MLB: Yankees' new ''Torpedo Bats'' legal and likely coming to a dugout near you

Summary

You score 20 runs, hit 9 bombs, and people start asking questions. That’s exactly what happened to the Yankees on Saturday after they revealed the “torpedo bat” during their demolition of the Milwaukee Brewers. Yankees have an MIT Physicist that built them the Torpedo Bat… Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr. used it. Both went deep. The bat is thicker in the area where they make the most contact, basically moving the “sweet spot” lower than the typical barrel. Think more mass where it matters. Less guessing, more barreled-up baseballs.I’m not sure if I like where this is going.Remember when kids started coming to the local baseball field with those big-barreled whiffle ball bats instead of your classic yellow ones?I’m not sure making a custom bat with an MIT physicist is the solution to turn Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr. into competent hitters at the plate. Unfortunately, the MLB reviewed the torpedo bats after the game and somehow had zero issues with them? How’s that possible? Welcome to the age of the torpedo bat. MLB Rule is Cut and Dry: One piece of solid wood, no more than 2.61 inches at the thickest point, max 42 inches long. That’s it. As long as it fits in that box, it’s fair game. The Yankees are just playing smart.We should probably ban the Yankees’ Torpedo Bat, right? The Yankees have apparently been working with Aaron Leanhardt (aka “Lenny”), a former MIT physicist turned baseball brain, who helped re-engineer the traditional wooden bat to better match where individual hitters make the most consistent contact.According to former Yankees minor leaguer Kevin Smith, the physics checks out. You might lose a tick or two of exit velocity, but the improved “barrel percentage” makes up for it. In other words, more solid contact in the spot that matters most.The result? A bat that looks like it was forged in a lab—and kind of was. Instead of the typical bat tapering evenly toward the end, the “torpedo” design fattens up closer to the handle, where players ...