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Staff writer, with CNA
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The torpedo bat is likely to make its debut in Taiwan’s CPBL sooner than expected after the baseball league announced a way for certified bat providers to quickly get new types of bats into the hands of players.
Under a new league rule announced on Friday, once a bat brand is certified by the league, it could add new types of bats to its product list simply by submitting two samples of each type to the CPBL, the league said.
The new bats do not have to be individually tested, and the list can be updated once a year, it added.
A torpedo bat, right, is pictured in Taichung on April 8.
Photo: CNA
That means that if any of the 20 certified bat producers present a torpedo bat sample to the league, it could enter service rather quickly.
Torpedo bats could make their CPBL debut as soon as Monday, the league said.
The move comes amid heightened interest among CPBL players in experimenting with the so-called torpedo bat, a design that has sparked considerable debate in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the US.
The New York Yankees put the torpedo bats in the spotlight when most of the team’s players used them to hit 15 home runs and score 36 runs in their season-opening three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The jury is still out on how much the bats really help. Yankees shortshop Anthony Volpe, who hit four home runs in the first five games of this year using the new equipment, still has four home runs 20 games into the season and is hitting .197.
Unlike standard bats, which distribute mass evenly throughout the barrel, torpedo bats concentrate their mass closer to the batter’s arms, specifically targeting the sweet spot, while fully complying with MLB regulations governing bat specifications.
Several CPBL players, including last year’s CPBL Taiwan Series MVP Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) of the CTBC Brothers and last year’s WBSC Premier12 MVP Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) of the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, have provided positive feedback after testing the unconventional bats.
The impact of the torpedo bats on game dynamics and player health remains uncertain.
