Should I buy her new balls?

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Apr 6, 2017
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Daughter officially has been moved up to a 14u team. She's played up on this team here and there the last two years. I have a bucket of good 12 inch(mixed and old) balls. Should I buy a dozen new matching balls? Maybe champro gfp.
I bought her a dozen 11 inch Rawlings from dicks when she started pitching and although those were cheap balls she never complained or had favorite balls. Now I see her digging in the used 12 inch bucket. Looking for the good seams and not slick.
Do you guys keep fresh balls for your pitchers?

I hate to be wasteful the 12 inch balls I sorted look pretty nice to me. But they are mixed.
I see trump, shark, dream seam and Wilson just to name a few..lol.
 
May 15, 2016
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In our bucket of well used balls we have about 4 my DD always picks for pitching practice, and that serves us well. The rest she and her sister use for infield and batting practice.
 
Jan 28, 2017
1,661
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My DD has one ball in her bag that she throw each lesson. We normally hit 11 inch balls instead of 12 inch balls. The girl that pitches with us has a ball for fastball, change up ball, and curve ball. LOL. She is lights out during all with one ball during the game. LOL.
 
May 15, 2016
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We normally hit 11 inch balls instead of 12 inch balls.

Sorry for the hijack, [MENTION=15677]Dandan111[/MENTION], I was curious about this idea.
[MENTION=15496]Tango[/MENTION]-is hitting 11" balls a common practice, that I never heard of? How did you come to use 11" for hitting? Do you use it for live pitching and/or tee work?
 
Sep 11, 2017
43
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Seattle, WA
Sorry for the hijack, [MENTION=15677]Dandan111[/MENTION], I was curious about this idea.
[MENTION=15496]Tango[/MENTION]-is hitting 11" balls a common practice, that I never heard of? How did you come to use 11" for hitting? Do you use it for live pitching and/or tee work?

This is what we do also. DD will hit 11" balls, baseballs, and mini skillz balls. Oh and uncooked pinto beans from a bag with a slim stick bat. Seems to work as she is hitting .571 in TB and .660 in HS. It makes the 12" look huge.
 
May 15, 2016
926
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This is what we do also. DD will hit 11" balls, baseballs, and mini skillz balls. Oh and uncooked pinto beans from a bag with a slim stick bat. Seems to work as she is hitting .571 in TB and .660 in HS. It makes the 12" look huge.

I've seen something similar to beans used for side toss. The balls, were they thrown side or front toss?
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
Yes, buy her new balls. The Dudley Thungerheats, Dream Seams or Trump balls by Evilsports have the best seams. I buy two dozen every year of whichever are on sale at the time for my team. I have a hitting bucket for Winter and one for Summer Tournaments. Every tournament, I rotate in two new balls for my pitchers to warm up with. After the tourney, they go into my Summer bucket and two of the older balls get rotated into my Winter bucket. The two balls that are the softest from my Winter bucket get thrown in with the tub of "hitting" balls. The tub of hitting balls is used for hitting practices throughout Winter and the Winter bucket gets used for regular practices on the field for Fall and Early Spring. The Summer bucket only gets used for warm-ups at tourneys. This keeps a constant rotation of good balls in any of the three and gives honest feedback to my hitters and players as well as my pitchers.

ETA: I use the small, golf ball size holey balls from TCB and a mixture of bottle caps from the 5 gallon jugs of water that go on the water coolers with the hitting stick. The bottle caps will continue to move throughout and it makes the hitters track it all the way through contact or they will whiff. It's great eye/ball tracking exercise for my hitters. I'll have to try the beans though. Sounds like fun!
 
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May 15, 2016
926
18
I have a hitting bucket for Winter and one for Summer Tournaments. Every tournament, I rotate in two new balls for my pitchers to warm up with. After the tourney, they go into my Summer bucket and two of the older balls get rotated into my Winter bucket. The two balls that are the softest from my Winter bucket get thrown in with the tub of "hitting" balls. The tub of hitting balls is used for hitting practices throughout Winter and the Winter bucket gets used for regular practices on the field for Fall and Early Spring. The Summer bucket only gets used for warm-ups at tourneys.

My head is spinning.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
My head is spinning.

Yeah, It's kind of convoluted but basically I rotate balls through my buckets by having my pitchers grab 2 brand new balls and have them warm-up for the entire tournament with those 2. Once over, they go into bucket one. 2 of the older balls from bucket one go into bucket 2. 2 of the worst from bucket 2 go into a big tub of older balls. The tub is used for hitting year round. Bucket 2 is used for practices year round and bucket one is only used for tournaments and warm-ups.

So what it comes down to is Bucket 1 is full of gently used, almost new balls for tournament warm-ups and every year I have at least one good bucket of balls to start the tournament season with. Bucket 2 has very good balls in it for practices and the hitting tub is full of serviceable balls to use for hitting practice and has the added benefit of having a lot of them in it.
 
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