MLB says Yankees’ new “torpedo bats” are legal and likely coming

Posted by cf100clunk 3/31/2025

MLB says Yankees’ new “torpedo bats” are legal and likely coming(thelibertyline.com)

306 points | 413 commentspage 5

ramesh31 3/31/2025|

Hard to imagine whatever advantage this is affording won't be nullified by pitchers within a season. The arms race is getting insane.

josefresco 3/31/2025||

This morning on the radio, I heard this opinion (paraphrasing): "Misses become tips, tips become slices, slices become hits..."

Luc 3/31/2025||

Cool but this article is AI slop. It's borderline unreadable, though I guess it looks great to Google.

floatrock 3/31/2025|

I caught on when I realized the same sentence was being written for the fifth time.

inerte 3/31/2025|||

I actually don't think this article is AI slop but instead a text length minimum so Google thinks there's enough content there. Now, I _could_ be an AI wrote it with this rule in mind, but the repetition feels more like the author said what they wanted to say and had to meet a word count quota, so they kept saying the same thing. At least this style of article has existed for many years before AI slop was even possible.

cf100clunk 3/31/2025|||

OP here, and I also hate AI slop so I had a bit of a bad feeling about it at first, but then felt that the payload was more important than the packaging. Submitting ''pure'' content to HN is getting increasingly difficult.

hnpolicestate 3/31/2025||

The higher pitch velocity made something like this inevitable. Remember when a pitcher who threw 95 was a big deal?

fishpen0 3/31/2025||

Ready for games at Fenway to be 90% HRs

koolba 3/31/2025|

Reminds me of the late 90s with Sosa and McGuire.

cf100clunk 3/31/2025||

When talent wasn't enough.

stevage 4/1/2025||

Next season everyone has this, and then what? All the historical stats are busted.

wedn3sday 3/31/2025||

This article is a great example of why baseball is such an incredibly boring sport.

username3 4/1/2025||

Would anyone care if he just used a shorter bat that didn’t get thinner?

m463 3/31/2025||

given the rules (solid wood, max 2.61" and 42")...

I wonder if they couldn't have non-round profiles. Might be able to steer the ball, like a golf driver or add spin like some sort of racket.

LegionMammal978 3/31/2025|

From the rulebook [0]:

> The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.

[0] https://mktg.mlbstatic.com/mlb/official-information/2025-off...

assimpleaspossi 3/31/2025|

My first thought is that there must be something very wrong about this. They have moved the skill of hitting from the player to the "skill" of the bat. I am surprised MLB allowed it. I don't see it too far different than corking the bat.

kjkjadksj 3/31/2025|

Pretty typical for pro sports especially golf or swimming. The batmaker is probably pleased all the competitive amateurs are going to replace the bat in the closet with the premium bat shape and I’m sure they worked closely with MLB officials on this. No one polices this type of collusion.

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