Maple is a very hard, dense wood. The surface hardness is about 20% greater than ash. The harder the surface the faster the ball will jump off the bat. This is one of the reasons maple has become so popular; that and the fact that Barry Bonds swings maple. Maple is a closer grained hard wood than ash. The grain is not as easy to see as it is with ash. The straightness of the grain does not matter as it does with ash. Maple will not splinter. The grain will not separate. The hardness of maple makes a bat with less flex. 

Ash on the other hand does flex. When a ball is hit with an ash bat there is a trampoline affect. The ball doesn't just jump off; it first compresses the wood, then like a spring board it leaves with much more force than maple. This spring board affect is one of ash's greatest strengths and weaknesses. The spring board and compression traits of an ash bat will in time cause the grains to separate over time. The flex of an ash bat will appear to have a larger sweet spot. Ash bats do not snap the way a maple bat does. Ash bats will break just as easy, but usually they just wear out. The grain of an ash bat will delaminate over many uses.

Birch is tougher than ash, more flexible than maple. This hard hitting imported wood does not flake like ash and out performs maple. A lighter wood, birch allows athletes to swing larger barreled bats through the hitting zone.  After two seasons of extensive game play testing in the Cape Cod Baseball Summer League and the Alaskan League, a player is quoted as saying, "Maple is a thing of the past." 
Birch bats have become a viable choice. However, many of our customers own bats of all three types of wood so they can select the right bat for the each play.