As a result, shifting some wood from the end of the barrel to the sweet spot will not make the bat more powerful, Lloyd Smith, a mechanical engineer who studies ball-bat collisions at Washington ...

"For the average person, what it means is if you lower the swing weight of a bat, your batted ball speed goes down a little bit," Smith says. Of course, major league hitters are not average people.

Five players – Paul Goldschmidt ... explanation, Smith said, is that moving more of a bat's mass into the spot on it where a player makes the most contact with the ball can be advantageous.

That was, of course, until Paul ... the ball,” Turner said. Turner, though, said he was open to trying the torpedo. “For bats to be the hot topic out in the zeitgeist is cool,” Smith said.

The New York Yankees’ 20-9 win against the Milwaukee Brewers last Saturday has put the spotlight on the odd, bowling-pin-shaped “torpedo bat” that many of the team’s players were swinging.

That was, of course, until Paul ... the ball,” Turner said. Turner, though, said he was open to trying the torpedo. “For bats to be the hot topic out in the zeitgeist is cool,” Smith said.

"There's just not a whole lot you can do with this stuff," Lloyd Smith ... bats seems deceptively simple: Their bulbous shape comes from analyzing how hitters tend to make contact with the ball.

But after dozens of swings in the cage, where he said the balance was better, the ball sounded more ... the ol’ reliable wood bat itself.That was, of course, until Paul Goldschmidt and Cody ...