Posted by: Joe (joe.flowers@nofreewill.com) on Mon Sep 27 17:02:38 2010

> The symtoms the kids showed on pitching machines with wheels were
> they had no timing and they could not relax in the box, so as soon
> as the pitcher changed speeds they were toast.

Hi Ronnie,

And thanks very much for the details. This particular detail is what I was looking for originally.

This is the exact problem and symptom that my son's current team and summer team have and had. But, both teams got it from taking a lot of fast balls from the coaches in batting cages behind L screens. I don't think any of the players have pitching machines or go to the batting cages much as they have 1 hour of batting cages with coaches throwing mostly fast balls before every field practice - at least twice a week.

The kids hit fast balls very well, but they are at a complete loss when they face a slow looping pitcher or are faced with a change up, no matter how horribly and telegraphically delivered.

I have been getting in the batting cages and throwing a lot more loopers and change-ups and we'll see what that does. It might be too little too late for this season. Shame on me for being an ignorant conspirator.

So, from my perspective, given N=1, I would want to see a lot more evidence to be convinced that it is a wheeled pitching machine without some sort of change-up/off-speed ability that is messing them up.

I do think you are probably right though about pitching machines that just rapid fire one fast pitch after the other, wheels or not. What I am seeing is that coaches pitching one fast ball after the other causes the same bad problem you are describing.

Thanks for clarifying "destroy" for me.

And, rock and roll with your son! That's fantastic!!!!

Best wishes!

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