Pregame notes: Those dang torpedo bats

Assuming Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers' 1-for-2 day with two walks while using one on Monday only heightened the intrigue, torpedo bats remain a popular topic in the White Sox clubhouse, if only from trend-chasing reporters asking players about it.

If there's a White Sox player prepared to use it on Tuesday night, they have yet to identify themselves, but there's enough talk of orders being placed and efforts to learn specifications to suspect someone is going to trot one out in a game eventually. Some hitters are able to make custom orders right away, while more marginal players have little interaction with their bat vendor outside of a sales rep's annual visit to the team complex in spring training. Some would need to see a detailed breakdown of where their contact tends to be clustered to know if a torpedo bat would help them, some have an innate sense.

"I just wish that I had a torpedo bat because there was a lot of contact on the label on my bat when I played," said Will Venable. "I had a longer swing with longer arms and got jammed all the time. So, yeah, I can only speak for myself that I would have had an awareness and definitely moved my barrel down the bat if I could."

"I’ve used the same bat for nine years so I think i’ll stick with that, but it’s pretty interesting, I mean it makes sense," said Andrew Benintendi. "Only thing I've changed with my bat is the length and the weight. Same model since 2016. Just longer and heavier."

Davis Martin added that at least at this stage, he can't see the presence of a torpedo bat altering his attack plan against a hitter beyond what a scouting report already dictated, which will evolve with the results hitters show they can produce. But there's an especially chaotic element to this hubbub taking place during the season and the results it might create, since feel, balance and rhythm are so essential for hitters who don't want to be going through a calibration process mid-stream.

Still, it stands to reason that hitters would try anything that might improve their contact rate in a world where the influx of velocity is such that Benintendi--three years removed from making an All-Star team for a season where he batted .304 with five home runs--said hitter for power is a more viable path than hitting for average.

"I think I either have to hit .300 or run some homers out," Benintendi said. "And I think the pitching now is so good, bullpens are so good, starters throw so hard--it’s not that I can’t hit .300, but I think it’s more attainable for me to hit for a little more slug than average. Ideally, you want to do both, which is obviously possible. If I can hit 25-30 [homers], that’d be awesome."

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Gus Varland has been placed on the Triple-A injured list with a right forearm strain, per the White Sox. The team said he's still being evaluated, so a recovery plan/timeline is not yet at hand.

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Shane Smith is making his major league debut while also trying to maintain the streak of White Sox starters not allowing an earned run. He has longtime friend Mike Vasil, who literally made his debut on Monday, to lean on for advice on handling the emotions. Which is good, because Smith's manager isn't going to force his way into his player's ear.

"It’s not going to come from me," Venable said. "He has teammates, guys like Martín [Pérez] and all these guys that have done it and experienced it. If that’s something they choose to offer to him, I’m sure those are the conversations they will be having. I won’t have anything for him."

Two burly Twins left-handers--Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach--who sat on Monday against Pérez, are loaded at the top of the Minnesota lineup as an early test to the viability of Smith's new changeup.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Twins

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