Baseball, torpedo
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KDVR-TV Denver |
While the bat is legal by MLB standards, it has proved controversial to traditional fans.
Bleacher Report |
It seems like just a matter of time before torpedo bats are everywhere in MLB, which gives us precious time to think about which hitters should be making the switch.
SFGate |
Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz rests a torpedo-shaped bat on his shoulder between pitches during an at-bat in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers.
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Of note is how D-backs pitchers handled the five Yankees who are known to be using the torpedo bat: Anthony Volpe and Paul Goldschmidt, who bat righty, and Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Austin Wells, who bat lefty.
Now back to the torpedo bat. It's designed so that the wider part of the bat IS the sweet spot. Since it’s wider, it's easier to hit the ball. Since that part is the sweet spot, it gives the ball a higher speed. Higher speed means the ball will travel farther. Adios pelota!
Torpedo bats drew attention over the weekend when the New York Yankees hit a team-record nine homers in one game.
MIT physicist Aaron Leanhardt has been credited with creating the torpedo bats. Leanhardt previously served as a hitting analyst with the Yankees before he joined the Miami Marlins as a field coordinator in the offseason.
Torpedo bats are just the latest innovation in the design of baseball bats, some of which stuck, and others which ... did not.
By now, you’ve probably heard about baseball’s greatest innovation since the curveball: MLB’s new “torpedo” bat, the reconfigured bat that moves the barrel — or the sweet spot — closer to the handle, seemingly turning even the most meager of hitters into home run machines.
Two big questions about MLB’s ‘torpedo’ bats. Similar to how Hemingway described bankruptcy in “The Sun Also Rises,” innovation in sports — e