![]() The type of wood and its density factor into how long a bat might last before it snaps. “They like when people order a lot of bats, so I think they’re happy I’ve been breaking a lot of them.” “The more bats they make and send to me, the more money they get,’ Marte said with a laugh. Do the bat-makers ever complain that he’s destroying too much of their product? Marte shrugged. Marté uses a 30-ounce, 32 1/2-inch bat and has contracts with three companies - Dinger, Tater and Rawlings. Sometimes, you make a good swing and it still breaks.” “Sometimes, you hit it off the end and the bat breaks. “It’s just the swing,” Marté said through interpreter Mike González. The team’s most prolific bat-snappers this season are Moran and Starling Marté. “The good news,” manager Clint Hurdle said with a grin, “is we’ve got plenty of bats.” The commissioner’s office declined to share its data, but sources told The Athletic the Pirates have tended in recent years to break their bats more often than the league average. MLB keeps detailed statistics on how many bats break over the course of each season. Miss-hit it someplace else, especially if contact is made down toward the narrow handle, and the wood will vibrate, bend and, sometimes, fracture. Hit the ball on the sweet spot, and good thing can happen. The collision of ball and bat lasts only about 0.7 milliseconds, but it can generate up to 8,000 pounds of force. “They’re made of wood,” Moran said with a shrug. He knew right away it was time to move on to another bat. A few weeks later, Moran heard a distinctive snap when he made contact. It was a good one.”ĭuncan’s legacy in the big leagues didn’t last forever. “I picked up the bat and I pinch-hit a homer with it, so I rode it out for a little while. ![]() I never played with him,” said Moran, who joined the Pirates in 2018. He never made it to the majors and this summer pitched in an independent league. A few days before spring training began in 2017, the right-hander was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Duncan was the Pirates’ 13th-round draft pick in 2014.
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