Pitching Machines for Catchers ?

[batdragon]

Hi everyone,

I am thinking of purchasing a cheap pitching machine to work on catching skills with my DD.

It seems like you could work on receiving, blocking and pop ups pretty easily if you had a machine.

I have seen a ton of spring training MLB videos on youtube with the catchers working on skills against pitching machines.

Any thoughts on this ?
Does anyone have good experience with this type of approach ?
Good machines to use ?

It seems like you could get a ton of reps in within a short amount of time. Also, as side benefit, I probably wouldn't use it for hitting/swings much.... but I could see it useful for bunting reps.

Thx,
Batdragon

 

[knightsb]

We use Jugs Lite Flight + Jugs Pitching Machine for working on our catchers blocking mechanics.

 

[sru]

Yup, great tool for blocking, receiving, framing etc. I like to point the pitches down for the catchers to block off of a bounce.

 

[Anthony Vertuccio]

I love to use the machine for the catchers!! The JUGS balls are harder to catch also since I think there is some backspin on them so they have to concentrate harder

 

[coach james]

I agree with all above...
I used the jugs single wheel on my catchers after they watched the necc DVD... worked great

 

[batdragon]

Thanks everyone.

So the Jugs Jr supports the following ball types:

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Throws 11" or 12" softballs, JUGS Pearl, JUGS Sting-Free softballs, JUGS Lite-Flite softballs, JUGS Softie softballs and the JUGS Bulldog polyballs.
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So for...
Blocking use Jugs-Lite flight....correct ?

What should be used to work on receiving ? Regular softballs ?

I would think the regular balls would have accuracy issues caused by the seams ??

 

[knightsb]

You can use any of the ball for any of the drills, they all have advantages and disadvantages. The Jugs Jr. (same machine we have), is a single wheel pitching machine. The faster you dial up the speed, the more backspin (riseball spin) is imparted on the ball, that in itself is counter to a normal dropball with clockwise spin. We use Lite-Flite balls with the machine closer at a slower speed (to reduce the backspin). We use the Lite-Flite because it is a very soft ball compared to a regular softball, so that the catchers don't get too bruised up as they are learning their technique. Many times we skip the machine all together and just throw the Lite-Flite balls. Working on framing, we use the standard dimple balls. Rarely do we feed regular softball through the machine because it tears them up so fast. One thing I would avoid is throwing the cheap softballs with the machine, there is a transfer of the outer skin of the softball to the Jugs wheel which can lead to unpredictable results coming out of the machine.

 

[gatorcoach]

Baseline pitching machine is cheaper at $649 and works great for our backyard cage and catching. Great way to break in glove as well. Jugs is a better machine, but Baseline works very well and cheaper!!!!

Agree w/ sting free machine balls. Work great!!