FAQ
HOW CAN WE ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS?
What is FZN Composite Core™ and what makes is special?
Simply put, we like to think of FZN Composite Core™ as the Best of Both Worlds – it's the performance & experience you want at the plate, AND it’s the classic look and sound of a true wood stick in your hands.
An easy and forgiving swing in a wood composite bat.
But there is much more to FZN Composite Core™. It is a patented design and manufacturing process which combines a solid wood billet with carbon fiber (and other proprietary materials) to create a brand-new bat category and experience in the box.
The benefits of FZN Composite Core™ to the hitter are:
* Performance – The Original Gamer™ offers more power over traditional wood composite, but still within the BBCOR spec.
* Forgiveness – FZN Composite Core™ enables more consistency across the barrel.
* Feel – FZN Composite Core™ fuses solid wood with hi-tech materials to offer hitters a traditional feel without the sting of mishits.
* Durability – we are so confident in our design & materials that we offer a 1-year warranty with Rapid-Response.
If you want to see a few more details on these benefits, you can check out our website.
How is FZN Composite Core™ different than other wood-composite bats?
FZN Composite Core™ is not a Baum® bat, if that’s what you are thinking. Off the bat (pun intended) you can see the difference when you look inside. FZN Composite Core™ starts with a solid wood billet and has a lot more wood than other wood composite bats. There is a hollow barrel with carbon fiber lining which provides performance, forgiveness, feel and durability. The competition starts with the internal materials and slaps a wood veneer shell on the outside. Here is a side-by-side comparison vs the leading wood composite:
Construction and design aside, FZN Composite Core™ differs from wood-composite competitors in a BIG way. Wood-composite bats are designed to be durable WOOD bats – they have the barrel profile of wood, the sweet spot of wood and the pop of wood. FZN Composite Core™ bats are designed to offer the hitter an easy and forgiving swing with the performance they want, oh and it happens to made from wood. FZN has:
* Performance – The Original Gamer™ offers more power over traditional wood composite, but still within the BBCOR spec.
* Forgiveness – Engineered to enable a large sweet spot which offers consistent performance across the barrel.
* Feel – True wood experience without the pain of mishits.
* Durability – One-year warranty (the leading wood-composite bat only offers a six-month warranty on their stock bat).
Don’t just take our word for it, check out our customer reviews.
Can I use The Original Gamer™ in my summer wood bat tournament?
The short answer is YES, with some context.
It is nationally approved by Perfect Game as a wood composite. Delano Bat Company is listed on PG's tournament rules website here.
It is nationally approved by Prep Baseball Tournaments for tournaments permitting wood-composite. Delano Bats are listed as approved on the PBR rules website here.
It is approved for use in Prospect Select & Prospect Wire Tournaments - they are in the process of updating their websites to specifically list Delano.
Through this process we have seen that league rules can be vague. Generally leagues will specify non-metal bats that are not solid wood have BBCOR certification, which The OG does. If wood-composite bats are approved for use in the tournament, there is no reason why The OG should not be also approved as it's NCAA approved as a wood composite.
However, because we have not talked to every tournament provider, we recommend that you check their rules first. We have also noticed that tournament lists of "approved bats" (if they have one) are often outdated.
If it’s a solid-wood bat tournament, then no bueno to use a FZN Composite Core™ bat. While we start with a solid wood billet, The Original Gamer™ does offer a bigger sweet spot with more fire-power and forgiveness at the plate than solid wood.
As we hear back from specific tournament providers, we will update this FAQ as well as our product page.
What Wood Bat Leagues is The Original Gamer™ approved for?
We get this question a lot, and the answer is more complicated than we'd like. We’ve spoken to a few wood bat leagues, and when you’ve talked to one wood bat league, you’ve talked to ONE wood bat league. We have learned that Adult Leagues and Collegiate Summer Leagues each have their own set of rules and requirements, so there is not a single body with whom to confirm approval of Delano's Gamer.
We know that The OG is NCAA approved as a wood composite, and it is BBCOR certified to those player safety standards. Most leagues look at these criteria and permit The Gamer. The general rule is if wood composite play is allowed, The Gamer should be allowed. However, we recommend you check with your specific league first.
We have had 2 "bans" that we know of: (we will continue to update this space as needed)
Minnesota Baseball Association/"Town Ball" has recently met as a board and voted 6-3 to not permit The Original Gamer™ for the 2026 season as they do not currently have a clear baseball bat standard they follow. This debate will continue in the Fall.
The Seattle Region of the National Amateur Baseball Association (NABA) has chosen to not permit The OG for stated "player safety" reasons, although it meets the NABA bat specs listed on their website and other regional directors have explicitly approved it for play.
Some leagues want to promote solid wood bat play. That's an amazing choice, and The Gamer is not suitable for those leagues. For those leagues who understand the value and experience associated with wood composite use, we believe Delano's FZN Composite Core™ is appropriate and should be permitted. We just ask you to please confirm before purchase. Please see our other FAQ about youth tournaments run by PBR and Perfect Game for additional information on those organizations.
Does The Original Gamer™ swing BALANCED or END-LOADED?
We think the best people to answer this question are the hitters who've been swinging The OG. What we hear from players a LOT is how "easy" the bat is to swing. They describe it as having the pop of an end-loaded bat, but the ease of a more balanced bat through the swing. The barrel is massive, but it's light and allows hitters to get through the zone quickly. We would characterize it as somewhere in-between balanced and end-loaded.
Can I represent Delano Bat Company as a Brand Ambassador or Affiliate?
We love that players want to swing our bat, and we think there is no better way to promote our bat than have players talking to each other about the pop and feel of The OG. For that reason, we have decided not to launch an Ambassador program at this time. While the player feedback is critical, we believe that Ambassadors should receive as much support as they give the brand, and at this state in our company lifecycle, we are not equipped to support a well-run Ambassador program. The experience players and customers have with Delano Bat Company is very important to us, and if we don’t think we can do it well, we don’t want to do it. However, we DO want genuine love and shoutouts from players who’ve used the bat, so please keep those props coming, but we will not offer free product or payment for the love.
We may reconsider once we’ve got some runs on the board, so watch this space for any updates. Thanks to all of you who’ve inquired and raised your hands to rep our brand. We hope you continue to follow and support Delano as we continue this start up journey.
What is the warranty for FZN Composite Core™ Series Bats?
We are so confident in not only the performance, but also the durability of FZN Composite Core™, that we are going to put our money where our mouth is. We are offering a 1-year warranty for our bats, with a Rapid-Response Replacement option for qualifying bats. We don’t have a list of exclusions like our competition, but we cover 3 major issues:
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Severe flaking or cracking
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Catastrophic breakage
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Major end-cap issues
Pretty simple to understand, and as long as the damage is clearly demonstrated to be from "normal use" with standard baseballs, your replacement bat will be on its way to you within 2 business days of warranty claim validation. So if your FZN Composite Core™ bat breaks taking a heater off the handle – it's covered. If your FZN Composite Core™ bat breaks because you busted your ex-girlfriend's headlight – NOT covered. The only other exception is Team Use. If the bat has been used by multiple players, the warranty is not designed to cover the resulting accelerated wear. You can read more about our warranty here.
Do I need to hit The Original Gamer™ with the label up (or down)?
No – swing away however you’d like. The patents behind FZN Composite Core™ enable The Original Gamer™ to be swung like any other alloy or composite bat. You do not need to think about the placement of the face or edge grain relative to the barrel and contact spot – The OG barrel design maximizes strength, durability, and performance all the way around.
Some bats shouldn't be used in cold temperatures - what about The Original Gamer™?
Swing for the fences!
The solid maple exterior along with the carbon fiber interior (made from materials rated for deep space temps, btw) of the FZN Composite Core™ construction should perform well across all temperature ranges, and likely better than alloys and composites in the cold. Better yet, the design of The OG minimizes the sting of mishits often felt with other wood composites - which only hurt more when the temperature drops.
Grab some gloves (and your knit hat) and give it a go. We always want to hear from players - so if you have experience in extreme temperatures, please shoot us an email with your thoughts: feedback@delanotbats.com