Did Yankees’ physicist-designed ‘torpedo’ bats play role in 9-HR power surge vs. Brewers?

Again, it’s unclear when these bats, reportedly described in-house as a “torpedo” barrel, were implemented as Smith left the Yankees organization last October. Still, he provided a detailed explanation of what it’s like to use the bats:

MLB has rules on bats, like what the weight drop can be, what the density of the wood can be and how big the barrel can be. Most guys are using bats that aren’t even close to maxing out the barrel size. When Lenny measured my barrel compared to what’s “allowed” I was shocked.

“You’re going up with a weapon that can be better.” Lenny would say. “Your just misses could be clips, your clips could be flares, and your flares could barrels.” And it was true, it’s fractions of an inch on the barrel differentiating these outcomes.

They also feel a little lighter, there’s more weight closer to your hands so you can swing a heavier bat. It kind of feels like those old Wiffle ball bats you used as a kid, the barrel feels MASSIVE the first time you pick it up. But it’s really not THAT big …

It looks really big because the cup of the bat is smaller. Taking some of the wood away from the end (where you don’t really want to hit it anyways) and putting more in the barrel (where you want to hit it more) makes it look even bigger.

It makes sense to everyone who plays, the hard part is getting over how weird it looks in your hands. Looking down at it in the box made me laugh almost every time and most catchers noticed it. Players love feel, and it throws off all your feels initially.

Obviously, it’s not going to make you an elite hitter if you aren’t already (I tried). But for the best in the world, any slight advantage could be the difference. It’s cool to see more people using them, Lenny was always amazed it wasn’t already a thing.

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As Smith said, it should be emphasized that these bats are likely a minor upgrade at best. Hitting a home run still requires squaring up a ball — which remains the hard part — this might just be a way for players to add a little force when they do so. Still, baseball is the sport where little advantages add up more than any other, so you would imagine the rest of the league is already looking into this with great interest.