Posted by: Scott B (batspeed@integritycorp.com) on Sun Jun 9 19:14:43 2002

I picked up a used Jugs curve ball pitching machine for about $800. It serves the purpose, but if I had the money and opportunity, I'd get the ATEC Casey Pro. Haven't used the Atec, but have seen one in a store. It's 1/3 lighter, and seems to set up a lot quicker than the Jugs. The Jugs will pitch outstanding curveballs, sliders, fastballs, etc., but it can take 5 minutes and 30 balls to reset between pitch types. The ATEC machine sets up with the flip of a wrist. Plus, I've heard the ATEC machine is much more accurate, consistently enabling you to work outside-down corners, inside up, inside and out, and etc.. The Jugs machine is only accurate to about a 12 inch square (i.e. the pitch could be anywhere in that square), and about 60-75% of the pitches will hit that square. It's normally accurate enough for good BP, because the kids need to learn to swing at strikes, but if you're trying to teach a kid to bunt an up&in pitch, or extend to hit an outside pitch, you can waste a lot of time trying to get them the right pitches.

You should also budget for the pitching machine balls. Though you can use hardballs (which we've done), it tears them up, and they're harder on the equipment (bats, and machine). I use the rubber balls for live pitching practice as well. They hit like leather, but their lighter, i..e. harder to throw. But if you throw BP from about 50' as I do, they work fine. Also, you can get "Dad's" who are afraid to pitch BP to be real aggressive BP pitchers with the rubber balls.

To be honest, we own our own Jugs machine, and the League has cages equiped with Jugs curveball machines, and we hardly use them. We focus on Tee work, soft toss, and live pitching. We may mix in some machine pitching to help the kids "groove" their swing, but nothing beats live pitching.

Also, look for used machines on Ebay. These things are indestructable.

Regards.. Scott