I think the use of aluminum, at the lower levels, has really hurt US born players. To give a kid a piece of metal, and expect him to use wood when drafted........ I think US should go back to wood, whatever the costs (I know the aluminum is far cheaper). Thoughts....Cheers.You nailed it my friend. Aluminum has given our players a false sense of themselves and what they think they can do as a hitter. At the same time it is ruining the young pitchers when it comes to confidence. I have thought for years that it\'s destroying the game from within. Wood has always been the way to go. I would much rather hear the crack of the bat instead of the ping of the bat any day. Finally let\'s not forget the danger of aluminum bats. A line drive back to the mound comes off metal a lot faster than with wood. Pitchers are in harms way every time they throw a pitch!Maybe. Remember, there are still tons of American born players who are some of the top players in the league. Mark Teixeira, David Wright, Ryan Braun, and many others. Also, while the use of aluminum bats may hurt American position players, pitching is completely dominated by Americans. Tim Lincecum, CC Sabathia, Cole Hamels, Ryan Dempster, Jake Peavy, Scott Kazmir. The problem is that like you said aluminum is cheaper and players are used to them. Also with aluminum bats you can have bats as light as 18 ounces and as heavy as 30 or more ounces, so kids can start using aluminum bats from an early age and not want to switch to wood. I think what they should at least do is take aluminum bats out of college baseball.i kinda agree, im a little in the middle. when your younger you want a kid to have fun and a great time white playing, because a kid cant hit a ball as far with a piece of wood than he would with an aluminum bat.. know what im saying?when the ball is hit with a metal bat versus a wooden bat the speed of the baseball is higher off the metal bat. The ball has been shown to travel farther when using a robot batter to get the same bat speed every time with the metal batno, i have to disagree, wooden bats are extremly heavy for little league kids for one, and in high school its more enjoyable to see the ball sail with the metal bat, it might be a big adjustment, but if you wanna play in the bigs you wont let something like a wooden bat stand in the way =DOther related question