Each batter using the new product has a custom torpedo bat; where the greater mass of wood is placed depends on an analysis of where on the bat the batter hits the ball most often.

Now back to the torpedo bat. It's designed so that the wider part of the bat IS the sweet spot. Since it’s wider, it's easier to hit the ball. Since that part is the sweet spot, it gives the ball a higher speed. Higher speed means the ball will travel farther. Adios pelota!

When videos of Yankees hitters using funky-looking bats went viral last week, Orioles pitchers had some of the same reactions as fans did.

Aaron Leanhardt, the former Michigan physics professor who got his PhD at MIT and was part of the Yankees organization for six-and-a-half years, had a simple question he was trying to answer when coming up with the idea for the new torpedo-shaped bats five of the team’s players are using this season.

They look like baseball bats morphing into bowling pins, their ends flaring into an aggressive bulge that suddenly tapers. So how do they work?

By now, you’ve probably heard about baseball’s greatest innovation since the curveball: MLB’s new “torpedo” bat, the reconfigured bat that moves the barrel — or the sweet spot — closer to the handle, seemingly turning even the most meager of hitters into home run machines.

Jeff Passan joins "Get Up" to break down the science behind the torpedo bats the Yankees have adopted and why they are allowed by Major League Baseball.

After the Yankees' home run barrage with bats that look like bowling pins, the innovation is sweeping baseball.

Standing in front of his Yankee Stadium locker on Sunday, Anthony Volpe presented two bats for inspection. In his left hand, the Yankees shortstop displayed one he had used last season; in his right,