Yankees' Torpedo Bats Drive Nine Home Runs in Yesterday's Game

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00:00The Yanks built nine home runs yesterday and everybody's talking about a certain batting utensil, Tom. Fill us in here.

00:07Yeah, so the Yankees, obviously, they're known for their power. It was a beautiful day. Like you said yesterday, there was wind blowing out.

00:14It is a hitter-friendly park, but the Yanks are using new, unique, whatever you want to call them, bats that they are dubbing the torpedo bats,

00:22which are a slightly different shape where the meat of the bat is actually centered around the barrel.

00:28So it's not like a uniform shape that goes to the end. It's a little fatter in the middle and then thins out towards the end.

00:35And this was designed in part by someone they have on staff. His nickname is Lenny, one of their analytics people that is a former MIT professor.

00:44He was also a professor at Michigan who helped design these that the majority of the contact of the ball is at the barrel.

00:51So therefore, wouldn't you want the densest part of the bat in that spot?

00:55And granted, it's a one game sample size where they score 20 runs and nine home runs.

00:59So I think that leaps off the page. But we were talking during the break that this is within the confines of the rules.

01:05The MLB came out with the same yesterday that is within the confines of the rules. The bat can't be longer than X.

01:09It can't be wider than a certain part at its fattest part. And it is within these rules.

01:15So I think that the nine home runs and the 20 runs and the bat, it jumps off the page at you.

01:22But anyone can do this. And that's what it really comes down to. And I always like to take things on the opposite side.

01:27Like, what if the Yankees were using a super thin bat and they were hitting all these home runs?

01:32Would everyone be complaining because they're still within the rules at that point?

01:35Yeah, growing up as a kid, like you see the wiffle ball bat, right? You have the yellow skinny one.

01:40And then you have the red bat with the giant barrel. So different things for what different people like to see.

01:44But basically, baseball, we've always been pressing the lever down, whether it's throwing a spitball,

01:49whether it's quirking about like Sammy Sosa hitting a ton of home runs, his bat breaks.

01:53Oh, no. Look what he's doing here. The steroid arrow, the juice ball arrows.

01:56We talk about the humidor error. And now we actually have a team that and we're asking the question mainly, is it legal?

02:02But based upon the rules that have set forth by Major League Baseball, you are pressing the boundaries.

02:07But it is completely legal. It's almost akin to like the Dodgers.

02:10Wait, you're circumventing the payroll. The Dodgers go, I look at the letter of the law.

02:14We're not doing anything wrong at this point. And they're not.

02:17How do you think Major League Baseball is going to look at this? Because let's just say we are reactionary.

02:21Over the next week, the Yankees hit an average of over three and a half home runs per game.

02:26Does the rest of Major League Baseball figure out this formula, contact their bat suppliers and get it changed?

02:31Or does Major League Baseball come out with maybe a statement this week saying Yanks aren't doing anything wrong?

02:35It's not banging on a trash can. It's not buzzers on your shoulder to let you know a fastball is coming.

02:40It's completely legal.

02:42I think it's completely legal. And frankly, this reminds me of like a Belichick type situation where he found something in the rules.

02:49He's going to push up to that to that limit. And it's not illegal.

02:53It's within the confines. But like people aren't used to this being something that teams do.

02:59And is this the new norm? Like you said, like this could be the new norm.

03:02Like we moved away from, you know, the shifts and spitballs and the three outcomes for baseball.

03:08But like if this is going to be the new norm, teams are going to find ways to do things.

03:13And whether it's stealing bases with the bases being bigger, whether it's the pitch clock and you're trying to time things differently,

03:18teams are going to do everything that they possibly can to win an extra game here or there,

03:22which puts them ahead in the standings, which gets them a whole field advantage, which has them score one extra run.

03:26How many times have teams lost games, won nothing or 2-1?

03:29And if you have that extra run, all of a sudden you're tied going in extras and then extra innings.

03:33And at least the regular season, it's a coin flip with that runner starting on second.

03:37So I'm fine with it. The MLB says it's okay. I hope every team adopts it.

03:41And we continue to push things as far as possible to give us the best possible outcomes.

03:45I love it. I don't think anybody's ever come up and said, you know what?

03:48Sometimes the Major League Baseball in the playoffs, ooh, that was a really good 2-1 game.

03:52We don't need 2-1 games in March and April. We want points on the board, which means runs on the board.

03:56This could be it. Is this the MLB push push?

03:59I'm thinking about this. This is the MLB push push.

04:04Every team has the possibility to do the push push.

04:07Everyone can make the bats. Everyone can do the push push.

04:10This is the MLB push push. Get on board, figure out how to be better, and get out there and do it.

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