It has a seemingly inflated barrel that is thickest and heaviest where the player most frequently makes contact, then ...

The Yankees hit 15 home runs in three games with several players using the uniquely-shaped ‘torpedo bat,’ and some Dodgers ... had not heard about the new design before the Yankees’ coming ...

The idea behind the new bat design is actually pretty simple: Move more of the wood toward the sweet spot of the bat, where players try to make contact and where the bat will produce optimal results.

For the MIT-educated physicist behind the torpedo bat, it's more about the talent of the players than their lumber at the plate. The torpedo model — a striking design in which wood is moved ...