MLB says Yankees’ new “torpedo bats” are legal and likely coming • Hacker News Board

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

#391

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 9:10 AM UTC

russellbeattie wrote: post #329

tiffanyh wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you described about golf has already happened in MLB. Babe Ruth’s wood bat was 44 oz. Today’s wood bat in MLB are ~33 oz. The bat Babe Ruth used was so heavy he literally had to swing the bat different than how players can swing the bat today. There’s a short video on this here: https://youtu.be/P_uiHUJg7zs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_bat —- Fishing has even undergone this technical change. FF…

Quick tip in case you don't have a good sense of what an ounce feels like: It's exactly 5 quarters (the coin). So the difference between Babe's bat and today's is about the weight of 55 quarters (a roll and a half). Years of doing laundry at laundromats have given me a keen sense of how much handfuls of quarters weigh, so I find this actually pretty handy. Just in case: * A nickel is exactly 5 grams. * A penny (1982+…

[deleted]

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

#392

Post by jajko » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 9:14 AM UTC

scoofy wrote: post #243

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 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 would expand this to any professional sport.

I know its unpopular opinion basically anywhere, but I detest most professional sports that have enough money in them for enough time. It literally and visibly corrupts game. Football (and hockey, basketball etc.) became monopoly game long time ago. Cycling became much worse re doping than bodybuilding ffs, literally everybody is dosing and the game is only about better evasion of newer compounds from ever-evolving tests. And so on.

There is very little former spirit of why games like olympics started. Just read about first few olympics how they were done. Very respectable achievements even if not the best times. But times should be largely irrelevant, it should be way more about team efforts, camaraderie, and internal motivation. Now its just chasing sponsors, promotions, routing to instagram accounts in bikinis for female athletes. I get it, it generates tons of cash, but I do sports and like them for sports, nothing else.

In contrary I still love sports cca on fringe, where sportsmen do it more for the love of it than anything more pragmatical. Thats real passion, not manufactured ones with big redbull or adidas logos all over the place and contracts running in millions or more.

When I extend it to personal level - I like running just by myself, no watch to track me. I know how much effort I do, every sporty person does very well. I don't care about my times, laps, energy spent, progression, getting better every week and so on. That's not a good reason to do it and sustain long term (apart from unhealthily competitive persons but thats another story).

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

#393

Post by globular-toast » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 9:14 AM UTC

gukov wrote: post #389

Not a baseball fan, but I’m curious if the MLB will go the F1 route (ie ban the “hack”) or embrace it as it will probably make for more entertaining games. Home runs are a good thing, right?

After my initial surprise that teams have their own bats (presumably they don't have their own balls, though?), F1 was the first thing that came to mind. I don't follow F1 closely but I understand there is a constant struggle between allowing constructors to innovate (and thus having the constructors' championship in addition to drivers') and keeping the sport both fun and safe.

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

#394

Post by cjrp » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 10:27 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #348

scoofy wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with any of this, I'm just saying that we know where this goes. It's just an arms races if you let it become one. If the pitching is getting too good, make it harder to pitch. >In short, you would rather have a lower BA and a higher home run rate even if it means a higher K rate, since home runs (and 2Bs) are so significantly more valuable than singles, and fly outs are also much more valuable than g…

> If the pitching is getting too good, make it harder to pitch. For ball games it sounds mostly fair. There is a weird situation in cycling where any attempt at improvement (even in riding postures) getting banned by the UCI has become a meme and each year's announcement generates a fest of joke videos. That would be the other end of the spectrum we're trying to avoid.

Sort of similar in Formula 1. Team finds a loophole in rules, exploits it for performance gain, FIA bans it. Rinse and repeat.

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

#395

Post by Bud » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 11:27 AM UTC

poulsbohemian wrote: post #279

scoofy wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with any of this, I'm just saying that we know where this goes. It's just an arms races if you let it become one. If the pitching is getting too good, make it harder to pitch. >In short, you would rather have a lower BA and a higher home run rate even if it means a higher K rate, since home runs (and 2Bs) are so significantly more valuable than singles, and fly outs are also much more valuable than g…

>The American sports system doesn't allow this because there is no relegation system A few years ago a friend of mine from the UK made the observation that American Football would benefit greatly from a relegation system... every season I have the same reaction. By about the 4th week of the season, the NFL bifurcates into legitimate contenders and everybody else. You end up with Thursday nights and late season games…

Basically none of this is true. The wild card system has resulted in an NFL where well over half the league has playoff hopes very deep into the season. It's completely false that "by about the 4th week of the season", the league has bifurcated. Simply not even close to being true.

The NFL has also been extremely successful in leveling the playing field via salary cap and draft, such that franchises beset by woe can become title contenders within a single year. The most recent of many, many examples is the Washington Commanders. Detroit came before that.

And no, the playoffs are not "already set" before the last 3 weeks. This is completely inaccurate, as anyone who watches the NFL and reads about the near-infinite playoff scenarios at the close of every season already knows.

And lastly, only a Brit with no understanding of the economics of American football would even propose that relegation could work in this sport. It can't. The sport costs far too much for that and any such "relegated" teams would instantly collapse financially. NFL rosters contain 53 players with a practice squad of 17 and gigantic support staffs which absolutely could not survive without the full levels of NFL TV contract funding, stadium revenues, and other financial flows that full NFL membership provides.

And lastly, anyone who is paying any attention to the NFL draft over time knows that there is no issue with colleges producing pro-ready players.

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

#396

Post by cbames89 » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 11:29 AM UTC

scoofy wrote: post #243

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 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…

Slow game warns other slow game, hey you might get fast.

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

#397

Post by Bud » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 11:33 AM UTC

DidYaWipe wrote: post #383

szvsw wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s some consensus though that currently, pitching has evolved much faster than batting due to advances like Trackman and deeper understanding of the relationship between biomechanics, pitch tunneling, spinrate/flight path/movement, and so on. In conjunction with that has been a shift towards “TTO” (three true outcomes - HR/BB/K) on the offensive side, which is a statistically motivated perspective that batting f…

Home runs are not "balls in play," though. So are we to go to a binary game, which amounts to whiffs or homers? Also I don't think your assertion that batters have "fallen behind" pitchers holds up. Shohei Ohtani just became the first player to have 50 homers and 50 stolen bases.

[dead]

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

#398

Post by hmmm-i-wonder » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 11:47 AM UTC

scoofy wrote: post #243

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 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…

Opposite advice. Take the best equipment and enjoy the game the most, focus on strategy with the increased options and capabilities.

So much time and frustration wasted with inferior equipment that sucks the life out, or requires a path of practice and mastery most people don't want for hobbies or things they enjoy doing.

If YOU want to use the least helpful tools and make up the difference with knowledge, skill and practice that's OK. To each their own and if you enjoy that then 100%. Just remember some people enjoy things in a lot of different ways.

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

#399

Post by basisword » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 11:52 AM UTC

percentcer wrote: post #238

basisword wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like one of those things where even though it’s within the limits of the rules, it just shows they need to tighten the rules. The end result is everyone having their own customised bat and it’s just a big waste of time. Better to tighten up the rules. If I had my way there would be one legal bat that everyone had to use. Sport should be about the athlete, not the tool.

Should everyone wear the same size shoes?

I think the equivalent would be same model of shoes and I wouldn’t be against that.

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

#400

Post by dfxm12 » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 12:42 PM UTC

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…

Hitting is hard (and that's why the best hitters make the big bucks), but as an aside, it seems like batters get more and more help each year: DH in the NL, outlawing defensive shifts, pitch clock, etc. It's not a surprise that the league will be on board with any change that favors the offense (we've also seen pick off attempt limits and bigger bases which help the base runners).