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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

#171

Post by nemo44x »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #82
soared wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are videos on YouTube of people using banned golf clubs that are super interesting - sand wedges with big holes in the club head so they slice through the sand, or comically large driver heads.

Golf actually adopted tech that probably ought to have been banned. Namely the modern ball and driver going from balata and persimmon. Pros went from driving it 260 yards to 325 sometimes longer and entire courses had to be redesigned as they would just trivially drive over fairway hazards and rough. Golf became a bomb and wedge game ever since as they can’t make certain historic courses terribly longer. They are exp…

Golf should rate gear differently for different levels of play. Most golfers need these improvements as it makes recreational golf more enjoyable. But it makes the game too easy for professionals. Gear rated for their tournaments would be better I think. But there’s a rub.

Players like to endorse gear because people want to play what the best players play. They think it will make them better. So it’s hard to endorse gear you aren’t playing with.

Theres also data that suggests longer hitting guys will be more dominant with a rollback. I don’t know but I guess the nerds figured out how to optimize golf and it’s all about distance. The days of precession and artistry may be gone. I’m not sure how to defend against bomb and gouge and not sure if we should.

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

#172

Post by [deleted] »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #25
d35007 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good. Baseball isn't a serious spectator sport. It's only interesting to statisticians What makes a spectator sport "serious"? The average MLB game had almost 30,000 spectators in the 2024 season[1]. That's a lot of statisticians. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2024/10/01/mlb-atten...

You can put a basketball game on anywhere in the world, and people will watch it, even if they haven't watched basketball before. People only watch baseball out of tradition. MLB didn't even have a play clock until 2023, letting batters step out of the box at whim and create even longer periods with no action.

[deleted]

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

#173

Post by bluGill »

lesuorac wrote: post #136
zappb wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Cost caps are about how you can cheat. You still develop and test everything you want in the lab. Those that turn out useful get told to the F1 team.

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

#174

Post by janalsncm »

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…

You are transferring rotational energy to the ball. Rotational energy is proportional to square of angular velocity. It is only linearly proportional to moment of inertia. So bat speed is more important than weight, all things considered.

From what I can tell this is more about making it easier to make solid contact. Even if it lowers the moment of inertia, it’s more important that the ball goes on a decent trajectory rather than e.g. directly into the ground. A bigger radius means the ball will be exit closer to the plane of the swing.

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

#176

Post by pests »

basisword wrote: post #137
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 s…

> If you're a batter and can't hit the ball with the right part of the bat

But that is what they are doing? The bat is within size and volume limits. Many bats come in slightly odd shapes or weight distributions. Is it because this is "optimized" that it's bad?

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

#177

Post by bluGill »

hnburnsy wrote: post #150
Pet_Ant wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm picturing a caddy standing off to the side of the batter with a bag full of bats, sizing up the last pitch and say "May I suggest the pine with the conical twist sir?"

A caddy? How about an instant 3D printer\CNC machine?

They are not fast enough and there is no reason to think machining ever will be.

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

#178

Post by bluGill »

arrosenberg wrote: post #166
mjrpes wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

The problem isn't friction from the grip (that can occasionally pop up), the issue is when you hit the wrong spot and the energy of the ball gets dumped entirely into your hands instead of evenly distributed through the bat.

That is what padding gloves help with. Though I suspect thick padding causes less control of the bat and so overall isn't worth it.

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

#179

Post by janalsncm »

blahyawnblah wrote: post #164
rsync wrote: post #161

My son - a baseball player - saw these in use this past week and noted: “ That was dumb… They should have saved them for the playoffs…” … and I can’t help but agree.

You'd have to make the playoffs first

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_World_Series

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

#180

Post by bsder »

philwelch wrote: post #92
kaycebasques wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure, that makes a lot of intuitive sense. I was thinking that there's a sweet spot with HRs. If it gets too common then it may be less of a dopamine hit. Kinda like how the randomness of slot machines is fine-tuned to maximize addictive potential. However, one could argue the same thing about Curry and 3 pointers. My original argument suggests that seeing someone makes loads more 3 pointers would be boring. Yet…

3 pointers are actually the opposite problem; they turn out to be more efficient but they make the game a lot more boring to watch.

> they make the game a lot more boring to watch.

I disagree. Go watch some of the old games before 3 pointers. Teams would pack the defense into the key and the game would get really boring. It was also brutal--driving to the bucket on a packed defense like that would get you mugged.

3 pointers force defenses to move outward. Illegal defense penalties also helped.

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