Inside a workshop on Anawan Street in Fall River, Lou Ledoux is still turning out wooden bats one at a time, now using a machine to shape them. Only now, according to a report from WJAR, some of those bats are landing in the hands of Major League hitters preparing for October baseball.
Axis Bats, which operates out of 28 Anawan St. in Fall River, has built a reputation for training bats that teams and individual players keep coming back for, as detailed in a Herald News profile of the shop earlier in 2025. Ledoux, the company's owner and operator, runs the business, with each bat shaped by machine and painted before it ships out.
The shop's signature product, the AXCELERATOR, is built to feel lighter than it actually is. According to the company's own product description, the training bat weighs 38 ounces but feels like 32, letting hitters take normal, game-speed swings while building strength and bat speed at the same time. The company says the bat also carries a sweet-spot design meant to help players zero in on where they should be making contact.
A Bat Built on a Hitting Coach's Request
That 38-ounce design traces back to a specific ask from inside a Major League clubhouse. Former Boston Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis wanted a bat that was heavy but didn't feel that way in a hitter's hands, and it reportedly took Axis Bats about a year to develop it — eventually producing both a 38-ounce regular game bat and the 38-ounce AXCELERATOR trainer built around that same idea.
Per the same WJAR report, the training bats are deliberately longer and carry bigger barrels than a standard game bat, built with lighter wood to keep that added length and size from making the bat unwieldy. Once a bat is shaped by machine — a process that reportedly takes about five minutes — it is painted, and markings are engraved onto the barrel. Those engraved diamonds, he has said, show hitters the exact spot where a ball should be hit based on physics, giving them a visual guide for practicing sweet-spot contact.
A Training Bat's Growing Following
The shop's AXCELERATOR trainer is used by players in several MLB organizations, the station reports. Ledoux has said the growth has come largely through word of mouth among higher-caliber players, with individual players and team purchases both driving the business.
A History with Red Sox Players
A separate account from NBC Sports Boston noted Axis Bats had been the batmaker of choice for several Red Sox players over the years, including Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.
Former Red Sox pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee has also played a role in keeping the operation running, helping Ledoux with the bat-making process, with wood for the bats coming from Lee's tree farm in Vermont, per WJAR's reporting. Locally, the shop's footprint has included supplying bats for the former PawSox's bat night giveaways and producing personalized trophy bats for the FBI's Boston office and New Hampshire state troopers, according to the Wicked Local account.
Even the shop floor reflects Ledoux's hands-on approach. The Herald News profile noted that excess paint, resin, sawdust and wood chips generated during production are recycled rather than discarded.
