WSU 'Bat Lab' tests suggest 'torpedo' bats could benefit the right hitter

The torpedo bat craze in Major League Baseball is still gaining steam as more and more players and teams experiment with them

The jury, however, is still out on how much of an edge they might give a player at the plate

The Yankees' offensive explosion of 36 runs and an MLB record-tying 15 homers in their first series of the season was the spark for this phenomenon as five players used the torpedo or bowling pin shaped bats

That success on such a high-profile stage, prompted a media frenzy and a surge of scientists, bat makers, and other experts weighing in

We jumped in and asked Dr. Nick Smith at the Washington State University Sports Science Laboratory to give us his opinion

What would be cool and what we want to see if this does is if they can actually move the sweet spot by changing the barrel design

If you could do that, well, then if you can't train a hitter to hit in the real sweet spot

but you could design a bat that moves the sweet spot to where your hitters actually hit

Well, that's pretty cool. The Bat Lab, as they are sometimes called

put it to the test, tapering some bats to look like the ones the Yankees and other Major League players used

The results came back Wednesday, and they found the sweet spot did move

from a half inch to an inch, depending on the size of the bat and how it tapered That could certainly mean better results of the plate but it also up to the player to make consistent contact in that new spot Some players like all those Yankees who hit homers over the weekend or Cincinnati Ellie De La Cruz may have found an edge

De La Cruz had two homers and seven RBI Monday against the Rangers the first time he used the bat

He could also just be a great hitter. Only a larger sample size will give scientists and Major League Baseball the data needed

to determine if there's an edge. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is not convinced

His team has scored 39 runs in seven games, second best in the majors, trailing only

Well, you guessed it, the Yankees. I guess it's this crazy. I just haven't dug into it

It's certainly early, and there's kind of people talking about it, but I don't think any of our guys swing that bad

so I'm not sure what it is. On the other hand, Roberts added he would not be surprised

if some of his players ordered a torpedo bat just to try it out. And he said that his pitchers were already looking at pitches and pitch locations

that could counter players that swing the new bats. And one more note, Yankees slugger Giancarlo

Stanton, who's been on the injured list with tendonitis in both elbows, refused to blame his

injuries on those bats, which he switched to last season. He will also use the bats once again

when he returns. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis