Torpedo Bats, A Yankees Home-Run Parade & First Weekend Takeaways
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno and DVR discuss a weekend filled with homers in the Bronx, 'Torpedo' bats, Mookie Betts' two-homer game and other takeaways from the first weekend of the 2025 season. Plus, an early look at bat speed risers and fallers, and where the money was spent in pursuit of fantasy baseball roster upgrades this weekend.
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Rundown
4:37 Rule 3.02: Bats
10:07 An Attempt to Properly Account for the Impact of the 'Torpedo' Bat in Yankees-Brewers series
14:05 Mookie Betts' Surprising Two-Homer Game
19:27 Colton Cowser's Thumb Injury; Opportunity for Heston Kjerstad
27:08 Spencer Strider Progresses in Rehab Assignment
31:59 How Many PAs to Determine Bat Speed Changes?
42:47 Where the Money Went -- Weekend Fantasy Baseball Pickups
Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
Follow DVR on Bluesky: @dvr.bsky.social
e-mail: ratesandbarrels@gmail.com
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
Producer: Brian Smith
Executive Producer: Derek VanRiper
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Rates and barrels. |
| 0:12.5 | It's Monday, March 31st. |
| 0:14.4 | Derek Ben-Riper, Enoceras here with you recapping a busy first weekend in the Major League Baseball season. |
| 0:21.1 | We have allegations of juiced balls. |
| 0:23.8 | We have torpedo bats. |
| 0:25.4 | We have another fab runs. |
| 0:27.7 | We have some players on the move. |
| 0:29.2 | We have new closers. |
| 0:30.2 | We have all sorts of things that are kicking around from the last few days to talk about. |
| 0:34.4 | Torpedo bats. |
| 0:35.9 | Torpedo bats. |
| 0:36.8 | That's the only thing anyone's really |
| 0:38.4 | talking, writing, expressing any sort of emotion about right now around baseball. It's all about |
| 0:45.2 | the torpedo bat. So we'll dig into what the torpedo bat is and why it exists. And |
| 0:50.9 | there's going to be a lot of bat talk on the show this week. Let me just put that out there right now on this Monday morning. |
| 0:56.4 | A lot of bat talk coming. |
| 0:58.2 | A special guest tomorrow, who he's a bat expert. |
| 1:01.7 | All he is is an expert on bats, on science of bats, on the physics of bats. |
| 1:06.2 | That's going to be a whole show about, you know, the science behind choosing a bat. You may be familiar with |
| 1:13.2 | some of his work. Keenan Long from Longball Labs will be on tomorrow. You know, he was this, I did a |
| 1:19.7 | story about how no two bats are the same. He's a bat tester that helps players get the best |
| 1:24.5 | out of their bats by picking, making sure that they are to the specific |
... |
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