The Torpedo Bats are the biggest news from the first weekend of baseball. The Yankees tied an MLB record crushing 15 home runs in the first three games. The bat was developed by some MIT genius who is now on the Marlins staff. The Yankees analytics guys saw that shortstop Anthony Volpe was hitting more balls on the label instead of the barrel so they decided to make that part bigger, via Bryan Hoch at MLB.com:

“The bats drew attention after being mentioned by announcer Michael Kay on Saturday’s YES Network broadcast. Kay said the Yankees’ analytics department performed a study on Volpe indicating he frequently hits balls on the label of his bat, rather than on the barrel.

To address this, Volpe ordered his Victus bats with more wood in the area where he is likely to hit the ball, with a skinnier top at the end. Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells are among the Yankees swinging “Torpedo” bats, which also saw use in Spring Training and during last season.

The innovation is attributed to Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees analyst who was hired as the Marlins’ field coordinator this past winter.”

The bats are legal because of Rule 3.02, which states that bats cannot be more than 2.61 inches in diameter and 42 inches in length. Aaron Judge has four of those Yankees home runs, but he’s not using the torpedo bat… yet.

I want to know two things. Did the Phillies know about this advancement in bat technology, and how did no one ever do this before? Lets address the second question first. Every kid who has ever played whiffle ball growing up knows you get newspaper and stuff the barrel of the bat so you can smoke that thing a country mile. Now to the first question: Who on the Phillies was asleep at the wheel? Did they not know about the secret Torpedo Bat technology being developed 30 minutes away in King of Prussia? It’s Victus! The best bat makers in the entire world! Their clients are Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott. How did nobody get a whiff of this advancement in technology? This is like the Germans letting the Americans beat them to the atom bomb with their own countrymen! It’s not like the Yankees were hiding it. They were using the bats during Spring Training and some even used them last year! Sure, the Phillies scored 19 runs in the first series, but imagine how much they would’ve scored if some guys were using Torpedo Bats?

The Braves already put in an order:

We are officially in an arms race. This is a Sputnik moment for MLB. I want Johan Rojas swinging a Torpedo Bat tomorrow. Lets get that slugging percentage through the roof!


Good news is we’re about to get ready to learn Torpedo Bat, Philly:

Could you imagine how many homers I would’ve hit if we could’ve used the Torpedo Bat during this?