The New York Yankees had a big offensive outing Saturday afternoon to improve to 2-0 after its opening series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Aaron Judge led the Yankees in the 20-9 victory, having gone 4-for-6 at the plate while hitting three home runs and bringing in eight runs.
The Yankees started the game with three consecutive home runs with each coming on one of the first three pitches of the game. The team also set a new franchise record, finishing the game with nine home runs.
Despite the offensive outing, the team’s newly designed bats may be the biggest takeaway from the day.
Several of the Yankees players were spotted wielding a uniquely designed bat on Saturday.
The Yankees’ longtime broadcaster and play-by-play announcer, Michael Kay, spent time during the game explaining the bats in question while Anthony Volpe was at the plate with one in his hands.
“The Yankees front office’s analytics department did a study on (Volpe),” Kay said. “Every single ball it seemed like he hit on the label, he didn’t hit any on the barrel, so they had bats made up where they moved a lot of the wood into the label so that the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball.”
Reaction to Yankees’ newly designed bats
A lot of people are criticizing the Yankees for re-designing bats, where more wood is placed on typical points of contact based on data obtained via analytical research.
1. It is not illegal.
2. MLB is aware, and has approved.
3. Kudos to them for being innovative.
