ESPN recently spoke to Bobby Hillerich, vice president of production at Hillerich & Bradsby which makes Louisville Slugger bats, about the surge of torpedo bats this season. He admitted that all 30 MLB teams had requested the bats by the middle of this week, after the Yankees' nine home run game last Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers.

MIT physicist Aaron Leanhardt has been credited with creating the torpedo bats. Leanhardt previously served as a hitting analyst with the Yankees before he joined the Miami Marlins as a field coordinator in the offseason.

During spring training, someone in the organization had mentioned to Kay that the team's analytics department had counseled players on where pitches tended to strike their bats, and with subsequent buy-in from some of the players,

Of note is how D-backs pitchers handled the five Yankees who are known to be using the torpedo bat: Anthony Volpe and Paul Goldschmidt, who bat righty, and Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Austin Wells, who bat lefty.

Developed by a physicist, these bats have their widest part, called the barrel, closer to the player's hands to offer a better chance of hitting the ball on their "sweet spot"