A New Era… Or Is It?

At this point, everyone who follows baseball has seen the new “torpedo bats” the Yankees used en route to 15 home runs in 3 games, with 9 of which coming in one alone. While legal by MLB rules, the bats have sparked a controversy as they have been speculated to have played a huge part in the Yanks’ success. This is leading many fans to call for a removal of the bat. But is it really as overpowered as it seems? Well, over a dozen of MLB players used the new bat style these past few days, with none reaching quite the same success as the Yankees’ stars did. So are these bats really that overpowered? While there is no doubt they help, part of New York’s success much be attributed to the fact that they are great players using it, like 3x MVP Aaron Judge hitting four deep, or star Jazz Chisholm Jr. notching three of his own. While the Yankees’ notoriously short outfield wall may play a small part, hits like Judge’s first run being 468 feet likely would’ve still gone out of the park if he used a normal bat or was in a larger stadium. So do the torpedo bats deserve to get banned? Short answer: No! More scores are more fun for fans to watch, which the bats likely will help with, but they aren’t making so big of a difference to really be unfair, especially since all 30 teams can use them if they so choose.