I'm around a lot of youth baseball, about 75 games this yr. I wouldn't get one for my son just because of the durability issues with them. 2 kids on our 11-12 team bought them and they were crapped out ( one just busted like a bean pod) in 2 weeks of playing. Both kids used them for only a couple of weeks and then started using other team mates bats. Demarini Voodoo Overlords are pretty sweet bats from what I have seen, also the Easton XL1 are quality bats. But, proper form and technique FAR outweighs the construction of a bat. A good hitter can hit a ball with a $25 bat. We have a kid on our team with 9 home runs to prove it. 3 were over 300' by an 11 yr old and using an inexpensive Rawlings bat.