Some weeks ago, we were asked to review the Combat MFG A1 Sandstorm in BBCOR—a bat that quickly made its way through the influencer circuit and, unsurprisingly, sold out. For everyone asking for our review—here’s it is.

Introduction: Selling a Dream, Not Delivering


Rawlings’ Combat MFG SPEC A1 isn’t about performance—it’s about, to summarize a few of their press releases, selling you a dream. That concept isn’t new, especially in the bat space. But what is new is how brazenly they’re trying to do it.

We’ve been in this industry longer than most reviewers have been eating solid foods, and we’ve never seen such a boldface approach to bat performance marketing. Forget data. Forget transparency in test results. This isn’t engineering innovation; it’s marketing warfare, and the target is your wallet.

The Illusion of Performance Differences

In some ways, this is eye-opening. For years, bats—especially BBCOR bats—have been interchangeable commodities. Give me the top 5 to 10 BBCOR bats per year, and on performance metrics paper, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. That’s not exactly news, but it’s rarely said out loud. Companies have spent years and untold sums trying to convince you their “technological advancements” are game-changing. With the Rawlings/Combat MFG, seeing a company openly admit all that jazz of the last 10 years was just a marketing play would be refreshing… if the other side of the coin didn’t also imply that innovation—the very thing bat companies have leaned on to justify prices—has become nothing more than window dressing. It’s an admission that the “revolutionary” designs, fancy materials, and tech jargon were never about making better bats. They were about making better stories to sell you the same bat over and over again.

None of this means there are evil players in the game of bat marketing. Everyone is just trying to make a buck, after all. But, make no mistake, the information asymmetry between the industry, defined broadly, and the consumer is remarkable.

And the sooner you realize that you’re fighting a losing battle against a billion-dollar industry the better. Manufacturers know that to keep their grip on power—and their profits. To do so, they need more than a hot take on a new end cap or grip taper. They need a story. They need a spin. They need a window. They need an accomplice.

Enter: NIL athletes.

The Rawlings MFG Combat Launch: Artificial Exclusivity

When Rawlings decided to launch Combat MFG SPEC A1 Sandstorm they borrowed a playbook from basketball (not our words, theirs). Limited releases. Scarcity. Collaborations. Sound familiar? It’s the same formula sneaker brands use to charge $400 for a pair of Jordans—knowingly underselling them and loving the idea of the bat being sold for a premium in the secondary market.

The hope is that it attracts players who need it and scalpers who exploit it. And when that next “limited” release just happens to occur right before the season, guess what happens?

Everyone gets paid by (drum roll please), you.

Rawlings’ new SPEC A1 launch was limited to 500 numbered units but somehow got to the most influential retailers and influencers. They used exclusive suppliers, secret drops, and numbered editions with celebrity collaborations. Barf. But that’s the sell, remember? Limit access, manufacture hype, and weaponize scarcity. Not improve performance. Not get the right bat to the right kid. Instead, they openly attempt to create artificial demand by drip-feeding products through incentivized influencers and tightly controlling supply channels.

The bat is no longer just equipment—it’s a fashion statement, an accessory marketed to appeal to status rather than performance; the MFG SPEC A1, if they have it there way, is a cultural artifact. The pitch isn’t about improving your son’s swing; it’s about hijacking his dopamine response and selling him a lifestyle. And, most depressing, every outlet we’ve seen report on the bat so far is throwing gas on the fire—fueling the little league arms race, pricing out families without means, and perpetuating a never-ending cycle of hype masquerading as a necessity.

The Difference Between Real Scarcity and Hyped Scarcity

Scarcity isn’t new to the industry. But there’s a difference between scarcity caused by a unique colorway or legitimate supply chain disruptions—like COVID-19 or DeMarini underestimating demand for the 2022 Voodoo One—and intentionally manufacturing scarcity as a feature of your distribution model.

Limiting supply not because they can’t meet demand but because they won’t. That’s not logistics. It’s designed exclusivity, influencer hype, and a staged scarcity show intended to shut out those who can’t cough up the cash. It seems to fly in the face of Rawlings’s tagline of “Your Game, Your Way.” It’s more like “Their Game, Their Way.” And if you can’t tell, yes, it annoys us.

Our Combat MFG Review:

So, let’s be clear: The SPEC A1 isn’t about better bats. It’s about market control. And it isn’t the first alloy bat made by Combat because it wasn’t made by Combat. Combat died in Canada almost a decade ago. This is Rawlings, parading a corpse of a brand to reshape demand—not to improve the game, but to manipulate it.

If there’s a silver lining, maybe we’ve entered a new era—one where bat makers don’t even pretend performance matters. The SPEC A1 line—brought to you by Combat via Easton via Rawlings—has stepped out from behind the curtain, looked young players straight in the eyes, and said, “We’ll just pretend you’ve got something special.” No whispers of innovation, no promises of better hits—just a brazen embrace of hype and contrived scarcity. They’re not selling a bat; they’re selling a dream.

It’s absurd, but somehow fitting for an industry that’s always thrived on illusion.

So what is our review of the 2025 Combat MFG SPEC A1 BBCOR Baseball bat? Simple: we’re not playing that game. Not today, not tomorrow—not ever. If you limit a bat on purpose, we’ll look elsewhere. That’s our review. Don’t buy it. Don’t click its ads. Swipe past. Run away. Unsubscribe to anyone trying to pitch it on you. We aren’t interested in reviewing a bat the average guy in middle American can’t find on purpose.

And in 24 months from now, when you find one of these on eBay “Like New” for $85, send us the link.

Deuces,

Bat Digest