You know the deal so far: New York Yankis hit a Bajilian home run on the opening weekend, which included “Torpedo” bats swinging in many slogals, which have been crafted more like bowling pin than traditionally shaped rods, which we have seen for decades. As a result, the baseball industry and ahead of it a surprisingly broad viewers have greatly interested in the origin of this bat innovation and how it can affect the game when it moves forward.
In the following days after the Dinger Barrage in New York, we have gained some clarity on the development of these new bats in the last few years and how many other teams were experimenting with them behind the curtain, but still had to shop from the players, the way Yenky opened in 2025. Draw attention to him without anyone. This recent event was hidden in plain vision in the hands of one of the most prominent slugals of baseball, which combines the strange nature of this saga.
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As the Torpedo bats have spread beyond the bronx, the initial reviews have been mixed. Some big legers are already admiring the effects of the bat, while others have dug the mid-game. With the production of such bats through many manufacturers across the country, we have also seen Many high-profile content creators test bats for themselvesThey offer an incomplete complicated experiment to an incomplete compared to different circumstances, in which the torpedo bats have been deployed at the major League level.
With only two weeks of games in the bank, we do not have almost enough data that they are really scattered in the league with the use of bats, especially how they are helping bats to reach any conclusion. But based on our initial understanding of the intentions behind the design and Torpedo bats physicsThere are some numbers worth monitoring as the display sample increases from new sticks swinging players.
In other words, if the torpedo bats are designed to help some hits to elevate their aggressive game, then what measures should we pay attention to what is happening to assess what is happening? Despite what happened on that record-breaking on Saturday afternoon in Bronx, it should not be only about domestic runs. Instead, there are three metrics here to keep an eye on that we can help us better understand the effectiveness of these bats with a large sample of data.
Batsman’s speed
One of the benefits of moving the barrel closer to the hands and finally losing weight is that the bat theoretically becomes easy to swing, in turn increases the speed on which a hitter can swing it. While MLB’s sometimes developed statecast equipment published detailed bat-ball data dating in 2015, Bat tracking is recently for space, be also there, rolled out about a year agoIt is very convenient that this data was introduced when it was, because now we have a point how fast the hitter bat was swinging in 2024. Take a look that the players have performed the biggest year-on-year improvement in the average bat speed, and is definitely enough, you will find many torpedo-swinging yenki. Near the topAll with Anthony Wolpe, Kodi Beldinger and Austin Wales increased their average bat speed by 1.4–2 mph.
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The main warning when tracking these possible benefits is that there are ways for players to increase the pace of their bat beyond the bat. A prominent example of this season can be found in the same yankis lineup – and not from the player swinging separate wood. Ben Rice showed some promising signs as a fraud last year and this spring has emerged as an alternative in the hitter designated with Stanton on the shelf of New York. In 2024, the average bat speed of Rice was 71.4 mph; So far in 2025, after an offsen in which he Especially more muscle addedThis number is up to 74.6 mph. Their strength and patience is increased by increasing the speed of swing, making it contact. Certainly, the surface-level statistics of the rice (1.115 OPS) and the underlying matrix (97th percentage Xwoba) are looking powerful through two weeks of sports.
Perhaps most importantly, we can keep stock in this metric without a huge sample of data, as these are clear changes in a player’s physical abilities. It is not a month, if not the year, in Volpe’s slugging. 600 to conclude that it is a caliber of power hitter, but the fact that he has shown it. Be able to do Swinging the bat more rapidly is an indisputable, tangible change. Does it lead to better results in a long race, it remains to be seen, but his high roof performance in bat speed is more admirable that an optic can be achieved in sluggings if his bat speed is still ranked in 17th percentage.
This is too early to ensure, but some of the hitter -horses using torpedo bats are showing initial benefits in the major aggressive matrix.
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)
Hard rate
Hits do not require the speed of elite bat for success, but may result in high exhaust velocity as a result of profit in bat speed, and barely hitting the ball to translate into more hits. The statecast defines a hard-hit ball as a hit with a exhaust velocity of at least 95 mph. In 2024, a .490 batting average league was a .490 batting average league-wide on balls with a exhaust velocity of 95+ mph; The balls below that limit were just one .218 average.
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By reducing the barrel and changing the “sweet spot”, the torpedo bats aim to help the hits make quality contact more often, and the percentage of balls to play hard-hit rate, or 95+ mph, or the percentage of balls to play at a speed of 95+ mph, how the hitter contacts are constantly making staller contacts on their entire sample. If the torpedo bats player performs a remarkable increase in the hard-hit rate-the way Volpe has performed so far, going up to 48% in 2024 to 48% in 2025-it would be another sign that another indication would be that the benefits of swinging a new bat are translating from reality.
Again, it is less about seeing how many houses have run with these new bats in a small sample and it is more about checking what a player has changed to give a higher chance of success on a large sample of data.
Barrel rate
Similar to the hard-hit rate, the barrel rate especially focuses on a player’s ability to influence the ball with the optimal combination of exit velocity and launch angle, resulting in not the highest possibility Just high batting average but also high slugging. It is quiet and good to hit the ball barely, but if a player is often breaking the ball into the ground, the advantage of the bat speed and exit speed is not very helpful. Surely, a ball that gives a tough competition on the ground may have a better chance to be a hit than a soft chopper, but it has an infinite shorter chance to run a house compared to a well -penetrated ball that is put in the air.
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If a hitter is capable of marrying with high quality contacts with the ball in the air, this happens when good things occur. Between Torpedo-Swinging Yankis, this is the place where Jazz Chisholm is junior Especially shinesWhile the speed of his bat has been displayed for the last two years, it is not different from that, he is raising the ball with a lot of frequency in this spring, perhaps as a result of the increased ability to reach his newly converted sweet space. In the case of Jazz, it may be less about the lack of bat speed and can be better about adjusting its bat so that it can reach its raw power.
As Volpe’s hard-hit rate benefits, it’s too early to determine whether Chisholam’s utterances will maintain-we are talking about more than a few dozen batting balls, a part of their 400-plus batting balls average sample that is not for some time during a season, but for some time, for some time. Adopting torpedo bats and wonder how many other players can benefit from making switch.