Picking Up The Baseball

I personally use a drill called "eyeglasses."

Hmmm. . . the kid hasn't had his eyes checked in a while.

Seriously, have them checked.  Our eye Dr. now recommends twice annually.  The expense of an appointment to see if there are changes has been worth it (at least to us).

bigmac, an eye exam cant hurt. But, on the other hand , it does happen that certain pitchers are great at hiding ball/ deception. It happens. My college son has days where after a game he will say he just wasn't picking up the ball. Background, sun, time of day, haze. They all play a part. Sounds like he adjusted well with an RBI single. As far as drills go the only one I am familiar with is a chart that Dusty Baker recommends. I believe it is in his book on hitting. Which by the way is a terrific book.

Look for an optometrist that specializes in sports vision. much to my amazement, there is a lot more to vision than the eye chart. My son has 20/13 vision but he was lacking in two areas that are key In baseball and tennis. There was a thread on here that discussed visual acuity. I will try to find it.

ETA I upgraded my iPad to iOS 8.3 from 6.something. i have no clue what is going on and if I am lucky enough to find where to search for something, no matter what search terms I enter, I am getting recipes for artichoke dip. So just google on baseball vision acuity and you will find articles on the subject. 

Check to see if he is on his front side prematurely. If he is moving forward and not staying back as the ball is coming, things will speed up dramatically on him and since his head will be coming forward with his body, he will have an even more difficult time picking up the ball (especially if it has movement)!

Stay on the backside and don't drift forward.

If it keeps happening try to figure out if its timing or just missing the ball.

Here's a perspective, bigmac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nddjj4zl-5Y

I second the eye exam.

eye exam for sure...could be his head is dipping/coming off plane during the swing.  That sometimes gets the "I saw it out of his hand, then it disappeared when I swung, then the catcher had it" comment

Excellent advice -- thanks all.  (I enjoyed that video JP.)

I was reading your comment with regards to your son. I'm the director of BrainShape Center for Brain & Body Excellence. We train athletes at all levels to improve brain timing which will enhance processing and ultimately improve timing and focus in baseball.