Using pitching machine balls for game play

[HollowMan]

Those balls are made of the same material as the dimpled pitching machine balls. The seams and lack of dimples cause them to be thrown less consistently by the machine than dimpled balls, so they are slightly harder to hit. However, they have the same downsides for the fielders - i.e. they are unsafe to field. They bounce strangely compared to a real softball - you better be decking all infielders out with masks if they're trying to field them. In addition, if you're using a single wheel jugs-type machine, the wheels of the pitching machines impart so much backspin to the balls it also makes fielding difficult - anyone who has watched girls hit those balls on a field has seen balls that are hit back to the circle and then crazily spin all the way to the dugout. Also they feel weird when you grab them and throw them. They're pitching machine balls, not game balls.

 

[starsnuffer]

The really light seamed training balls will dance all over the place.

The harder seamed balls designed for pitching machines are unsafe.

My advice would be to have a parent hold their hands behind their back, and have an 8 year old throw one of the pitching machine balls at their face. Sometimes you can say more without saying anything at all.

-W

 

[KevinC]

Also make sure the person feeding the machine has some guidance on how to present the ball in a consistant way so the batter knows that it's coming. I've seen many times where the guy feeding the machine does it in such a way that there is no way to tell when it's going to come out.

I stand with my left shoulder facing the batter and hold a ball at the top of the chute with my left hand while I do a windmill with a ball in my right hand. When the right hand hits the "release" point I push the ball from the left hand into the machine. This avoids the delay that can happen if you try to feed the ball from your windmill into the machine.

 

[starsnuffer]

To Screwball's point, synthetic balls (as opposed to leather) flatten out their seams very quickly. It might be worth looking into using those.

-W

 

[Bill Bollinger]

By now, it's probably apparent that I'm not crazy about this idea. I'll go ahead and put my reasons out there to see if there's agreement or if I'm off base.
1) While it might help give more consistent pitches and let some kids get more hits, it will likely do more harm than good. This may give them a "swing at anything" mentality, and cause a lot of grief when they face the inconsistency of a live pitcher.

First off, at these age levels you can use real balls in the jugs machines without a problem. It will mean you destroy 1-2 balls every 2-3 games, that shouldn't be cost prohibitive.

For me, I would rather teach girls to be aggressive at the plate versus being picky. I want my girls to want to hit every pitch. I can teach them pitch selection later in life.

2) It may help to give them something to hit, but for the fielders it's going to be much different than handling a real ball. The feel of catching and throwing will be much different. It's going to put them at a great disadvantage if/when they play against a team that plays with a standard ball.

You should tell them that they can use real balls in those machines. I would estimate that the MPH at that level will be ~30-35mph. Totally acceptable if using real balls.

3) This is a drastic step to take just to get more consistent pitches. I believe a better first step would be to work with the umpires and identify issues affecting pitches. The condition of the wheel, the release of the ball - put together a protocol checklist to follow, and see that all umps do it uniformly. This had really not been done because hitting hadn't been viewed as a widespread problem.

Part of this is to encourage aggressive batters, get them on base and score runs. For every 1 pitcher you have 8 other players who will bat at some point in their life. If they have success at early ages, have fun scoring runs they just might keep playing. On the other hand you have them in the field or at the plate waiting for the pitcher to throw a few strikes and if she does throw strikes, K-ing every batter, it isn't IMHO producing more/better players at this age bracket.

4) Like Momo'sDad said - stikeouts are part of the game. In t-ball, we gave them a base on each bat to give them the opportunity to experience what they are working toward. At what point does accommodating some become punishing others?

The only person you are punishing at this age by using a machine is a potential pitcher. Now of course there is going to be a ton of people clamoring on how their DD can pitch great at 6-7-8 or whatever, but those same players if they started pitching when they were 7-8-9 or 8-9 or whatever as they are getting into 10U will do just fine when they are 16-17-18. In our league we want the 8U to be in high scoring games. We want them think of this like Arena Football is relative to Real Football. Both use a similar ball, try to score touchdowns and tackle each other, but they are not quite the same thing. Fun factor in this sport needs to be higher at young ages IMHO.

Bill

 

[rowdy]

They do have a new leather ball that is specifically designed for machines. Since I pitch to my team I don't use the machine so I can't tell you if they are any good or not but they are leather and have flat seams to the ball goes through the tunnel on the machine the same way every time.

 

[PA SB Dad]

I actually looked into this last year as I wanted to introduce a pitching machine into our 7/8 year old coach pitch division in our LL. We have the ATEC Rookie machine, and there were a number of problems in trying to use that machine. I don't think the JUGS machine would be much better, but I have not actually tried it.

My original thoughts were to use Incrediballs, as I thought they would be the best to hit and field at that age level. Even though they are compressable, the pitches initially coming out of the machine are fairly consistent. The problem is when the balls get wet, it changes the weight of the ball and the "grip" of the machine enough that it comes out inconsistently, so you need a large supply of balls if you want to get through a game.

This machine tears up regular softballs, so that is not an option. I saw these Baden dimpled seamed balls that worked well for batting practice for the older age groups, but I could not find an 11 inch version to try for this age group. In the end, I made the machine available to teams for practice with dimpled balls, and went back to "coach pitch". It worked out just fine.

 

[lkgrge17]

We use regular 11" balls at around 33 mph. we give them 5 pitches, or 3 swinging strikes whichever come first. If on the 5th swing they foul one off they will get another. If a ball comes out really offline we may give them an extra one. By 5 pitches most kids will hit it. Use regular balls anything else would not be learning. Same pitch everytime is not for the game and learning. At the beginning of the season LL buys plenty of balls.

 

[Thor]

Thanks everyone for the great responses. At the board meeting last night, this topic was not brought up. Not sure if it's dead or just sleeping.

Looking back at last year we had some very good hitters. Also - like I mentioned before, we did nothing to work with our umps to provide a more consistent pitch through machine maintenance and ball release positions. At times the pitches were less than perfect, but I was hesitant to bring the issue to the umps or board - as I said, we weren't lacking on hits - and I didn't want to appear to be critical of our umps (HS kids) over a non-issue. We've always been provided at least 2 new balls per game, and usually never used the second.

It sounds like we play very similar to most that have posted. We call swinging strikes only. No called strikes or balls. My older daughter did play in a league at the pinto level that gave them only 5 pitches. It was extremely rare that a kid got to 5 pitches - and we would always find excuses to keep them up till they hit something. And that again, was with a real 11" ball, but with the coach feeding the machine.

All things considered, before switching balls I think we have a lot of other avenues to go down. Thanks again for the insight.