Posted by: Joe (joe.flowers@nofreewill.com) on Sun Jun 13 12:26:05 2010

Out of the baseball box and technically speaking, a real torque/a powerfully effective torque can be applied with no apparent evidence of motion. For example, auto mechanics know this fact all too well when they use torque wrenches to tighten down spark plugs or tighten tire lug nuts. At some point, the spark plug or lug nut stops rotating (or apparently stops rotating) but the same torque/force is still being applied. You can apply a constant torque - a constant accelerating force - to a lug nut and it will spin faster at first and then quickly slow down and stop rotating when its frictional torque against the rim equals the torque being applied by the torque wrench. i.e., just because there is no motion (or apparent motion) about a point does not imply that no torque is being applied.

If Pujols let the bat lose (bottom hand torque = 0) the instant after ball contact, thus allowing "Whip" to take over, then the bat would fly straight out, tangential to the circle his hands are rotating on and the bat would not magically pull around and head back toward 3rd base or toward the catcher. Since this is clearly not the case, then he must be applying bottom hand torque the instant before contact with the ball too.
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