From the Inland Northwest to professional playoff baseball: the science and crafters behind a new bat shape sported by the likes of Mariners star Cal Raleigh

When Seattle Mariners breakout star Cal Raleigh steps to the plate Friday afternoon, he will be wielding an obviously tapered weapon.

Raleigh, affectionately nicknamed “Big Dumper,” has demolished Major League Baseball records this season, and will hope to add more home runs in the final matchup with the Detroit Tigers Friday evening.

To do so, Raleigh has, and will use, a burgeoning bat design growing ever more popular in professional baseball.

After more than a century of using traditional, uniform, tapered-from-end-to-end bats, more and more MLB players like Raleigh are gravitating toward the torpedo bat, which features a fatter barrel that tapers at the end, much like its namesake. The bowling pin shape was developed by current Miami Marlins field coordinator Aaron Leonardht, an MIT