MLB says Yankees’ new “torpedo bats” are legal and likely coming

Did it really take 125+ years for someone to realize the bat does not need to evenly taper? This seems like some seriously low lying fruit.

its less about even taper and more about moving weight/center of mass around. Youth bats have been doing that for quite a while. Camwood bats is a great example of moving weight around. In their case, its a training bat.

Can you take it a step further with uneven wood density?

Like growing the tree with part of the branch under compression.

Different bat profiles have been around forever, and many players have their own custom profiles that they like.

I think the key innovation that enabled this new profile is the accuracy and quality of data being collected.

Edit: Here's an article talking about some of the bat tracking technology that MLB has deployed in recent years: https://technology.mlblogs.com/introducing-statcast-2023-hig...

Oh, I like this. Feels like something you'd see in NPB with teams recruiting Bonsai masters to grow bats.

No, different bats have been around forever, Babe Ruth's bats looks like a log compared to modern bats. However shifting the taper based on where a player gets most of their hits based on advanced tracking of their hit location is new.