Any of you more knowledgeable baseball guys want to comment?
No brainer on both. For gloves, Wilson and Rawlings are top of the line, the great majority of major leaguers use one or the other, with Mizuno, Nike, Marucci, Under Armour and a few others well behind them. Easton is non-existent in the majors. Though not my preference, All Star makes great catcher's mitts that are worn by numerous big leaguers. If you want the best leather, the Rawlings Pro Preferred line is out of this world. The best combination of good leather and toughness goes to the Wilson A2000/A2K or Rawlings Heart of the Hide lines, IMO, and both now produce synthetic leather models that a good number of big leaguers use.
I don't know much about bats at the high school and college levels, mainly because they use BBCOR bats and my kid won't start using them until next year, but he just switched from an Easton to a Demarini and there's a noticeable difference. I'd say Demarini is far and away the best and most widely used bat at the travel ball level, and it would stand to reason their BBCOR bats are also top of the line. I've also heard Louisville Slugger makes a great BBCOR bat. Because bats are regulated at all levels and there can only be so much rebound effect, the biggest differentiators are the size of the sweet spot, balance, and amount of vibration. The regulation of bats is probably why Demarini only got one more (>) than Easton while the Wilson gloves got six more.
