Explaining the science behind the 'torpedo bat' used by some Yankees

Athletes are always searching for something to give them even the slightest edge on the field.

Enter the so-called “torpedo bat.”

The new, odd-looking bat that has taken the baseball world by storm isn’t likely to lead to the kind of offensive production the Yankees featured in their season-opening three-game sweep of Milwaukee (36 runs, 15 home runs, a .333 batting average and a 1.231 OPS).

But it should help a bit, say experts in the fields of sports science and engineering. And every little bit helps.

“I don't think this is going to revolutionize the game in the same way that we saw with the Yankees over the weekend,” professor Lloyd Smith of Washington State University’s Sports Science Laboratory told Newsday on Tuesday in a telephone interview. “I do believe that this is going to be a small advantage to many players.”

Alexander Deyhim, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse, told Newsday: “I think for the elite people in the sport it could have, I would say, a 2-3% impact . . . My first impression is that with all these latest things happening in engineering, with AI, with simulations, you could have major improvement [in equipment].

“Some of these have already been taking place in golf. I do road biking. Bicycles are lighter, faster, etc. So there's already this process that started 20, 30 years ago. In that sense, I'm not surprised. I was very impressed and intrigued [by the bats], but I think we're going to see more and more of that.”

In case you’ve been stuck under a large pile of wood over the last few days, the torpedo bats came to light on Saturday when YES Network broadcaster Michael Kay mentioned them during a game in which the Yankees hit a franchise-record nine home runs.

Five Yankees (Anthony Volpe, Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells) are using the torpedo bats. Players around the league are trying to get their hands on the new lumber.

The bats are different than normal ones that have been in use for decades in that there is greater mass of wood closer to the batter’s hands. Each batter using the new product has a custom torpedo bat; where the greater mass of wood is placed depends on an analysis of where on the bat the batter hits the ball most often.

So, the idea goes, the “sweet spot” for a particular batter is enhanced.

The bats are called torpedo bats because they resemble a torpedo. Some have suggested they look more like a bowling pin, but “bowling pin bat” doesn’t sound as sexy.

“It does look an awful lot like a bowling pin,” Smith said. “Certainly, it's an exciting time for bat design. I've just said forever, wood is wood. There's just nothing new there . . . So to actually see something happen in the wood bat world that is still a fairly small change, but something that’s real, is really exciting.”

Why does the torpedo bat help?

“From what I can tell,” Smith said, “and we don't know a lot, for me, one of the most important data points is what we're seeing with bat speed . . . Higher swing speed is a subtle benefit. The benefit in this higher swing speed is just being able to control the bat better, and that's really going to equate to a higher batting average. You're going to be more likely to put the bat where you want it, to get good contact with the ball with these torpedo bats that appear to have a lower swing weight than you would with a traditional bat.”

And now nearly everyone wants to get their hands on one if it can lead to a slight edge.

“Really, in a way, science and sports, they're not separate worlds,” Deyhim said. “Basically, engineering is behind all the gear that can make smarter equipment, smarter parts, and help athletes to perform better. It could be an airplane wing. It could be a baseball bat. It could be a golf club that they can simulate, that they can look at the vibration, they can change the material, they can change the temperature, and they can see how it impacts performance. That's basically what they did.”

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.