Pitching machine advice

Anyone? Please.

I have used one of those machines, but it was just once or twice, years ago. A youth coach I knew asked me help out, and showed me how to use it for batting practice.  I thought it was a piece of junk. It took forever to charge up and throw.  I put it aside and threw BP myself.  Much better.

 

Since you're pleading for advice, I will give you some.

 

Do not waste $1000 or more on a pitching machine. It's not that much fun hitting off of one, and it's no fun at all picking up the balls afterwards. Players use them to get a lot of cuts in quickly, especially in the off-season, but it's not that much fun, and not all that useful.

 

If I was you, instead I would:

 

1. Find a men's 30 or 40+ baseball team. That would be 100 times more fun.
2. Find a men's fast pitch softball team. That would be at least 50 times more fun.
3. Find a co-ed or men's slow pitch softball team. That would also be 50 times more fun.
4. Take $10  and go to the local batting cage and hit there. That would be 10 times more fun and 100 times cheaper.

Thanks.
You seem angry.
That seems biased like you have something against pitching machines. I've seen it in videos and it does not take long to toss the ball when one is put in it.

As I said before I don't mind getting the balls. Good exercise. I love hitting and have been to batting cages and I enjoyed them.
There's a 30 day money back so if I don't like it ill just return it.

I would love to play hardball not softball. There should be a hardball league for adults like there is softball and if not that's a shame.

I'm not going to post in here anymore since no one cares. Bye.

Wow. That sure is rude of you to like my post. I know why.

I got a Zooka ZS740 with auto loader and 12 5 ounce yellow dimple balls 2 days ago. Wednesday. It's absolutely awesome looking and major easy to connect the loader to the gun and gun to the tripod. No need for instructions it's incredible. 30lbs is all the machine and tripod weighs.

I drove there and the guy there was so nice he offered me the loader for $50-$60 off because it had a very tiny bow on the very back of it. Which was fixed by just pushing it in slightly. He saved me a total of $60.95. Got everything for $1k.

It took me about only 5 minutes to unbox it and sit the gun/machine on the tripod. The hardest part for me was trying to figure out how to open the 3 tripod legs haha. The loader was just as easy and self explanatory. It's amazingly easy. I call the machine a gun because that's exactly what it looks like. Like a futuristic laser gun. Haha.

You're supposed to leave it plugged in at all times when not using it. It's got a regulator thing computer software thing that knows when to charge and stop. It's automatic. When I plugged it in it shows on the LED display screen two lines -- and evaluates the battery for a few minutes then tells you the percentage charge. It said 95. So after a little bit it was at 100.

I haven't used it yet cus of the absolute crap weather in Washington state. Here in tukeila we've had way more rain in the first 5 days of May then the entire month of may for years. It's rained pretty much many many hrs everyday.

Anyway I can't wait to try it on Sunday or Monday cus we deposed to get more crummy rain today/Saturday.

I am not sure how close you are to Puget sound, but there is a very good men's league.

https://pssbl.com/i/4/pssbl-2014-league-information

Looks like they have several levels.

Try this as well. It will show msl/mail leagues in the 98108 zip code.
https://www.msblnational.com/F...454380000003&z=2

Hi. Tried out the Zooka ZS740 yesterday.
Pertty cool. Quiet! Real baseballs not very accurate so I may return it. It spins the balls which is good. But sometimes they're all over the place. Like one pitch can drop a foot in front of home plate. Hit the ground. The next pitch was high and outside. Now that's horrible! Then the next pitch can be in the strike zone. Just not consistent. Dimple balls much better but sometimes out of strike zone by many inches and then in strike zone.

Fun tho mostly.

My bat is a 34" Easton. -5. What does -5 mean? Is that good?

You'll pretty much have the same results with any machine if you try to use real balls  - not able to launch consistently due to the seams.  There are some balls made for machines that are just like real balls but very low seams. 

 

-5 means the bat is 5 ounces less than the length.  So, your 34" bat weighs 29 oz.

 

 

Buggs, you can get a 1 wheel Jugs machine in your area off Craig's list. ( I saw a couple of them on there). they throw real baseballs and they throw good strikes. get one with short legs (3) and it will be easy to handle and set up.

this is what I would do anyway; that zooka is too expensive if it doesn't throw 95% strikes.  good luck

Thank you.
I need power though and an auto feeder that allows you to set the delay between pitches to at least 10 seconds or so. I want to be able to admire my hits. Eg watch the ball. And up to 65mph to 70 mph from the mound.

I didn't see any on Craig's list like this. And I only saw one one wheel jugs for I forget.

I realized with the Zooka it wasn't that accurate. It might be in the 90% range with dimple balls but probably not with real balls. I tried it for a couple hrs with a friend yesterday. We manually loaded the balls.

I tried it with the auto loader today in his yard. 40mph or a bit slower. I only had it pitch. No batter. I wanted to try the auto loader. The pitch delay was about 3-5 seconds and that was way to fast if I was batting. I read the delay depends on pitch speed and angle. You can't manually change it. Max delay Zooka told me was about 6-6.5 seconds between pitches. That's to fast for me.

Plus I have to make two trips when by myself. I can't carry everything from my truck to a field in one go. I need to figure out a way to make some kind of a cart or something to help.

I tried the Zooka again today. Wow. Not nearly accurate enough with real balls or dimple. It sucks. I set it up with the auto feeder. Took over 20 balls to get accurate enough to try hitting. When I hit I was almost hit once. Several balls landed in front of the plate. Several we're high and outside. Out of 35 or so I got maybe 4 good hits. That doesn't mean that only 4 pitches were accurate. I am guessing but accuracy seemed less then 70%. 52-55mph about 58 feet from the plate. I'm returning it.

It's too much for me to carry all in one trip by myself from my truck to field.  so I'm not getting another machine unless I have a cart for it. I don't know what I could use to haul a pitching machine, fewer and tripod. Portable. No idea.

I was offered by a company the baseline pitching machine and auto feeder. But I still need a battery and don't know what kind to get or where. I don't think any field I would go to has an electricle outlet near.

Hi. Here's a quick test video I made of a pitching machine.

http://youtu.be/8S8qwjmTYaU

It's 27 seconds.

Please check it out on you tube and please in this thread let me know what you think of it. Please. I will have a couple more test videos on you tube in a few minutes and I will post the links here. I would appreciate all of you so much if you could give feedback. Please. Thank you all.

Here's the rest of the test videos. Please watch them all except I suppose the first one is not necessary as it doesn't show balls being pitched. It's for reading speed only.

Test 5. Dimple balls aim up, sorta ok.
http://youtu.be/yBMDEC1hvqA

Test 6. Real balls aim up not that great.
http://youtu.be/9O2Ii3ocJ_8

Pitching machine test 1.
Show speed, angle, where it is next to mound.
http://youtu.be/vg1gryBGC7Q

Pitching machine test 2. Same as 1 but now you see it pitch.
http://youtu.be/WDKWZt2kXjw

Test 3. Same as 1 and 2 but with real balls.
http://youtu.be/j6xcoC6VqjA

Test 4. Same as before but manual a couple.
http://youtu.be/qCTexfJzkpA

Anyone please?