What negative effect does this have on performance?
By:
The efficiency of the bat in transferring energy to the ball in part depends on the weight of the part of the bat near the impact point of the ball. For a given bat speed, a heavier bat will produce a higher hit ball speed than a lighter bat. That is why the head of a golf driver is heavier than that of an iron: you want to drive the ball further. By reducing the weight at the barrel end of the bat, the efficiency of the bat is reduced, giving rise to a reduced hit ball speed and less distance on a long fly ball. This is the downside of using a corked bat.
So what is the net effect?
We see that corking the bat leads to higher swing speed but to a less efficient ball-bat collision. These two effects roughly cancel each other out, leaving little or no effect on the hit ball speed or on the distance of a long fly ball. A specific example showing how this happens will be given below.