Anyone have any intel on the new Rawlings Mantra?

[kbailey45us]

After posting and getting to thinking about it I pulled an old Easton Atmos 33/21 out of the closet for weight comparison. This Mantra is ridiculous. It is end loaded and heavy as a brick. My daughter, wife, and I all were like what the heck. Not sure if I bought a jacked up bat way out of spec or what.

 

[Bean13]

My daughter lives hers. It does sound alot different than a ghost or lxt,but she is hammering it with it. She does still loves her ghost but it is cracked and don't know when it's gonna go all the way. Like I said the mantra sounds totally cheap sounding but the ball explodes off of it. She is probably getting around the 200- 300 mark and it gets better everytime.

 

[cjs2570]

We picked one up as a secondary bat to the GA. Took a long time to break in and daughter hater it. After a while, 500 ish swings, it started to open up. The sweet spot is bigger and more towards the end of the barrel. We did have a "pin" right above the knob on the handle, come out. Felt like a rock had got underneath the grip. Pushed it back for now until it becomes a bigger issue.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

Did you weigh the Mantra? A bat being an ounce over isnt unheard of.
And that is what makes it feel a bit endloaded...its not...its just overweight. Thats why you gotta
do some research on bats...you gotta do it from here on out while your dd is shopping high end
bats til she stops playing. Sticker weight hardly ever is exact weight

 

[CoreSoftball20]

We picked one up as a secondary bat to the GA. Took a long time to break in and daughter hater it. After a while, 500 ish swings, it started to open up. The sweet spot is bigger and more towards the end of the barrel. We did have a "pin" right above the knob on the handle, come out. Felt like a rock had got underneath the grip. Pushed it back for now until it becomes a bigger issue.

Funny, i laugh when some people are ok with certain bats taking a while to get going, meanwhile
other bats they dont give them the time of day and talk trash on them from swing one and quit
on them. The Mantra def takes
hundreds of cuts to get going. Had people love them once they get broken in.

Btw, this wasnt meant towards you...I laugh because you gave the mantra a shot and put the swings on
it to get it going. Some just quit on it and trash it. But yet, other new bats get a pass if it takes some
swings to get going...guess its brand forgiveness. Strange to me...haha

 

[Dummy]

Our experience with the mantra is that they are excessively overweight, ours (32 -10) was almost 2 ounces overweight (actual 1.7 oz over) The bats have a teeny tiny sweet spot, and unless it's 95% squared up to the ball, the hit is lazy. The grip is WAY to thick and chunks out and tears within 500-600 hits.

If you hate your kid, buy her a mantra.

 

[Dummy]

If the above sounds harsh, I'd like to add that my kid swung a 33 inch demo on 3 different occasions which got her blood pumping to get ahold of this bat. We have also seen some respectable hits off of it which also persuaded us even more to buy into it. It seems possibly that there may be some quality control or maybe other inconsistencies at hand, but whatever the case may be, we have deemed this bat to the junk pile.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

Or maybe your dd just didnt hit well with it..which usually ends up with bats being junk...haha

Could need more swings as well...demo bats usually are broken in as they get tons of swings on them.

 

[kbailey45us]

My daughters Mantra was a slow break in. It still isnt all the way there but gets hotter every swing. Meta seems like its gonna be the same way.

 

[benz99]

We have 2 33/23’s and both are 1.4-1.6 oz overweight. Daughter has never liked any of the Rawlings but she doesn’t hate the Mantra. Actually likes it way more than her lighter CF zen. Performance wise I think the biggest thing is your really comparing a drop 8 to an actual sticker weight drop 10. Unless your daughter is bigger and stronger the weight is going to slow the swing speed down a bit making it look to have less pop. The ball really jumps off it once broken in.