Latest news with #Leanhardt
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Moneyball for Bats
The madness started, as baseball madness tends to start, with the New York Yankees: At the end of March, during the opening weekend of the new season, the team's first three batters hit home runs on the first three pitches thrown their way. The final score, 20–9, was almost too good to be true. And then, everybody noticed the bats. A handful of Yankees had used unconventional instruments to hit their home runs: Their bats bulged out a little near the end, such that they were shaped more like bowling pins than clubs. It turned out they'd been designed by an MIT-trained physicist and were tailored to each player's swing, with the bulge positioned at the place on the bat where that player tends to hit the ball. Yes, after at least a century's worth of baseball bats that all looked more or less the same—'it must be made of wood, and may be of any length to suit the striker,' reads a set of rules from 1861—the art of making striker's wood had at last produced a major innovation. After the Yankees hit a franchise-record nine home runs in that one game, media coverage of torpedo bats exploded, and manufacturers are struggling to meet demand from other teams. Even fantasy baseball leagues have cottoned to the trend. 'This is torpedomania,' said the CEO of a major bat maker. At first glance, the craze appears to be the culmination of the data-driven tweaks that have overhauled the modern game. A pursuit of minute statistical advantages characterizes nearly every aspect of baseball today: Pitchers maximize effectiveness by throwing the ball as hard as possible, and rarely spend more than five innings in a game; managers eschew traditional—and suboptimal—strategies such as bunting and stealing bases; fans obsess over esoteric performance metrics with names such as 'wRC' and 'xFIP.' Now the data revolution is reimagining one of the game's most fundamental tools: the bat. The idea of the bowling-pin shape is actually a few years old and has been explored by multiple teams. Aaron Leanhardt, the aforementioned MIT physicist, began designing the Yankees' torpedo bats in 2022 as a minor-league hitting coach for the team, and some major leaguers were using them last year. His premise was straightforward: Standard bats are widest and heaviest at the tip, but players prefer to make contact with a pitch closer to the midpoint. That's in part because a bat's 'sweet spot'—the portion of the wood that transfers the most energy on contact—is also a few inches down the barrel from the end. To address this inefficiency, torpedo bats are made with more wood in the sweet spot and less wood elsewhere—thus, the bulge. The idea was to 'put it where you're trying to hit the ball,' Leanhardt told The Athletic. But that premise may be suspect. Despite their Moneyball makeover, torpedo bats remain, for now, a blunt instrument, largely superstition with a patina of data. Though it seems like common sense that adding heft to the part of the bat where a player hits the ball would be advantageous, several physicists who study baseball bats told me that's not necessarily true. Because a bat has a thick barrel and rotates when swung, its motion and power depend on the distribution of weight across the entire shaft, not just in one spot. In other words, the physics aren't cut-and-dried: A bulging sweet spot may provide more space for making contact with the ball, but it likely won't provide more power. (The Miami Marlins, for whom Leanhardt now works as a field coordinator, declined a request for comment.) [Read: Why aren't women allowed to play baseball?] All of the mass along a bat's barrel, not just at the point of contact, contributes to the impact. As a result, shifting some wood from the end of the barrel to the sweet spot will not make the bat more powerful, Lloyd Smith, a mechanical engineer who studies ball-bat collisions at Washington State University, told me. Brian Hillerich, the director of professional bat production at Hillerich & Bradsby Co., which makes bats for Louisville Slugger, said that even if torpedo bats are not more powerful, they still promote more consistent contact at the sweet spot, which would tend to help a player's performance. Smith and other physicists said this is possible, but remains unproved. In any case, by redistributing some mass closer to the handle, the bowling-pin design could actually make a bat feel lighter when swung—it could lower the 'moment of inertia,' in physics parlance. That will allow a player to increase his bat speed, but it also shrinks the force he can apply upon contact. These two factors may well cancel out, Dan Russell, a physicist at Penn State who studies baseball-bat vibrations, told me. (Imagine swinging a hammer while gripping its head instead of its handle: It might move faster, but it wouldn't do a better job of pounding nails.) A torpedo bat could also be constructed by adding extra wood to make the bulge instead of merely shifting it from other places on the barrel. This would keep the 'moment of inertia' constant—the bat would be heavier on a scale but feel the same when swung. Baseball bats used to have more heft as a rule; Babe Ruth swung clubs perhaps 50 percent heavier than today's. But the net effects remain unclear, and would depend on each particular player's strength and swing. A faster swing could still be useful even if it doesn't give a hitter greater power: 'You simply have better bat control, can wait a little longer on the pitch before deciding to swing, make adjustments once you've started,' Alan Nathan, who studies the physics of baseball at the University of Illinois, told me. That won't be the case for everyone—athletes who have spent years honing their swings and timing could be thrown off by the new shape, and several players using torpedo bats have had terrible starts to this season. Hillerich told me that his company designs torpedo bats with this in mind, trying to make them feel as similar to a player's original bat as possible. It might all be a matter of preference and confidence—and others may not care that much either way. The new shape feels the same in his hands, Jazz Chisholm, a torpedo-wielding Yankee, recently said. 'I don't know the science of it. I'm just playing baseball.' That the Yankees had a historically great game, and that some players were using funny-looking bats, 'is more coincidence than destiny or science,' Smith told me. After all, nobody noticed the new shape last season, and for good reason—there's simply not enough information, either from MLB games or physics labs, to definitively say what these bats offer, and to which players. Smith said he suspects that 'the number of athletes this torpedo bat benefits is going to be fairly narrow.' Indeed, the current buzz about the bats is pretty much the opposite of being data-driven. In an interview last week with The Athletic, Brett Laxton, the lead bat maker at Marucci Sports, pointed to the fact that Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees' designated hitter, had hit three home runs in his first game using a torpedo bat last year. That was 'a good eye test' of the technology, he said, invoking just the kind of baseball intuition that statistics-driven analysts would sneer at. Yes, the bat felt and looked good in Stanton's hands; no, this is not sabermetrics. Meanwhile, other 'eye tests' have yielded more ambiguous results. Elly de la Cruz, of the Cincinnati Reds, hit two home runs in his first game using the torpedo bat, for instance, then went 0–4 the next day. Max Muncy, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, tried using a torpedo bat and recorded three outs in a row, then switched back to his old wood and hit a game-tying double. If anything, the torpedo bats harken to an era before Moneyball, computers, or even the official formation of Major League Baseball. The late 1800s were a time of 'great experimentation' in bat design, John Thorn, MLB's official historian, told me: four-sided bats and flat bats, bats with slits for springs and sliding weights. All of that tinkering has long been left behind, however, and the modern, non-torpedo bat now seems like a simple fact of the game. Perhaps the biggest change to bat manufacturing in recent decades happened in the 1990s, when Barry Bonds started swinging bats made from maple instead of ash, and the rest of the league followed. That, too, had an element of superstition: As it turns out, a bat made from maple wood transfers a little bit less energy to a ball than one made from ash. Bonds, who hit more home runs than any MLB player in history, 'could have hit the ball just a bit further if he had stayed with ash,' Smith told me. Thorn takes issue with the whole discussion. 'The whole idea that the magic is in the bat rather than in the batter is fraud,' Thorn said. 'It's calumny.' Of course, baseball players and fans have always been in pursuit of magic. They once used less pretentious tricks—eating chicken before each game, wearing a gold thong to emerge from a funk—but these have now been funneled through the optimization craze; instead of mismatched socks, there are 'literal genius'–designed bats. In an era when baseball teams will squeeze any source of data for tiny statistical advantages, torpedomania pretends to be yet another nerd-ish secret weapon. Perhaps, for some subset of players, the new design really is miraculous. More likely, though, when the stats have all been counted and compared, we'll discover that the torpedo bat is no different from any other talisman in baseball: a ridiculous distraction; a delightful waste of time. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
10-04-2025
- Science
- Atlantic
Moneyball for Bats
The madness started, as baseball madness tends to start, with the New York Yankees: At the end of March, during the opening weekend of the new season, the team's first three batters hit home runs on the first three pitches thrown their way. The final score, 20–9, was almost too good to be true. And then, everybody noticed the bats. A handful of Yankees had used unconventional instruments to hit their home runs: Their bats bulged out a little near the end, such that they were shaped more like bowling pins than clubs. It turned out they'd been designed by an MIT-trained physicist and were tailored to each player's swing, with the bulge positioned at the place on the bat where that player tends to hit the ball. Yes, after at least a century's worth of baseball bats that all looked more or less the same—'it must be made of wood, and may be of any length to suit the striker,' reads a set of rules from 1861—the art of making striker's wood had at last produced a major innovation. After the Yankees hit a franchise-record nine home runs in that one game, media coverage of torpedo bats exploded, and manufacturers are struggling to meet demand from other teams. Even fantasy baseball leagues have cottoned to the trend. 'This is torpedomania,' said the CEO of a major bat maker. At first glance, the craze appears to be the culmination of the data-driven tweaks that have overhauled the modern game. A pursuit of minute statistical advantages characterizes nearly every aspect of baseball today: Pitchers maximize effectiveness by throwing the ball as hard as possible, and rarely spend more than five innings in a game; managers eschew traditional—and suboptimal—strategies such as bunting and stealing bases; fans obsess over esoteric performance metrics with names such as 'wRC' and 'xFIP.' Now the data revolution is reimagining one of the game's most fundamental tools: the bat. The idea of the bowling-pin shape is actually a few years old and has been explored by multiple teams. Aaron Leanhardt, the aforementioned MIT physicist, began designing the Yankees' torpedo bats in 2022 as a minor-league hitting coach for the team, and some major leaguers were using them last year. His premise was straightforward: Standard bats are widest and heaviest at the tip, but players prefer to make contact with a pitch closer to the midpoint. That's in part because a bat's 'sweet spot'—the portion of the wood that transfers the most energy on contact—is also a few inches down the barrel from the end. To address this inefficiency, torpedo bats are made with more wood in the sweet spot and less wood elsewhere—thus, the bulge. The idea was to 'put it where you're trying to hit the ball,' Leanhardt told The Athletic. But that premise may be suspect. Despite their Moneyball makeover, torpedo bats remain, for now, a blunt instrument, largely superstition with a patina of data. Though it seems like common sense that adding heft to the part of the bat where a player hits the ball would be advantageous, several physicists who study baseball bats told me that's not necessarily true. Because a bat has a thick barrel and rotates when swung, its motion and power depend on the distribution of weight across the entire shaft, not just in one spot. In other words, the physics aren't cut-and-dried: A bulging sweet spot may provide more space for making contact with the ball, but it likely won't provide more power. (The Miami Marlins, for whom Leanhardt now works as a field coordinator, declined a request for comment.) Read: Why aren't women allowed to play baseball? All of the mass along a bat's barrel, not just at the point of contact, contributes to the impact. As a result, shifting some wood from the end of the barrel to the sweet spot will not make the bat more powerful, Lloyd Smith, a mechanical engineer who studies ball-bat collisions at Washington State University, told me. Brian Hillerich, the director of professional bat production at Hillerich & Bradsby Co., which makes bats for Louisville Slugger, said that even if torpedo bats are not more powerful, they still promote more consistent contact at the sweet spot, which would tend to help a player's performance. Smith and other physicists said this is possible, but remains unproved. In any case, by redistributing some mass closer to the handle, the bowling-pin design could actually make a bat feel lighter when swung—it could lower the 'moment of inertia,' in physics parlance. That will allow a player to increase his bat speed, but it also shrinks the force he can apply upon contact. These two factors may well cancel out, Dan Russell, a physicist at Penn State who studies baseball-bat vibrations, told me. (Imagine swinging a hammer while gripping its head instead of its handle: It might move faster, but it wouldn't do a better job of pounding nails.) A torpedo bat could also be constructed by adding extra wood to make the bulge instead of merely shifting it from other places on the barrel. This would keep the 'moment of inertia' constant—the bat would be heavier on a scale but feel the same when swung. Baseball bats used to have more heft as a rule; Babe Ruth swung clubs perhaps 50 percent heavier than today's. But the net effects remain unclear, and would depend on each particular player's strength and swing. A faster swing could still be useful even if it doesn't give a hitter greater power: 'You simply have better bat control, can wait a little longer on the pitch before deciding to swing, make adjustments once you've started,' Alan Nathan, who studies the physics of baseball at the University of Illinois, told me. That won't be the case for everyone—athletes who have spent years honing their swings and timing could be thrown off by the new shape, and several players using torpedo bats have had terrible starts to this season. Hillerich told me that his company designs torpedo bats with this in mind, trying to make them feel as similar to a player's original bat as possible. It might all be a matter of preference and confidence—and others may not care that much either way. The new shape feels the same in his hands, Jazz Chisholm, a torpedo-wielding Yankee, recently said. 'I don't know the science of it. I'm just playing baseball.' That the Yankees had a historically great game, and that some players were using funny-looking bats, 'is more coincidence than destiny or science,' Smith told me. After all, nobody noticed the new shape last season, and for good reason—there's simply not enough information, either from MLB games or physics labs, to definitively say what these bats offer, and to which players. Smith said he suspects that 'the number of athletes this torpedo bat benefits is going to be fairly narrow.' Indeed, the current buzz about the bats is pretty much the opposite of being data-driven. In an interview last week with The Athletic, Brett Laxton, the lead bat maker at Marucci Sports, pointed to the fact that Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees' designated hitter, had hit three home runs in his first game using a torpedo bat last year. That was 'a good eye test' of the technology, he said, invoking just the kind of baseball intuition that statistics-driven analysts would sneer at. Yes, the bat felt and looked good in Stanton's hands; no, this is not sabermetrics. Meanwhile, other 'eye tests' have yielded more ambiguous results. Elly de la Cruz, of the Cincinnati Reds, hit two home runs in his first game using the torpedo bat, for instance, then went 0–4 the next day. Max Muncy, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, tried using a torpedo bat and recorded three outs in a row, then switched back to his old wood and hit a game-tying double. If anything, the torpedo bats harken to an era before Moneyball, computers, or even the official formation of Major League Baseball. The late 1800s were a time of 'great experimentation' in bat design, John Thorn, MLB's official historian, told me: four-sided bats and flat bats, bats with slits for springs and sliding weights. All of that tinkering has long been left behind, however, and the modern, non-torpedo bat now seems like a simple fact of the game. Perhaps the biggest change to bat manufacturing in recent decades happened in the 1990s, when Barry Bonds started swinging bats made from maple instead of ash, and the rest of the league followed. That, too, had an element of superstition: As it turns out, a bat made from maple wood transfers a little bit less energy to a ball than one made from ash. Bonds, who hit more home runs than any MLB player in history, 'could have hit the ball just a bit further if he had stayed with ash,' Smith told me. Thorn takes issue with the whole discussion. 'The whole idea that the magic is in the bat rather than in the batter is fraud,' Thorn said. 'It's calumny.' Of course, baseball players and fans have always been in pursuit of magic. They once used less pretentious tricks—eating chicken before each game, wearing a gold thong to emerge from a funk—but these have now been funneled through the optimization craze; instead of mismatched socks, there are ' literal genius '–designed bats. In an era when baseball teams will squeeze any source of data for tiny statistical advantages, torpedomania pretends to be yet another nerd-ish secret weapon. Perhaps, for some subset of players, the new design really is miraculous. More likely, though, when the stats have all been counted and compared, we'll discover that the torpedo bat is no different from any other talisman in baseball: a ridiculous distraction; a delightful waste of time.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
These Yankees' bats are a MLB baseball hit. Who makes the new torpedo bat? Can you buy one?
If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission. Pricing and availability subject to change. These Yankees' bats are a MLB baseball hit. Who makes the new torpedo bat? Can you buy one? Torpedo bats are the explosive new trend in baseball after the New York Yankees set a franchise record Saturday, hitting nine home runs — the first four of which were back to back to back to back — for a 20-9 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. The game sent shockwaves across Major League Baseball. Other MLB teams have since placed an influx of orders with Hillerich & Bradsby, the Louisville-based company that makes Louisville Slugger bats and created the torpedo bats used by Yankee players over the weekend. Advertisement But are torpedo bats legal? And how can you get one of your own? Here's what we know. Story continues after photo gallery. What is a torpedo bat? Unlike a traditional swatter, a torpedo bat has more wood at the barrel, closer toward the label. This creates a larger area at the spot where players make contact with the ball. A torpedo bat resembles something of an elongated bowling pin. The talk of baseball: Louisville Slugger shows how the torpedo bat came to be Who invented the torpedo bat? Aaron Leanhardt, a former MIT physicist who worked as the Yankees' lead analyst in 2024, is credited with inventing the torpedo-style barrel. Leanhardt's idea was fashioned into reality with help from Hillerich & Bradsby. The company worked with four pro baseball teams for about 18 months to design the torpedo bat. Advertisement Batting engineer Brian Hillerich, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, went through about five iterations of the torpedo bat before they found one just right for Yankee outfielder Cody Bellinger, who earned his first home run as a Yankee over the weekend. Are the torpedo bats legal? Yes, there's nothing illegal about using a torpedo bat, according to the MLB. Here's the rule: The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood. NOTE: No laminated or experimental bats shall be used in a professional game (either championship season or exhibition games) until the manufacturer has secured approval from Major League Baseball of his design and methods of manufacture. Story continues after photo gallery. What have opponents said about the Yankees' torpedo bats? So far, we've got this from Brewers pitcher Trevor Megill: 'I think it's terrible. We'll see what the data says. I've never seen anything like it before. I feel like it's something used in slow-pitch softball. It's genius: put the mass all in one spot. It might be bush-[league]. It might not be. But it's the Yankees, so they'll let it slide.' Is every Yankees hitter using the torpedo bats? Nope. Aaron Judge is sticking with his usual bat, which makes sense: Where to buy torpedo bats Torpedo bats are a hit and some fans might want to get their hands on one. According to the Courier-Journal, Hillerich & Bradsby are planning a limited retail edition of torpedo bats to be released before the end of April. Since the bat is a shape, it's not eligible for a patent, Brian Hillerich said. Advertisement In the meantime, other retailers have swooped in to capitalize off baseball's newest craze. Torpedo bats are available for sale from outlets that include Marucci Sports, RPG Authentic Bats, and Victus. How much is a torpedo bat? They're not cheap. Torpedo bats listed in the online retailers IndyStar reviewed run in price from $169 to $225. More about torpedo bats: Louisville Slugger shows how the torpedo bat came to be When do the New York Yankees play next? The Yankees (and presumably their torpedo bats) will face the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. Eastern at Yankee Stadium. You can stream the game at Fubo. Watch the New York Yankees get four homers in a row Watch Yankees vs. Diamondbacks on Fubo Advertisement Louisville Courier-Journal enterprise reporter Stephanie Kuzydym contributed to this article John Tufts covers trending news for IndyStar and Midwest Connect. Send him a news tip at JTufts@ Find him on BlueSky at JohnWritesStuff. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What are torpedo bats? Are they banned in MLB? Marucci, Victus sell them
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bombs away: Viral coverage stirs debate on New York Yankees' ‘torpedo bats'
A few days ago, no one on the planet had heard of torpedo bats. Well, except for some well-connected baseball insiders who obsessively follow such things. But don't worry, this isn't an inside-baseball story. It's a grand-slam example of the collision between a sports league and the media business – which already have a symbiotic relationship due to zillion-dollar contracts – in which constant coverage leads to cheers and jeers. So the New York Yankees – who most of the country hates anyway, but not me, as someone who grew up in the boroughs – have developed this new bat. Trump, Eyeing 3Rd Term, Keeps Attacking Elite Institutions – And Many Are Caving And it has sparked a fierce debate, which is good for a slow-moving game that can no longer claim the mantle of America's pastime. Read On The Fox News App The Yanks hired an MIT physicist, who has also done work for NASA, Aaron Leanhardt, to work his magic. And thanks to the ex-announcer, balls have been flying out of the Bronx stadium and on the road. On Saturday, against the Milwaukee Brewers, the New Yorkers hit three straight homers on the first three pitches of the game. Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Adam Judge went boom, boom, boom. First time it's happened since MLB began keeping such records in 1988. (Judge doesn't use the new bat.) Even more insane, the Yanks finished that game with nine round-trippers. And added four more home runs on Sunday. What Leanhardt accomplished was to move the fattest part of the bat toward the middle, closer to the batter's hands, where he makes contact. That yielded a torpedo shape. 'I Don't Find That Plausible': Robby Soave Claims Leaked Texts Were Classified A couple of quick thoughts before we move on to the coverage. Teams have been trying to improve their bats since Abner Doubleday invented the game. MLB has strict rules about the overall dimensions. The torpedo bats are not illegal. This is not some kind of steroid trickery, or even "sticky stuff," which was banned for pitchers a few seasons back. Anthony Volpe, who homered for the second straight game Saturday, told the AP: "The concept makes so much sense. I know I'm bought in. The bigger you can have the barrel where you hit the ball, it makes sense to me." Nbc: "The talk of baseball has been new, torpedo-shaped bats used by several members of the New York Yankees." How Donald Trump Dominates The News, Both Positively And Negatively Turns out the Yanks don't have a monopoly. Cnn: "Twins' catcher Ryan Jeffers and the Rays' Junior Caminaro and Yandy Diaz were also spotted using 'torpedo' bats in Spring Training and over opening weekend. Players from around the league also started testing them out last season." MLB has its own website. Leanhardt, now with the Miami Marlins, is quoted in a "Meet the Man" profile as saying: "It's definitely been surreal for the last couple days. At the end of the day, it's about the batter, not the bat. It's about the hitters and their hitting coaches, not the hitting implements." But here comes Deadspin, charging onto the field: "Let's be honest—these bats aren't great for the game. They're giving one team an extreme advantage. Sure, the bats are technically legal, but other teams would have to develop their own designs, send orders to a manufacturer, and wait for them to be created and shipped before they could even use them in batting practice or games." The website is playing hardball: "In an absolute nightmare scenario, these torpedo bats could spiral out of control, making it difficult for the league to regulate equipment standards. This could lead to inconsistencies in enforcement and further disputes over what's legal and what's banned… The league needs to lay down the law with the Yankees on these loaded bats." Espn: "Could be the most consequential development in bat technology since a generation ago when players forsook ash bats for maple." Fox News: "Everybody's freaking out, and I think they're really freaking out because it's the Yankees…It's been a massive home run," said Colin Cowherd. Subscribe To Howie's Media Buzzmeter Podcast, A Riff On The Day's Hottest Stories Sports Illustrated: "Chances are the Yankees are hitting home runs not because of a bat, but because they are the superior team to who they are facing in the first series of the season." When was the last time anyone argued passionately about baseball? The Dodgers clobbered the Yankees in the last World Series. ESPN recently dropped its contract with Major League Baseball as it was drawing diminishing coverage on the sports network (and offering less money). But a few days into the season, the Bronx Bombers are once again living up to their article source: Bombs away: Viral coverage stirs debate on New York Yankees' 'torpedo bats'
Fox News
02-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Bombs away: Viral coverage stirs debate on New York Yankees' ‘torpedo bats'
A few days ago, no one on the planet had heard of torpedo bats. Well, except for some well-connected baseball insiders who obsessively follow such things. But don't worry, this isn't an inside-baseball story. It's a grand-slam example of the collision between a sports league and the media business – which already have a symbiotic relationship due to zillion-dollar contracts – in which constant coverage leads to cheers and jeers. So the New York Yankees – who most of the country hates anyway, but not me, as someone who grew up in the boroughs – have developed this new bat. And it has sparked a fierce debate, which is good for a slow-moving game that can no longer claim the mantle of America's pastime. The Yanks hired an MIT physicist, who has also done work for NASA, Aaron Leanhardt, to work his magic. And thanks to the ex-announcer, balls have been flying out of the Bronx stadium and on the road. On Saturday, against the Milwaukee Brewers, the New Yorkers hit three straight homers on the first three pitches of the game. Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Adam Judge went boom, boom, boom. First time it's happened since MLB began keeping such records in 1988. (Judge doesn't use the new bat.) Even more insane, the Yanks finished that game with nine round-trippers. And added four more home runs on Sunday. What Leanhardt accomplished was to move the fattest part of the bat toward the middle, closer to the batter's hands, where he makes contact. That yielded a torpedo shape. A couple of quick thoughts before we move on to the coverage. Teams have been trying to improve their bats since Abner Doubleday invented the game. MLB has strict rules about the overall dimensions. The torpedo bats are not illegal. This is not some kind of steroid trickery, or even "sticky stuff," which was banned for pitchers a few seasons back. Anthony Volpe, who homered for the second straight game Saturday, told the AP: "The concept makes so much sense. I know I'm bought in. The bigger you can have the barrel where you hit the ball, it makes sense to me." NBC: "The talk of baseball has been new, torpedo-shaped bats used by several members of the New York Yankees." Turns out the Yanks don't have a monopoly. CNN: "Twins' catcher Ryan Jeffers and the Rays' Junior Caminaro and Yandy Diaz were also spotted using 'torpedo' bats in Spring Training and over opening weekend. Players from around the league also started testing them out last season." MLB has its own website. Leanhardt, now with the Miami Marlins, is quoted in a "Meet the Man" profile as saying: "It's definitely been surreal for the last couple days. At the end of the day, it's about the batter, not the bat. It's about the hitters and their hitting coaches, not the hitting implements." But here comes Deadspin, charging onto the field: "Let's be honest—these bats aren't great for the game. They're giving one team an extreme advantage. Sure, the bats are technically legal, but other teams would have to develop their own designs, send orders to a manufacturer, and wait for them to be created and shipped before they could even use them in batting practice or games." The website is playing hardball: "In an absolute nightmare scenario, these torpedo bats could spiral out of control, making it difficult for the league to regulate equipment standards. This could lead to inconsistencies in enforcement and further disputes over what's legal and what's banned… The league needs to lay down the law with the Yankees on these loaded bats." ESPN: "Could be the most consequential development in bat technology since a generation ago when players forsook ash bats for maple." Fox News: "Everybody's freaking out, and I think they're really freaking out because it's the Yankees…It's been a massive home run," said Colin Cowherd. Sports Illustrated: "Chances are the Yankees are hitting home runs not because of a bat, but because they are the superior team to who they are facing in the first series of the season." When was the last time anyone argued passionately about baseball? The Dodgers clobbered the Yankees in the last World Series. ESPN recently dropped its contract with Major League Baseball as it was drawing diminishing coverage on the sports network (and offering less money). But a few days into the season, the Bronx Bombers are once again living up to their name.
