What made you a GM hater? Sad to hear!
Just had a look at the 2017 gear and seen the price of the GM Paragon Player edition... $1300 aud... WTF??Pricing on bats this season here in Australia is out of control.... Glad I bought a B3 at 50% off when I did
I find it surprising that only two bats have regular blade length in the entire range. In so much as the shorter blade lengths are advertised as helping greater bat speed etc, my personal experience is that shorter blade lengths and longer handles do not help a batsman in having control on shots apart from maybe helping in slog type shots. Also, short blade length bats do not give a batsman confidence in playing shorter straighter deliveries that rise high. In addition, despite being advertised as having better pickup, the pickup is worse as you hold the bat higher up the handle, so from physics, you need to apply greater force to move the bat the same amount compared to when you hold it closer to the blade, due to the lever effect...Lastly not to mention that those who are used to holding the bat closer to the blade will find it necessary to change their technique to hold the bat higher up with the shorter blade bats as otherwise they would risk being yorked... So all in all, find it really surprising that GM has gone massively in this direction..Just my 2 cents from my experience with the kudos which is not even that much of a short blade but still a short blade bat..