Another day, another torpedo story. Elly Da Le Cruz tried the torpedo bat for the first time Monday and unleashed this detonation: a 5-4-4-7 line, with two homers and a stolen base. A player as talented as De La Cruz doesn't need much help, but he's likely to continue the bat use for a while.
According to Yahoo colleague Chris Cwik, we know of nine players who are currently using the torpedo bat. Start with the Yankees' core four — Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm. And apparently, Giancarlo Stanton's power surge last October (seven homers) was fueled by torpedo lumber.
Also using the new equipment are De La Cruz, Jose Trevino, Adley Rutschman, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner. Rutschman homered twice on Opening Day. Swanson already has a couple of homers, including one in Monday's rout of the Athletics.
Every league is a copycat league. Look for hitters all throughout baseball to at least consider a change to their bat. And given how pitching has dominated the game for the last few years, I'm not opposed to any reasonable trend that could help scoring. (If the Michael Scott Paper Company doesn't make it — free shipping! free pancakes! — maybe Michael can look into bat distribution.)
Back to Swanson. He was moved to my bench Monday in a league that requires weekly switches. I missed Kyle Manzardo's fast start and wanted to get him involved, so Swanson was the odd hitter out. That roster also includes Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker, so perhaps I was trying to avoid being too reliant on one lineup.
But it's also possible I overlooked another possible cheat code — Sacramento's park.
Is the Sacramento park about to be a fantasy baseball wonderland?
The nomad Athletics are waylaid in Sacramento for the immediate future, and Sutter Health Park is almost certainly going to be a better hitter's park than the Oakland Coliseum was. Maybe the difference will be significant. One game tells us nothing, it just makes us curious.
The timing lined up for a Chicago outburst. The Athletics were starting Joey Estes, their No. 5 man. My friend Joe Sheehan has the A's bullpen ranked as the No. 25 relief unit in baseball, and if the Athletics fall behind, dominant closer Mason Miller isn't likely to pitch.
