bat. If you do the same thing with a round handle bat, it will stay in the back of your hand. In other words, if you try and swing the V-Grip™ bat incorrectly, it corrects itself and ends up in the proper position in your hands. Without the proper grip your bat head will lag through the hitting zone losing speed, power and control-reducing the ability to consistently hit a strike-zone ball. The V-Grip™ technology allows the batter to maximize the strength generated by the whole body to optimize the hitting force transferred to the bat.”
It is a bat that will take some getting used to. Most of the girls who hit the bat did not like the grip; they found they thought about it too much instead of concentrating on hitting. A few refused to swing more than a dozen times.
But there are always those willing to try something new and those girls were pleasantly surprised by the performance. The bat is sort of a hitting system unto itself, so those who worked through the initial awkwardness hit the ball sharply. They began to get some consistency because the hands were always in the same place, the swing began to repeat itself and all the hits were happening on the same spot on the barrel – you really only use one side of the bat.
This bat seems designed for hitters who take full swings at the ball. It can be used to bunt, but slapping and slug-bunting and all of the other trick and touch swings that happen in fast pitch are more difficult with a handle that demands a certain grip.
It would be advised to try this bat before buying it unseen. It is top-of-the-line in construction and performance, but it really has to be tried to be understood.
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