"Travel Ball - not seeing the value for us"
After reading most of this thread, the honest answer I came to is "you may be right". It may not have any value at all, especially through a monetary lens and in your situation. But, I guess it really just depends on what your kid really wants to do with his time.
However, I will say from experience that it's hard to simulate live pitching and split second reads. I've seen quite a few gym monsters/cage warriors fail badly when the pressure gets real. You know, the whole "steel sharpens steel" thing. jm2c....