Braves manager Bobby Cox didn't need to hear Susan Rhodes' story to be concerned about maple bats.

He didn't need to know she was hit in the jaw by the barrel end of a broken maple bat four rows up in Dodger Stadium in April. That she wound up with a concussion and undergoing surgery.

John Sleezer / AP (ENLARGE)

A maple bat shard gashed MLB umpire Brian O'Nora in the forehead during a Rockies-Royals game June 24.

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INTERACTIVES • Photos: Making an MLB maple bat • Video: MLB debates maple bat safety MAPLE IN HAND A list of the 2008 Braves who use maple bats: Gregor Blanco Matt Diaz Yunel Escobar Ruben Gotay Tim Hudson Omar Infante Kelly Johnson Brandon Jones Brian McCann Martin Prado Mark Teixeira Source: Atlanta Braves RELATED STORIES Hampton turns down Braves, signs with Astros  Ex-Brave Gant on Hall of Fame ballot  Arbitration deadline not significant for Braves         • More Braves coverage

Cox goes on what he sees — and sometimes doesn't see — every day from the Braves dugout.

"It's really dangerous," said Cox, who never saw a piece from Kelly Johnson's maple bat fly over his head last week. He was watching the ball. Pitching coach Roger McDowell pointed it out.

"There are four or five a night," Cox said. "We're going to lose an eye or something. It could be a fan, could be an umpire, could be a player, could be guys in the dugout, could be anybody. They're going that far."

Rhodes' story just backs up what Cox has been saying about the danger of maple bats.

"Imagine if it had hit her in a vein in her neck," Cox said. "Someone might bleed to death in a matter of seconds. I think it's definitely something that needs to be addressed now. Tomorrow. I think it's that serious."

Major League Baseball began addressing the situation on Tuesday. A health and safety committee of representatives from the commissioner's office and the players' union met and agreed to start testing bats, and gathering information from bat manufacturers and surveying teams about protective netting in ballparks.

Commissioner Bud Selig had voiced his concerns since the owners' meeting last month and seems inclined to take action in the short-term. However, issues with bat supplies might not allow a short-term solution, and any changes will need approval from the players' union.

Selig could go as far as recommending a ban on maple bats to regulating the quality and/or the size of bats. He could recommend changes to protective netting in ballparks, though that's a hard sell, given what teams charge for seats close to the field.

Just hours after the committee met, umpire Brian O'Nora was cut in the forehead by a piece of a maple bat during a Kansas City Royals game Tuesday and left with blood running down his face. The injury wasn't serious. The next one might be.

Toronto's Joe Carter is believed to have introduced maple bats into the major leagues in the early 1990s, and Barry Bonds popularized them during his 2001 home run chase. Now it's estimated that more than half of major leaguers use maple bats.

Only Chipper Jones, Jeff Francoeur and Mark Kotsay use strictly the traditional ash among Braves regulars.

Maple wood is denser, harder and more durable, players say.

"You don't get as good a wood all the time with ash," said Brian McCann, who's used maple since he got to the majors. "You order a dozen maple, you might use three for batting practice. With Ash, it might be more like six (for games) and six (for batting practice). With ash, you might use a bat three or four rounds of BP. I've used the same BP bat all year with maple."

Some players believe the ball comes off the bat better with maple, though a study at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell showed the ball carried no better off maple than ash.

"If you hit the ball good it doesn't matter," said Mark Teixeira, who uses both maple and ash, changing for feel. "I don't think there really is a difference. What most guys will tell you is that a bad maple bat is better than a bad ash bat. The consistency of the wood is a little bit better all the way through a maple bat."

The consistency of wood also makes maple bats break into pieces, rather than crack like ash bats tend to do. Shards of maple bats are much more likely to pinwheel on the infield or into the stands.

What started much of this discussion was Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach Don Long getting cut in the face by a maple bat shard in April and suffering some temporary nerve damage.

But Braves players don't seem concerned about getting hurt by broken bats. Not even Tim Hudson, who is closest to the action as a pitcher. In fact, he uses a maple bat.

"When the barrel follows the ball, that's when it gets really dangerous," Hudson said. "Other than that, it's guys ducking out of the way. Somebody probably will eventually get hurt. But every day I don't understand how people don't get crushed by balls in the foul territory more than they do. That's way more of a health risk than the barrels, in my opinion. At least with a broken bat, it's not coming in at 98 mph."

There's no indication that the overall number of broken bats is increasing, but nobody questions that maple breaks break more violently. In some data the Braves, like all teams, were asked to keep by MLB last season, the Braves broke 111 bats at home; 88 were maple. That number is a function of how many regulars use maple bats. But then again, for every maple bat broken, risks are greater.

"Unfortunately accidents are going to happen every now and then; you hope that they don't happen very often," Teixeira said. "We play in a sport with hard balls, hard bats, sometimes they break, sometimes balls fly into the stands. That's why personally my kids never sit close to the field."

The Royals' Miguel Olivo was the one whose maple bat injured the umpire Tuesday. He used ash the rest of the night.

If maple bats were banned immediately, there wouldn't be enough ash bats to go around.

"You couldn't just shut off maple and make all ash; you just don't have enough raw material to do that," Chuck Schupp, manager of professional bat sales for Hillerich & Bradsby, the company that makes Louisville Sluggers. "It's going to take us a while."

One thing Schupp said bat makers could do on the spot is make bats to different specifications, if the committee determines that might prevent breaks.

"Each billet we buy is the same size when we get them," Schupp said. "We make the bat to order. Making a barrel smaller, making (the bat) heavier — that's something you can do pretty quickly."

But players are used to lighter bats, bigger barrels and thinner handles, Schupp says, because they mimic aluminum bats players played with growing up.

"To do that in a piece of wood is a challenging task and make it hold up," Schupp said.

Changes to bat specifications — or models — are even less likely to go over well with players based on what Braves players say.

"The model they're swinging is more important than the type of wood they're swinging," Kelly Johnson said. "I think a lot is being made out of this and it's really not that big a deal. I don't know how many guys are going to be like 'What am I going to do, my career is done. I can't swing maple.'...

"We just want good wood, hard wood, get it in a weight or a balance that we can handle. You can find that, you've got a good bat."