So, about the Torpedo bats

[Brock Beauchamp]

Here is a good piece on Twins Daily about them.

Bombs Away: Torpedo Bats are Taking Over Major League Baseball - Twins - Twins Daily

TWINSDAILY.COM

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Coming out of left field, torpedo bats are all the rage right now. The bowling pin-shaped bat is a shift from tradition, and is being credited with producing more power. Is the hype real? Who on...

 

[Hugh2]

A new investigative report has uncovered that the wood the Yankees added to the sweet spot of their bats was taken from the Boston Red Sox bats. 

[mvp 78]

Nice article. I read that some people in the know believe that if the power trend continues with the bat that it will be made illegal. 

FWIW, Bregman just got a torpedo bat. 

FWIW2, the Brewers pitching is atrocious and the Yankees numbers may reflect that more than the bats. 

[Hugh2]

Ok real opinion.  I'd be interested to see what an actual in depth study shows about these bats.  I'm sure we will start to see a lot more data trickle in as they're under a microscope now. 

I wonder if the bats are as game changing as they suggest now.  If they are adding wood to the sweet spot they are taking away from others.  

There could be disadvantages here.  The whole balance of a players swing will change, and some players are much more reliant upon muscle memory than others.  But I'd image it would be harder to protect the zone and make contact at the end of the barrel to stay alive.

If the bats truly do add a huge advantage, then I'm a little disappointed the rules committee approved them without extensively studying them and distributing that information league wide.  Perhaps they should have tested them for a year in the minors in one of their leagues and compiled the data.  But in the end it will not matter, because if they truly are that revolutionary everyone will be using them soon. 

[Hugh2]

add:  That or mlb will ban them. 

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

add:  That or mlb will ban them. 

Yes, MLB have overcorrected before and they will again! 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

A torpedo is an underwater missile, so it very well could help Sox' batters hit those curveballs and splitters in the dirt they keep chasing.

[Hugh2]

They take wood from the end of the barrel and use it to fatten up the sweet spot.  So hitters are going to make better, harder, louder and hitting it further contact whenever they square up a ball. 

But doesn't this also reduce their capacity to protect the edge of the plate? if a guy wants to reach out and get a fastball outside and try to foul it off on a 2-2 3-2 count.

I'm not saying the good might not far outweight the bad but there may be a downside to torpedo bats that we are not seeing yet. 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

They probably wouldn't help devers much because you have to actually make contact for them to make a difference.

in 1995, Tony Gwynn had 15 strikeouts in 585 at-bats,

In 2025, devers has 15 strikeouts in 19 at-bats.

[Bellhorn04]

Yanks struck out 14 times last night, including a Golden Sombrero for Jazz! 

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[Hitch]

If something was happening with the bats, i would welcome it. We could do with more offence in the game. the pitchers and spin rates are winning at the moment! Though I suspect like above - they'll just get banned. 

[Bellhorn04]

How can you really justify banning them, if all they did was move some weight around?

[Jasonbay44]

FWIW - Aaron Judge is the best hitter in the league and has never used the bats.

- Giancarlo Stanton used the bats last season and a lot of people think it is the reason for his severe elbow injuries that may cost him not only this season, but his career.

- players like Davis Schneider use them and it doesn’t seem to be helping them.

If the bat truly does give an unfair advantage, the entire league will starting using them. Right now the sample size is to small but it currently doesn’t worry me because it will either get banned or every team will adjust and use them also. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

How can you really justify banning them, if all they did was move some weight around?

That's what the Stooges said at the cocktail party, before they started chucking pies.

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

How can you really justify banning them, if all they did was move some weight around?

Same way you ban anything.  

Would you let one team raise the mound when the others do not? no you wouldn't.  Of course other teams could raise the mound as well.  But that could throw off a pitchers mechanics and teams probably want pitchers to get used to that in the offseason and spring training.  

If an aspect of the game, whether it be the mound, or the bat etc etc etc. can add a significant advantage it needs to be implemented universally across the game.  Yes, other teams might of had access to these bats as well but it is up to MLB to inspect and approve of them and in hindsight perhaps they should of introduced them at the milb level for a few years collected data and then shared it with teams before just allowing it. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

16 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Same way you ban anything.  

Would you let one team raise the mound when the others do not? no you wouldn't.  Of course other teams could raise the mound as well.  But that could throw off a pitchers mechanics and teams probably want pitchers to get used to that in the offseason and spring training.  

If an aspect of the game, whether it be the mound, or the bat etc etc etc. can add a significant advantage it needs to be implemented universally across the game.  Yes, other teams might of had access to these bats as well but it is up to MLB to inspect and approve of them and in hindsight perhaps they should of introduced them at the milb level for a few years collected data and then shared it with teams before just allowing it. 

Hey, this is like the biggest scandal in the history of something that's always been an accepted part of the game: sign stealing!

Some sharp reporter should write a book about it, and then Manfred should suspend only R&D and management types who created and introduced such innovations, and didn't try to stop the players from using them.

Oh, wait... they can't; it's the Yankees.

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yanks struck out 14 times last night, including a Golden Sombrero for Jazz! 

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That's great.

The Yanks are still 3-1 and Jazz is hitting .313 with an OPS of 1.264 and 3 dingers!

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

1 hour ago, Hitch said:

If something was happening with the bats, i would welcome it. We could do with more offence in the game. the pitchers and spin rates are winning at the moment! Though I suspect like above - they'll just get banned. 

Doubtful that they get banned as they were already approved.

[Jasonbay44]

17 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

That's great.

The Yanks are still 3-1 and Jazz is hitting .313 with an OPS of 1.264 and 3 dingers!

It’s also been like 3-5 games. Cedric Mullins is hitting .350 with 1100 OPS and he doesn’t use the bats. 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

4 minutes ago, Jasonbay44 said:

It’s also been like 3-5 games. Cedric Mullins is hitting .350 with 1100 OPS and he doesn’t use the bats. 

Absolutely, very small sample size. I was merely responding to bellhorn.

Jazz and mullins will both probably come back to near their career norms. Although Jazz may see a slight uptick from being in a much better lineup then he ever really had in miami.

[mvp 78]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

How can you really justify banning them, if all they did was move some weight around?

MLB has justified a whole bunch of dumb stuff. 

[Jasonbay44]

40 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Absolutely, very small sample size. I was merely responding to bellhorn.

Jazz and mullins will both probably come back to near their career norms. Although Jazz may see a slight uptick from being in a much better lineup then he ever really had in miami.

Jazz is also super talented and in his prime. A breakout, especially as a LHH in Yankee stadium wouldn’t be surprising. Wouldn’t be the first time the marlins gave away a future star before they hit their peak. Cabrera, Yelich, Realmuto, Ozuna, etc. 

[Bellhorn04]

16 Ks for the Yanks last night.  30 in the last 2 games.  

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

16 Ks for the Yanks last night.  30 in the last 2 games.  

Like they're swinging underwater. Torpedoes.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

16 Ks for the Yanks last night.  30 in the last 2 games.  

Volpe is 4-20, 4 HR in 5 G. I hope he hits 100 HR this year, but only has 100 H. 

[notin]

On 4/2/2025 at 7:33 AM, mvp 78 said:

Nice article. I read that some people in the know believe that if the power trend continues with the bat that it will be made illegal. 

FWIW, Bregman just got a torpedo bat. 

FWIW2, the Brewers pitching is atrocious and the Yankees numbers may reflect that more than the bats. 

These bats have been around for a few years but no one ever really made much of it until the Yankees brutalized Milwaukee pitching for 3 games.

I was watching some random game this weekend and the commentators were talking about them, and one guy said “every hitter has a different sweet spot.”  This is pure nonsense.

The sweet spot on a bat is the center of mass of the bat, and it doesn’t move around based on the hitter.  If a batter hits the ball at the center of mass, then the kinetic energy transferred to the ball is at a maximum.  The entire point of the torpedo bat is to move the center of mass further away from the hitter, if only slightly while staying within the rules. In this respect, it attempts to inch closer to being a fungo bat while still being usable in games.  The fungo is the epitome of what happens when you move the center of mass furthest from the hitter - lots of flyballs by design.

Moving the center of mass is why torpedo bats are smarter and corking bats (which does the opposite) is stupider…

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 4/2/2025 at 7:33 AM, mvp 78 said:

FWIW2, the Brewers pitching is atrocious and the Yankees numbers may reflect that more than the bats. 

I don't think the Brewers pitching is atrocious but it certainly was in that single series.

Which is why we don't put too much emphasis on a single series, particularly early in the season.

[mvp 78]

17 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I don't think the Brewers pitching is atrocious but it certainly was in that single series.

Which is why we don't put too much emphasis on a single series, particularly early in the season.

They were 20th in the league last year and dumped Devin Williams. They are not a good pitching team. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They were 20th in the league last year and dumped Devin Williams. They are not a good pitching team. 

The Brewers are probably the most underrated team in baseball. I think they've kinda broken FIP. Their rotation is not the most impressive but it gets the job done and their bullpen is going to be good, just as it always is. They have some arms in the high minors that will likely end up being late-inning MLB guys pretty soon.

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

The Brewers are probably the most underrated team in baseball. I think they've kinda broken FIP. Their rotation is not the most impressive but it gets the job done and their bullpen is going to be good, just as it always is. They have some arms in the high minors that will likely end up being late-inning MLB guys pretty soon.

I hope they aren't relying on Nestor for too much is all I'm saying.