Rawlings Ash Wood Bat: PA243 Adult

Rawlings Q & A with MLB Star, Matt Kemp! - JustBats.comMatt Kemp: I am Matt Kemp Los Angeles Dodgers infielder.Do you prefer Ash or Maple?Matt Kemp: The difference between maple and ash is for me I prefer ash because it feels better in my hands is more balanced to me and it is just lighter. Maple is more is for me s heavier. It is a little unbalanced at times and you know I just don't have a good feel for it so I prefer ash.How do you go about selecting your Rawlings Ash bat?I look for the grains in the bat for me Rawlings I think has some of the best ash I mean that I have ever used. I hit the most homeruns with the Rawlings bat so I just look for the straight grains. The less grains I think for me is the better the bat so I pick one of those out and go to work with it.Explain the differences between the Big Stick and Velo bats.The difference between a Big Stick and a Velo, on the Big Stick is a bigger barrel bat. I guess you would say is for the bigger guys like a model 243 and the Velo is more like a 271 balanced bat and you know you can get the bat through faster.Do you prefer a Big Stick or Velo Bat?Well I am a big guy but I prefer a more balanced bat like ash just a C271 model. I like that so I would go with the Velo.How do you deal with success and failure in the game?I think it is part of the game you know you had your ups and your downs but for me if you just have fun and you know kind of just take it game by game, you get out of those little funks that you get into. You know I don't really take the game, I don't know. I am going to say I don't take it too serious I take it serious but I like to have fun and you can't let up or the down stretch you out you know you are just going to go out there and have fun and you will get through those tough times.How do you get back on track when you are in a slump?Well for me is I just, I might go look at videos or I might go look at in the past when I was swinging really good just you look at positive things. You don't go back and look at the negative things like on video. You don't look at the batted bats. I just look it good at bats and it kind of shows you what you are doing right and you get that in your head and you just take it out there on the field.What contributes to your success at the plate?Well for me if I think I swing too hard I am not that good of a player. For me I just got to square the ball up and then my strength take over. I think I am not really good at going up there and trying to hit homeruns if I try to hit homerun I am going to look pretty bad so I just try to go up there and make side contact and if it goes at the park, it goes at the park.How do you combat over-swinging and trying too hard to get a hit?If you try too hard usually you are not going to have too much success. You are going to try to do too much. You are going just swing at bad pitches. You know just try to get a good pitch to hit see the ball and just try to take it back up the middle and you know whatever happens, happens.What's your approach at the plate when you fall down in the count?Try to see the ball up, trying to get a good pitch to hit you know not swing up the zone. You know pitchers trying to bate you, trying to get you to swing at a bad pitch when they are up in account so you know just try to see them up and you know hit the ball back up to the middle or the other way.What players did you idolize growing up?My favorite baseball players growing up were Gary Sheffield, Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey, Jr. Those were my top three so I tried to when I was a kid I was trying to be like them especially Frank Thomas I was a bigger kid growing up so they call me the little big hurt so that is my little nickname when I was in grade school.RawlingsRawlings wood the choice of Matt Kemp