Major technological innovations aren’t that common in baseball. After all, a sport that’s been around since the 1860s and requires only a bat, helmet, glove, and ballcap doesn’t leave much room for further development.
So materials and the minutiae are where teams turn to find any new advantages. The New York Yankees may have just found one that helps them the best.
Major League Baseball rules dictate that bats must be a ‘smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length’ and that it must be made out of a solid piece of wood.
Well, the Yankees believe they have found a way that breaks the mold of ‘traditional’ bat design. It may have helped them slug a shocking nine home runs on Saturday afternoon in a 20-9 routing of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Rather than have the thickest part of the bat be toward the top – commonly referred to as the ‘barrel’ – they moved the thickest part closer to the bat’s handle. So instead, the thickest part is at the ‘label’ of the bat and makes for a rather odd shape.
This is by design – as explained by YES Network announcer Michael Kay on the broadcast.
The New York Yankees moved the thickest part of their bats down from the top just slightly
It worked wonders as Jazz Chisholm and the Yankees clubbed nine homers against Milwaukee
‘You see the shape of [second baseman Jazz] Chisholm’s bat? It’s actually a little lower than the barrel,’ Kay explained.
‘The Yankee front office, the analytics department, did a study on [Yankees shortstop] Anthony Volpe and every single ball it seemed like he hit on the label. He didn’t hit any on the barrel.
‘So they had bats made up, where they moved a lot of the wood into the label – so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball.’
It’s a bizarre solution – but one that appeared to work incredibly well for the team on Saturday afternoon.
Facing the Brewers’ new starter Nestor Cortes – who was traded by the Yankees to Milwaukee for closer Devin Williams – New York hit three straight home runs on the first three pitches of the game.
Leadoff hitter Paul Goldschmidt hit his first blast in Pinstripes and was followed up by another first-timer in Cody Bellinger.
Then came Yankees captain Aaron Judge, who hit his pitch 468 feet to left field.
After two outs for the Brewers, Yankees six-hole hitter Austin Wells then belted a homer of his own to take a 4-0 lead out of the first inning. It’s the first time in the history of the team they hit four home runs in the first inning of a game.
Austin Wells was one of the Yankees who hit a home run with the new shaped bats
But the biggest winner was Aaron Judge – who socked three home runs on the day
Milwaukee put three runs on the board in the top of the second before Volpe (the inspiration for the new bats) blasted a three-run homer to give New York a 7-3 lead.
After scoring a run on an infield single in the bottom of the third to make it 8-3, Judge smacked a grand slam to make it 12-3. Chisholm followed suit with a blast to make it 13-3.
Shockingly, Judge managed a third blast over the wall on the afternoon in the bottom of the fourth to make it 16-4.
The final homer came from third baseman Oswaldo Peraza to make it 20-6 in the bottom of the seventh.
Milwaukee got a homer of their own in the ninth as Brice Turang socked a three-run blast to get to the final core of 20-9.
