By now, you’ve probably heard about baseball’s greatest innovation since the curveball: MLB’s new “torpedo” bat, the reconfigured bat that moves the barrel — or the sweet spot — closer to the handle, seemingly turning even the most meager of hitters into home run machines.

They look like baseball bats morphing into bowling pins, their ends flaring into an aggressive bulge that suddenly tapers. So how do they work?

The Yankees' new "Torpedo" bats are the talk of baseball. The bats -- which Major League Baseball confirmed are legal \-\- are defined by an untraditional barrel, which rests closer to the hitter's hands.

Aaron Leanhardt, the former Michigan physics professor who got his PhD at MIT and was part of the Yankees organization for six-and-a-half years, had a simple question he was trying to answer when coming up with the idea for the new torpedo-shaped bats five of the team’s players are using this season.

The Yankees just clobbered a MLB record 15 home runs in their first three games thanks in part to a new style of bat developed by a 48-year-old physicist.

Standing in front of his Yankee Stadium locker on Sunday, Anthony Volpe presented two bats for inspection. In his left hand, the Yankees shortstop displayed one he had used last season; in his right,

Throughout the season, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball,

Jeff Passan joins "Get Up" to break down the science behind the torpedo bats the Yankees have adopted and why they are allowed by Major League Baseball.