Live data from Hacker News

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

thelibertyline.com

351–360 of 432 posts

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

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> You see something similar going on in football, right now, with a play known as the "tush push". As a European that just woke up from a nap, I was having a very hard time imagning a soccer move called "tush push" that was so successful it had to be outlawed...

Philly is known as the city of brotherly love so there was a movement on r/nfl to have it be named the brotherly shove. Never quite caught on though.

Often lost in the debate is the fact that the Philly QB is uncommonly athletic for his position and that Philly typically has a top-5 O-line on any given year.

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

#352
post #331
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, even match-play is about as interactive as running a race. Very different from the direct interaction you have in a game like Baseball.

It's really not. You can absolutely change your strategy based on what the other player is doing.

Runners tell you the same thing. Or bicyclists.

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

#353
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I play golf. I write about golf. I genuinely love golf. Over the last 50 years, we have slowly broken the game of golf by allowing incremental technological advancements -- just like this -- that make it easier to do something that is hard, that is making it easier to hit the sweet spot. I am sending a grave warning to baseball fans here from the future that you will arrive at by following this road. Golf used to be…

I think everything you noted as a downside is why, in part, things like Pickleball and Disc Golf took off in the last 5 years. They’re similar to things we know, but different enough that they haven’t been optimized out of reach by normals, or at least perceived as such, and both have a relatively cheap barrier of entry to get started. I think we may find 20 years from now the dominate sports have changed up a bit. I…

Are there similar optimizations available for basketball? Shoes can only do so much.

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

#354
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I disagree, and I've been watching basketball for 40 years. Basketball with positions was more fun to watch and objectively more popular amongst the viewing audience than this current dreck with positionless basketball and basically no travelling rules. Defenders are afraid to play defense and offensive players can just step back without a dribble to create separation. It's a terrible, boring product to watch because…

Why can’t teams just defend the three better?

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

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everything you noted as a downside is why, in part, things like Pickleball and Disc Golf took off in the last 5 years. They’re similar to things we know, but different enough that they haven’t been optimized out of reach by normals, or at least perceived as such, and both have a relatively cheap barrier of entry to get started. I think we may find 20 years from now the dominate sports have changed up a bit. I…

Are there similar optimizations available for basketball? Shoes can only do so much.

Not really, due to how the game is designed. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the sport but the way is played leaves little room comparatively for artificial optimization

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

#356
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 I looked this up and am still unclear why only the Eagles seem to be able to perform this maneuver effectively, other than having an exceptionally strong person at the front?

Their quarterback squatting 600 lbs doesn’t hurts.

nicely done.

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

#357
post #95

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…

how do you ban shifting defenders? i admittedly know nothing about baseball, but surely the team can dispatch its people wherever it likes within the legal zone for them to be at all.

When there was a left handed pull hitter at at the plate, the third baseman would move to where the shortstop was, the shortstop would move to second base, and the second baseman would be on shallow right field. Third base was left completely undefended. I always wondered why hitters couldn’t just practice a late swing and send a chopper down the third base line …

The new rule says there has to be two infielders on either side of of second base when the pitcher delivers They still shift just not as much

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

#358
I think that’s a good thing. As an outsider who only recently started following baseball I can say that what makes the game quite boring is a difficulty mismatch: throwing the ball is easy, hitting it is quite hard (many MLB players have batting averages of 0.250 or below) which means that a typical baseball game consists of many throws, many strike outs and only occasional hits an runs.

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

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everything you noted as a downside is why, in part, things like Pickleball and Disc Golf took off in the last 5 years. They’re similar to things we know, but different enough that they haven’t been optimized out of reach by normals, or at least perceived as such, and both have a relatively cheap barrier of entry to get started. I think we may find 20 years from now the dominate sports have changed up a bit. I…

Are there similar optimizations available for basketball? Shoes can only do so much.

For professional basketball, the statistical advantage of 3-point has completely warped the game. There are a lot of articles online about it

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

#360
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I play golf. I write about golf. I genuinely love golf. Over the last 50 years, we have slowly broken the game of golf by allowing incremental technological advancements -- just like this -- that make it easier to do something that is hard, that is making it easier to hit the sweet spot. I am sending a grave warning to baseball fans here from the future that you will arrive at by following this road. Golf used to be…

I think there's very much something to be said for standardizing equipment in sports that use it, at least to a point.

Indy car vs F1.

Indy car is every team essentially driving the same car. (The standardization you’re talking about)

F1 however, establishes guardrails for what teams can & cannot do. And then lets the teams innovate within those definitions.

Post reply on HN