Experts submit recommendations to reduce frequency of broken bats

NEW YORK -- Experts presented undisclosed recommendations to Major League Baseball on Friday that they hope will decrease the frequency of broken bats in games.

The recommendations will be reviewed by MLB's safety and health advisory committee, which includes players union officials. No date was set for an announcement.

MLB collected more than 1,700 broken bats over 2½ months this year and met with manufacturers to discuss quality control after league commissioner Bud Selig expressed concern over the increase in broken bats among maple models. Selig can't ban maple bats unilaterally because their use is subject to collective bargaining.

MLB retained the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Products Laboratory; the wood-testing agency Timberco Inc.; Harvard professor Carl Morris and University of Massachusetts-Lowell professor James Sherwood to analyze data and design tests.