Pitching machines suggestions?

[Thornes70]

Now that my son's little league is about at an end, I've been thinking about picking up a pitching machine & wonder if anyone has had any experience with them.

There is a slew of them out there that pitch regular-sized baseballs and the ones that shoot golfball-sized baseballs from about $100 - $250 that I'm looking at, all are portable & weigh inbetween 20-60 lbs.

Maybe someone has one that they could recommend or not recommend? I'm also curious about opinions of getting one that pitches regular size baseballs (power over accuracy) or the golfball-sized ones (accuracy over power).

Any tips?

[DeputyDogg1985]

Dude haven't you seen Happy Gilmore those things are dangerous.

[Thornes70]

LOL yeah, about a thousand times - my son is infatuated with Adam Sandler movies

Actually, here's some that I've been looking at: Baseball Pitching Machines - Over 30 to choose from

The Power Streak Pitching Machine ($329) keeps looking like the best one, but my wife insists on trying to find a cheaper one. So the next couple on my list would be something like the Heater Junior or even the Personal Pitcher.

[dmiller68]

Our baseball league uses these:

Ultimate Pitching Machine - Baseball Tips

These are pretty good from a speed perspective. They are very verible overall and take awhile to dial in. However, once they are they work pretty good.

I have use these at the batting cages:

Zooka 720 Youth Model

They work pretty good... I have only used them a couple times.

[Peench]

My son's league uses that ultimate pitching machine one as well. Pretty simple to set up and use.

[Thornes70]

So that's pretty much like a spring loaded deal where you what - step on a peddle or something to pitch the ball? Price is about right, but it takes a person to manually operate it, right?

[Peench]

Yep, exactly. It has an adjustable spring and you lock it back into place, put the ball on it and then step on the pedal to release the ball. If you aren't standing behind a net and your son cranks one at you, you could be hit. Are you looking for something a bit more automatic?

[Thornes70]

Yeah, I'm actually looking for one that doesn't require manual operation (hell, someone's gonna have to get the baseballs once they've been hit!).

[dmiller68]

Zooka - ones are not automatic either. You load one ball at a time. As far as getting hit I haven't yet. Now that our kids have moved on to kid pitch I don't need to be out there pitching the ball.

[Thornes70]

Yeah, that's why the more I look, I keep coming back to the Heater Junior model. Plus, you can use it for ground & fly balls, too (yeah, that's pretty lazy! ).

The one topic my wife & I were talking about was that it only pitches up to 46 mph, but I figure putting it a bit closer will make it seem faster - I'm just not sure how close is safe... Still doing research.