Torpedo talk: Dodgers hitters are ‘curious,’ will try new bat design
LOS ANGELES — A record-tying 15 home runs in three games is pretty good advertising.
The New York Yankees matched an MLB record with that power show in the first three games of their season over the weekend, drawing attention to the innovative “torpedo bats” some of their players used against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Five Yankees used the bats over the weekend – Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells. That group hit nine of the Yankees’ 15 home runs against the Brewers.
But they aren’t alone. A number of players on other teams have used the bat, which shifts weight from the end of the bat closer to the label where batters are more likely to make contact. A number of Dodgers – including Max Muncy and Kiké Hernandez – have ordered versions of the “torpedo bat” from their suppliers (MaxBat and Marucci, respectively) to try out.
“Those guys are just good,” Muncy said, refusing to credit the bat technology with all of the Yankees’ success. “Maybe it helped them. If it did, I plan on finding out.”
Like Muncy, hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said he had not heard about the new design before the Yankees’ coming-out party this weekend.
“I mean, it sounds interesting,” Van Scoyoc said. “We just heard about it, obviously, with everyone else. But if you make contact more towards the handle, it makes sense to put more mass there.
“But we’re gonna learn about it and study it. I’m sure guys are ordering them. All the players want hits, so they’re gonna do anything they can to get a hit.”
Count Michael Conforto and Chris Taylor among the curious.
“I think some guys ordered some,” Conforto said.
“I’ll definitely hold it and try it in the cage. I just don’t know. I do feel like if you have a good feeling about it in the box, it’s going to help. I don’t know the actual science behind it. … I think just from a mental standpoint if you believe it’s going to help you up there in the box, then it does. We’ll see if I get to that point.”
Conforto predicted “we’re going to be seeing a lot of them, that’s for sure” because of the Yankees’ power show.
“I’m curious, but no,” Taylor said when asked if he had ordered any of the new design. “I know some of the guys are. I’ll grab one of them and try it.”
Muncy equated it to past evolutionary changes in bats – the move from ash to maple and birch, changes in the handle (“axe handles” and “puck knobs”). The difference this time, though, is the technology available to give hitters feedback on how the new design performs.
“I have no idea what I’m going to think about it. I might hate the way it feels. I might love the way it feels,” Muncy said.
“We have all the technology to check the data on it – how the ball’s coming off the bat and everything. I don’t know if my swing is one that that works for. … That’s the thing with baseball. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution that works for everybody.”
That data is more limited for hitters than it is for pitchers, Van Scoyoc points out.
“I think there’s some ways they can predict it. But Trackman doesn’t get the bat,” Van Scoyoc said, referring to the technology used for pitch tracking. “So I think it’s a little bit more unknown than like pitching or something else. Or in golf, Trackman knows exactly where they hit the ball. So up to this point, there hasn’t been an ability to capture the bat or be as precise as you might want.
“I mean, we definitely have a process for bat-fitting and things like that. But not having Trackman actually capture the bat like they do in golf, there’s just less known about it.”
Mookie Betts knows all he feels he needs to know for now and doesn’t plan to be an early adopter.
“I don’t know. What I’ve got has been working so far,” Betts said. “It’s not that I’m not looking to get better.
“Essentially, I’m not saying the bat doesn’t matter. But it’s really the operator. If that’s what puts confidence in your head that you’re going to hit it, then you’re going to play better just based on pure confidence. It may have something to do with the bat. It may not. … We’ll see.”
ALSO
Dodgers right-hander Evan Phillips threw to Taylor and Andy Pages in live batting practice on Monday afternoon. He and Tony Gonsolin are expected to start rehab assignments when the Dodgers head on the road later this week.
UP NEXT
Braves (LHP Chris Sale, 0-0, 5.40 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Dustin May, 4-1, 2.63 ERA in 2023), Tuesday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM