The Angels' manager stays true to his old-school brand when discussing torpedo bats

Even the most casual of MLB fans know about the torpedo bats that are making waves throughout the sports world. Contrary to popular belief, the New York Yankees are not the only team utilizing torpedo bats, but the league's most valuable organization certainly popularized the new invention. The Yankees hit 9 home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers in their opening series using the bats. Now, players around the league are getting their hands on the bats. Cincinnati Reds star, Elly De La Cruz, used the bat on March 31st against the Rangers and he hit 2 HRs, 1 double, 1 singled, and drove in 7 RBIs.

In case you are not aware of what a torpedo bat is, they are custom-shaped pieces of lumber to where a hitters hits the ball most. The barrel is markedly larger than a normal bat, but not over the legal diameter, and is densest where the individual hitter makes the most contact. Bat-tracking technology the last few seasons has reached a large enough sample size to where coaches can point to where on the bat a hitter makes contact the most. It is not always the sweet-spot because hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports (think of golf -- golfers do not always hit the sweet-spot of the club and have a tendency to hit the ball too high, low, off-centered, etc.).

Sam Blum, who covers the Angels for The Athletic, wrote a piece on the new phenomenon. He interviewed people around the league, but he provided some insight from people he covers daily. Most notably, he provided some fodder from the Angels' manager whose perspective on modern-day events could always be guessed by Angels before they hear his sound-byte. Ron Washington is so old-school it hurts sometimes. Just look at this quote Blum included in his article:

“When I got jammed, I figured out what I had to do to stop that,” said Angels manager Ron Washington, a longtime coach and player. “So I didn’t worry about putting more weight in a certain area of the bat.”

Ron, buddy, you turned in a career 79 OPS+, a .261/.292/.368/.659 slash line, and a 1.3 bWAR. This is the classic retrospective of a former ballplayer -- he remembers himself being a much better hitter than he actually was. Of course Washington makes it sound so simple even though he was not able to do it himself. To downplay this sensation that is sweeping the sport is beyond belief, especially when his hitters clearly could use these bona fide metal bats. They have one of the worst run producing lineups in baseball right now.

Two current Angels players weighed in on the torpedo bats

Taylor Ward, who is known for being an incredibly detail-oriented person with his swing and approach, was also on-brand with his response to the torpedo bats:

"“I think it’s really smart,” said Angels outfielder Taylor Ward, who hadn’t heard of the bats until their viral moment over the weekend. “It makes sense, where guys constantly hit the ball on the bat. I think it’s an amazing discovery.”

If a study revealed that this new bat worked best for his contact tendencies, Ward said, he “would absolutely listen and consider adjusting what I swing, for sure.”"

Sam Blum of The Athletic

Ward is the best, man. He is clearly such a hard working guy whose success the past few seasons is not a fluke. What's nice about the Angels' revolutionizing their player development's technological approach is that they should be able determine where exactly Ward hits the ball most, if the bat would cater to his swing, etc. No one should be surprised if Ward starts using

A player the Angels recently added, Nicky Lopez, spent spring training with the Chicago Cubs who were implementing the torpedo bats, weighed in as well: “It seems like it’s making its way around MLB. It’s definitely not just the Yankees. I think we’re gonna see more people — it’s legal. It’s under MLB rules and everything. Just basically moving the sweet spot down. Those balls that you’re getting jammed on are finding some barrels.” Lopez very notably tore up spring training at the plate, despite being a defensive oriented player. Slap-hitters like Lopez benefit more from the torpedo bats than big boppers like Aaron Judge.

If Washington's players, like Ward, want to use the torpedo bats, he would be wise to allow them to do so. Is there a world where he nixes it? Yes, and it makes me cringe just thinking about it.

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