The New York Yankees have had quite the opening weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers, winning the first two games on the series and going for the sweep on Sunday coming off Saturday’s historic offensive performance.
After hitting a franchise record nine home runs on Saturday, New York’s new “torpedo” bats have become the center of attention in the baseball world.
With a barrel that rests closer to the hitter’s hands, the bats are meant to make it easier for the player swinging to be able to square the ball up cleanly.
Though it sounds on the surface like a potential cheat code, the bats have been ruled legal by Major League Baseball and there’s no reason why every other team cannot use them as well. In fact, some players and teams are already investigating getting bats of their own.
Nonetheless, because it’s the Yankees it has become a major story and everyone is giving their two cents.
The strongest opinion yet may have come from a Brewers star who watched his teammates get shelled all weekend long by the home run derby in the Bronx.
“I think it’s terrible,” Milwaukee closer Trevor Megill said via the New York Post+ (subscription required) “We’ll see what the data says. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I feel like it’s something used in slo-pitch softball. It’s genius: Put the mass all in one spot. It might be bush [league]. It might not be. But it’s the Yankees, so they’ll let it slide.”
It should be noted that Megill has yet to pitch in a game so far through the series, largely due to the fact his team has been trailing throughout and there has not been a save opportunity. So he has not been on the mound to see what the bats can really do.
However Megill is not the only one upset about it as some fans have complained that New York may be getting an unfair competitive advantage.
Of course, those complaints naturally do not come with the caveat that Aaron Judge — who is not using the new bats — had hit four home runs in the series, including three during Saturday’s nine home-run outburst.
It will not be a surprise to see most every team in baseball moving forward start to develop a version of the torpedo bat themselves.
With that being said however, chances are the Yankees are hitting home runs not because of a bat, but because they are the superior team to who they are facing in the first series of the season.
