Torpedo Bats Are Good for Baseball.

The biggest story of MLB's opening week wasn't a walk-off win or a 450-foot bomb — it was a weirdly shaped bat.

The Yankees and the so-called torpedo bats stole the headlines, hitting an absurd 15 home runs in their opening series — nine of which were hit with these new bats.

So how do these things actually work?

The torpedo looks like any regular bat but it bulks up near the tip. The idea? More wood meets the ball if you hit it just right — basic physics: more mass, more force.

It was created by Aaron Leanhardt, a former physics professor turned Yankees analyst. The team’s been quietly testing it for years and Leanhardt even got approval from the MLB for their use.

Each bat is tailored to fit a player’s sweet spot. Some guys get jammed more often, so the barrel is moved further down. Others that hit the ball off the end of the bat more often have the barrel moved higher up.

A lot of big names have given the bat a shot to start the year.

Francisco Lindor (New York Mets)

Adley Rutschman (Baltimore Orioles)

Cody Bellinger (New York Yankees)

Elly De La Cruz (Cincinnati Reds)

Oneil Cruz (Pittsburgh Pirates)

Dansby Swanson (Chicago Cubs)

Jazz Chisholm Jr. (New York Yankees)

Alec Bohm (Philadelphia Phillies)

Paul Goldschmidt (New York Yankees)

Davis Schneider (Toronto Blue Jays)

Now why does any of this matter. Well, to put it simply, baseball has an offense problem. And it has for some time now. Pitching has been dominating the sport for over two decades, and while strikeouts and guys throwing 100 mph can be cool, fans want to see hitting.

Home runs sell tickets. They get people to tune into games, buy jerseys, and become fans of the players who are hitting them. Just like the long ball did in the infamous — and awesome — steroid era of baseball, it can help grow the sport’s popularity.

This all comes with a major caveat: do these bats actually make a difference? We don’t know for sure after less than a week, but the small sample size was certainly promising.

Even with some early success, it’ll take a while for players to get used to the feeling of the new bats.

Baseball players are extremely sensitive to feel. The grip of a certain pitch, the amount of pine tar on their batting gloves, and of course, the weight of a bat. If guys feel comfortable with the torpedo style, then great. If they don’t, it’s probably not enough of an advantage to force a change.

Aaron Judge — the reigning AL MVP — said that while he tried the bat, he wasn’t a fan of the feel. He hit four home runs in the Yanks opening series with his very normal bat so I’d say that was probably a good call.

That said, if they do prove to be that big of a difference maker after a full 162-game season, players will have no choice but to figure out how to swing these things.

For the sake of baseball, let's hope these bats do turn out to be a gamechanger for hitters. It's about time they get a little leg up on pitchers.