The sight used to be a familiar one: After a high school baseball game in which a player who could be drafted was playing, scouts would gather near the backstop and the potential future pro would put down his aluminum bat and start taking hacks with a wooden one.

Now, for players like Fernando Frias and Jean Carlos Rodriguez, that added work isn’t necessary.

That’s because starting this year, thanks to a new city law, high school players in New York City were forced to start using wood and wood composite bats. And while it was instituted for safety reasons, it also has affected the George Washington senior teammates, two of the top prospects in New York City high schools this season.

Both players insist the change hasn’t made them alter their games much.

“I’ve been using bats on my own since I was 14,” said Frias, a rightfielder who could go in the top 20 rounds. “I would say it’s a good thing for everyone to have to use wood because when you use metal, it’s like cheating. You need real talent to use wood.”

The burly Frias, who goes 6-3, 225, only hit one homer in league play a year ago and is still looking for his first this year, but still shows considerable power. He tripled twice in a recent game and was actually able to use a wooden bat to show off his strength, picking up a cracked bat and snapping it over his leg.

“I’d think the scouts would love it,” GW head coach Steve Mandl said of the switch. “Instead of projecting what kids would do with wood, they see it.”

Mandl, whose team could be headed to a No. 1 seed in the PSAL playoffs that begin next week, is right.

“Guys have to learn how to hit the ball and really swing the bat,” said longtime area scout Hector Garcia, who works for the Indians. “A lot of kids get used to metal and can’t adjust to wood, but as this year has gone on, you see more kids driving the ball. It definitely helps what we do.”