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

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

#131

Post by demosthanos »

next_xibalba wrote: post #108
jorvi wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every sport hits this sort of threshold where they ban optimization. Swimming did it with 'sharkskin' suits and long distance running with Nike's Alphafly and Vaporfly shoes. Maybe that's where advanced baseball bats will end up eventually.

Which is so silly. I would love to watch a sport where all the athletes are on cutting edge, dangerously experimental PEDs and all the equipment is engineered to the very limits of nature. We draw oddly arbitrary lines what is and isn’t ok in sports.

The line isn't purely arbitrary, it's a reflection of the reality of what most people expect from sports: we want them to be a contest of human skill on the part of the athlete, not just the amount of money someone is willing to spend on the team. We also want underdogs to have a chance, which is very hard without some sort of limits.

You could probably accomplish something similar by strictly capping spending per team to force people to do real engineering and optimize their play accordingly, but the result would be a very different sport that would appeal to a very different (and probably much smaller) audience. Formula One and Robot Wars come to mind.

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

#132

Post by graywh »

paleotrope wrote: post #94
m3kw9 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The have the rule where the team defending the field goal is not allowed to act like a “locomotive” to push thru and try to block the kick, which would almost certainly work because the edge blockers cannot just defend come inside to defend it. The tush push shouldn’t be allowed because is almost impossible to defend, sort of an automatic 1 yarder once you get there. The snapping team always have advantage because th…

In both cases why not? 1. Make the kicker kick from farther out in that case. Pretty simple change. 2. 1 yard is kind of nothing in this league now when the referees have so much leeway to change yardage. They get the spot wrong ALL the damn time now. So what if it's automatic for some teams. And so what if the offense has the advantage there. That's sport. Same thing in soccer on penalty kicks, the kicker has the ad…

the rule for FG/XP attempts is for the safety of the long snapper, not the kicker

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

#133

Post by techdmn »

ramesh31 wrote: post #123
jparishy wrote: post #14

I think it's quite cool (disclaimer: I am indeed a dirty Yankees fan) Hitting is really hard. If you feel up to it, and can find a public batting cage near you that has a fast pitch machine (usually maxes out 75-85mph which is 20+ mph less than your typical MLB fastball), give it a shot. When you hit the ball away from the sweet spot, especially on the parts closer to your hands, it really freaking hurts and throws o…

I genuinely can't understand the thought process of a Yankees fan. If it's just a tradition thing, then sure whatever. But someone who watches them play and goes "yeah that's my team" is just mindblowing. They'll have a batting lineup that costs more than the opponents entire field, knowing full well they are all just hired guns who will be gone the moment the contract is up, and then you watch them in the playoffs a…

Some people want to back a winner, and they don't really get too worked up about the details. Another example would be Ferrari in early 2000s in F1. Biggest budget, most skilled driver, all the dirty tricks at all levels (on-track, technical, political), plenty of fans.

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

#134

Post by whycome »

Are we entering the F1 stage of baseball and other sports? I bet there’s room for optimization with gloves and shoes and uniforms. I’m surprised teams haven’t made use of mobile recovery units when visiting away teams (instead of hotels). And there’s still gotta be ways to work around fatigue related to travel and time zone changes. I’m still surprised how basic and limited home team locker rooms can be. There are probably cool tech and social/psych solutions.

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

#135

Post by acc_297 »

lbotos wrote: post #120

Im glad this landed here so I can ask: Physics nerds, would a “larger contact area” give the baseball more velocity? I’ve been speculating that moving the mass lower effectively increases bat speed because its a “shorter bat”, but all of the commentary is acting like the larger barrel is “more power”. I’d expect larger barrel increases odds of contact, not increased power transfer? (But I also think of a car with bik…

Some are saying it’s about the center of mass being closer to the point of contact

I’m not an expert but I think it has more to too with reducing vibrations along the bat and increasing the efficiency of energy transfer

Again not an expert

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

#136

Post by lesuorac »

zappb wrote: post #124
next_xibalba wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is so silly. I would love to watch a sport where all the athletes are on cutting edge, dangerously experimental PEDs and all the equipment is engineered to the very limits of nature. We draw oddly arbitrary lines what is and isn’t ok in sports.

Formula 1 is supposed to be like that except without the drugs. It’s a competition for both the racers and the manufacturers.

It's not though.

F1 introduced a cost cap to stop the top manufactures from being able to test and develop everything they want to.

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

#137

Post by basisword »

Larrikin wrote: post #7

He never said why it's bad, just that players he thinks suck should continue to suck and he doesn't like that they don't suck anymore. He briefly alluded to a valid point but went no where with it about how it may affect little league and college with less money, but that is completely separate from MLB teams using millions of dollars for custom bats.

>> He never said why it's bad, just that players he thinks suck should continue to suck and he doesn't like that they don't suck anymore.

Bad players should continue to suck unless they put in the effort to be better. If you're a batter and can't hit the ball with the right part of the bat (especially experienced guys like Chilsolm) you're simply bad at your job. This is like getting a crappy NBA player and putting some Flubber on his shoes[1]. In all sport the tools are going to push performance a certain amount of but this feels beyond the limit for me.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119137/

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

#138

Post by 16bytes »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #85
kaycebasques wrote: post #12

If only the Yankees get access to it (e.g. they patented it and won't let other teams use it) then I could see it as an unfair advantage. In most other areas of America life, though, this innovation would be allowed or even celebrated. I imagine it will go the way of the brilliant strategic innovation a few years back of shifting defenders heavily depending on the batter's statistical hitting patterns. It'll get bann…

If only the Yankees get access to this, the rest of the league will simply vote to outlaw it. You see something similar going on in football, right now, with a play known as the "tush push". It's not a particularly complex play, but for some reason the Philadelphia Eagles can pull it off astoundingly better than anyone else in the league. In response, several teams are petitioning rules to outlaw it. All it takes is…

We'll see if the analogy holds. Every team has the ability to use bats like this.

If no other team sees an advantage from using torpedo bats, it would be a lot like the brotherly shove.

But first we'll have to see if this is a passing fad. In baseball, pitchers evolve pretty quickly and usually lead the batter-pitcher arms race.

I'm guessing it spread pretty quickly through the league and be used by a minority of hitters, and the advantage will flatten out. So a .210 hitter may hit .230. That is a big difference no doubt, but compare the game to when leading batters were hitting .330.

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

#139

Post by mjrpes »

jparishy wrote: post #14

I think it's quite cool (disclaimer: I am indeed a dirty Yankees fan) Hitting is really hard. If you feel up to it, and can find a public batting cage near you that has a fast pitch machine (usually maxes out 75-85mph which is 20+ mph less than your typical MLB fastball), give it a shot. When you hit the ball away from the sweet spot, especially on the parts closer to your hands, it really freaking hurts and throws o…

> it really freaking hurts and throws off subsequent swings.

Totally ignorant about baseball, but would wearing thick padded gloves help? Do major leaguers build up calluses to help?

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

#140

Post by BobaFloutist »

abirch wrote: post #83
papercrane wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could get even more wild. I could imagine batters having custom profiles for different pitchers. E.g. one bat for when hitting against someone who throws 100MPH four seam fastballs, and another when facing someone who throws 90 MPH cutters.

I'm fine with it as long as they don't change bats in between pitches.

I mean that's part of baseball as chess (or poker), right? The batter swaps to the fastball bat, communicating that they expect a fastball. The pitcher knows, from the coach's extensive scouting, and swaps to the curve. But actually, the batter knows he struggles with that kind of fastball and was hoping to bait the curveball, which he's more confident swinging against, and is happy to use a slightly suboptimized bat.
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