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I love bat flips. I need you to know this and understand it. But I don't love all flips. 
As the bat flip has taken on greater significance, with more players tossing the bat than ever, sometimes it can seem like the merest accidental flick of the wrist can produce thousands of tweets of BATFLIP!!! EMOJI EMOJI EMOJI.
But this is dangerous. Not for the future of the sport or our impressionable children, but by accepting all bat flips as the very best doesn't make the flips any better. Rather, it cheapens all of them.
So, instead, I suggest we start with a five-pronged system of grading each toss. This is our metric: 
Game situation: Walk-off home runs, grand slams and other "statement" home runs obviously take on more important. Losing by seven in the third inning? Sure, the flip may have been nice, but doesn't excite the senses the same way. 
Height and distance: Hit a home run and your flip barely reaches the letters on your uniform? Probably not all that great of a flip. However, if you flip it up so high that it reaches terminal velocity on its way down, well, that's a great flip. 
Intent: While an apparently accidental flip can still be fun, when the player is clearly making a statement -- whether that's just "Gee! Baseball is fun!" or "Don't you dare think you can throw a fastball by me" -- it's all the better. 
Unexpectedness: David Ortiz flipping his bat? That happens a lot. A pitcher flipping his bat on a ball to the gap? A batter flipping his bat on a walk? Just like a horror film where the character gets a jump scare when they're just about to enter the creepy old basement, a shock factor is good here. 
That je ne sais quois: Of course, there is still parts of the bat flip that defy categorization. Just like true love or that first bite of pizza, you know when you've found the one. 
Of course, looking at all of this, there is one example that stands out far and above them all. That's Jose Bautista's home run against the Rangers in the 2015 ALDS. This is the BATS standard that we will hold all flips to. 
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So let's take a look at a few recent examples from the past month and see how they measure up.