Former SF Giants pitching prospect at the forefront of the torpedo bat boom

Who would have guessed that a pitcher would be at the forefront of the torpedo bat boom? Former SF Giants pitching prospect and CEO of Marucci Sports Kurt Ainsworth expects to see a boom in demand following the New York Yankees' demonstration last weekend.

Former SF Giants pitching prospect at the forefront of the torpedo bat boom

That demonstration was a loud one and impossible to ignore in the baseball world, as Yankees hitters clubbed 15 home runs in the first weekend of the year. This included a nine-homer effort in a 20-9 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on March 29.

Not surprisingly, Aaron Judge was in the middle of this onslaught. He blasted three home runs in that game alone. You might expect that from the Yankees slugger, but another six home runs were recorded in that victory.

The focus shifted from the outcome to the process pretty quickly. The torpedo bats became the focus and have been adopted almost instantly by many teams. The Giants are rumored to be among the teams that plan on experimenting with torpedo bats soon.

The hitters might be the biggest benefactors of this new bat, but Kurt Ainsworth did downplay the impact to Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of The New York Post, suggesting that success might be more modest than initially anticipated:

Of course, there is another benefactor in this, and that is bat manufacturers. Ainsworth told Andrew Greif of NBC News that he has already seen a surge in sales, and expects adoption by hitters to spike in the coming weeks.

That would be great news for a company like Marucci Sports and Louisville Slugger, both of whom produce bats for major league hitters. I have not picked up a bat in years, and I even have a Marucci bat in my home. One of these days, I will get back into playing baseball.

Ainsworth has not thrown a pitch on a major league mound since 2004. That was the same year he co-founded Marucci Bat Co. Who would have guessed that he would be right in the middle of what appears to be a revolution for hitters 20 years after his last appearance in the majors.

The right-handed pitcher was a first-round pick by the Giants in 1999. The Giants had high expectations for him along with Jerome Williams and Jesse Foppert. They viewed that trio as the future of their rotation. Not surprisingly, they received a lot of calls about all three pitchers in trade inquiries.

The Giants were initially reluctant, but Ainsworth was eventually shipped to the Baltimore Orioles in a four-player deal that sent Sidney Ponson to San Francisco in 2003. Ainsworth only made 10 more appearances following that trade. Since then, he has embarked on a pretty successful business venture, and one that looks to be trending upward quickly.