batmagadanleadoff wrote: ↑Mon Mar 31, 2025 4:23 pm
"The bats — with their torpedo-like shape — are custom-made to player preferences and are designed so that the densest part of the bat is
where that particular hitter most often makes contact with the baseball, said Leanhardt, who became a field coordinator with the Miami Marlins in the offseason."
Right, because hitting the ball on the traditional sweet spot -- what modern lingo likes to call "barreling it up" -- is hard. Great when it happens, but not easy to do often. So if/when a hitter finds out that, despite
wanting to make contract THERE, where he
actually makes contact most often is HERE, then you re-shape the bat so as to shift more wood towards that spot. Again, not a bigger sweet spot but a readjusted one that the hitter will hopefully find more often.
Will there be more HRs as a result? Maybe, although I suspect the Yanqui numbers from this weekend are more incidental than cause & effect.
If things work as designed a hitter gets more balls on the 'barrel' but also a slower barrel. Also those balls contacting towards the end at what
used to be the barrel will have the opposite case of more bat speed but less weight behind them.
My Calculus runs out when I try to figure if there will be more broken bats when the hitter gets jammed with the new shaped bats.
Theoretically there will be fewer since the heftiest part of the bat is now closer to the handle and therefore closer to the point of contact on a 'jam job'.
otoh, a pitch that is truly in "on his thumbs", as announcers like to say, is still hitting the thinnest part of the stick and will likely produce the same results and same amount of kindling.
btw, I think this topic could use some splitting off
