Models Overview
Construction & Technology
Save the two piece VELO Composite, the VELO is built with a full aluminum alloy body with an extended composite end cap. This cap, you'll notice if you look closely, comes 2 to 3 inches into the barrel. An extended composite end cap drives the balance point toward the hands and gives the bat a lighter swing (lower MOI).
The other feature in the VELO is on the inside of the barrel. If you were to cut it open, you'd find a groove within the barrel. Rawlings refers to this as pOp 2.0. The groove isn't big enough to hurt durability, but it is, in large measure, how the VELO maintains its low swing weight despite being a mostly aluminum bat.
These construction details, we should note, are the same as the 2016 VELO.
Performance Comparison
Comparable Bats
In the 2017 class, there is yet to be a truly similar constructed bat. There are single piece aluminum bats, but none with a composite end cap.
The most similar bat to the 2017 VELO is, without surprise, the 2016 VELO. Neither the standard VELO or the VELO composite are any significant amount different. The 2016 and 2017, we should note, are noticably different than the 2015 as the 2015 doesn't have the extended composite end cap or the groove on the inner barrel as we discuss above.
In previous years, Boombah's Cannon bat is an attempted replica of the Rawlings VELO. It uses an extended composite end cap to lighten the swing of a mostly aluminum barreled bat.
