Former Yankees Hitting Coach Provides Perspective on "Torpedo" Bats

Just days ago most conversations surrounding the New York Yankees involved their ability to overcome the various injuries they suffered this spring.

Then the Yankees scored 32 runs over the second and third games of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers. Now, the primary discussion in baseball is about the "torpedo" bats several New York players are using.

The general concept of the bat is to shift the sweet spot of the barrel closer to the player's hands, which is a value add for hitters that make contact closer to their hands. This bat was designed by former physics professor Aaron Leanhardt, who has a PH.D. in physics from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Leanhardt's innovation has supporters and detractors from all sorts of different directions.

Barstool Sports creator Dave Portnoy got into a verbal scrap with Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the X platform over New York's usage of Leanhardt's new bats. Portnoy is a Boston Red Sox fan, which could explain why he has such an extreme stance on anything related to New York.

Brewers pitcher Trevor Megill gave a scathing review of the new bat design, adding "It's the Yankees, so they'll let it slide." Megill is a MLB pitcher, so his perspective is valuable, but it might be a bit skewed in this case after his team got swept in the opening series of the season by a combined score of 36-12 over three contests.

Love the Bronx Bombers or hate them, they are one of, if not the most polarizing team in the sport. If a small market team introduced this new bat design while having the extreme success New York has enjoyed early this season, perhaps this discussion would have a different tone. Since it's the Yankees, things are getting colorful, fast.

That said, not everyone views "torpedo" bats as a game-breaking problem. Sean Casey is a former three-time All-Star with a career .302 batting average. He's also served as a hitting coach for New York in the past. You could say he's an expert on hitting at the Big League level, and he views "torpedo" bats as just one of many legal bat variations that exist.

During his podcast, "The Mayor's Office with Sean Casey", the 12-year Big League veteran pulled a variety of bats from his collection, including some that he used himself, showing that barrels have different designs, handles with different thicknesses and that MLB bats can be made from a variety of different types of wood. Casey also suggested that it's the player, not the bat that makes the difference.

Casey, as a former hitting coach, has direct experience with how the Yankee organization operates, stating "He's seen the machine." New York is trying to win on the margins, meaning they are always trying to find competitive advantages that can give them an edge against their opponents.

Casey also explained that in his generation, when Ken Griffey Jr.'s switched to a smaller bat size, that led to other players trying the same thing. That's already starting to happen as several teams are ordering these new bats.

Individual players around the league are using them as well, including New York Mets star Francisco Lindor and Baltimore Orioles catcher Andy Rutschman.

At the end of the day professional sports franchises are massive businesses with the resources to chase new competitive advantages. The Yankees have more resources than most in baseball, but any team could have come up with a new legal bat design as New York did. Finding new edges is far from a new concept in professional sports, in fact the smart teams do it often.

In the NFL the Philadelphia Eagles have enjoyed great success through their "tush push" in short yardage situations. That's not a product design like the "torpedo" bat, but it's a play tailored to their offensive roster's specific talents. The Eagles can execute that play better than anyone, which unquestionably gives Philadelphia an advantage, to the point other teams are trying to get the play banned.

The "torpedo" bat is a similar innovation that will give certain players an advantage they didn't previously have. Reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge already has four homers and he's not using these new bats, even though roughly half the Yankees starting lineup is at least trying them. Casey called Judge the best hitter in the game, but the reigning AL MVP is sticking to what works for him.

Like Casey said, production at the Big League level is primarily about the hitter, they wouldn't be in this position otherwise. A lot of the negative talk around this innovation ignores one key component of New York's innovation: anyone in the league can use these bats.

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