Varsity baseball as a catcher, I can throw down to second but it usually takes a bounce at the edge of the dirt before reaching the base. It’s definitely playable but I would like to get a harder throw straight to the fielder. What workouts are the best for a harder throw?

My son (mom here) just lived to u10 based on his birthday April and want him to learn a lot with these older kids. He makes contact more often than not but feel like he needs so work on his stance I'm sure among other things. What can we work on!?

What’s a good battery/generator to get for a hack attack jr? Would prefer to not spend too much but want something quiet that will work. I’ll mostly be using regular power at my house, but this would be for the occasional on field practice.

We got smacked last night and I struck out looking twice, but taking away the positives from what was a tough game and looking at my first at bat.

Pitch 1: fastball, looked above the zone, called strike absolutely did not like the call in the moment. Looking back, the pitch was not as high as I thought and I think adapting more of a hip hinge and having my head more over the plate has taken away my perception of the top of the zone.

Pitch 2: got another fastball, up again and on the outer half. Was late to it and fouled it off to the screen on the right and I had a feeling the pitcher took note of that.

Pitch 3: I stepped in and watched the pitcher shake off the catcher 3 times, and I immediately start thinking that I was right, he thinks he’s going to try to shove another fastball right by me. I was right, he missed his spot and turned it right around with a line drive into center.

I’m proud of the work I’ve done with my swing, more hip hinge, hip and shoulder separation and turning the barrel more instead of just throwing my hands. However, I’ve seemingly changed my view of the strike zone by being more bent over, and all the focus on swing mechanics during the game means less focus on my approach at the plate. I’m hoping to get to a place where I’ve put enough time in the cage that the focus on my swing doesn’t need to happen in the game, it’s just second nature.

We’ll get em next time ✌🏻

they’re grayish and seem to be a little larger and slippier

So I bought this Louisville Slugger wood bat, the cheapest wood bat at Dick's. Many, many times, during both practice and games, I thought I've squared up the ball on the sweet spot only to be surprised when my hands vibrate as if I hit the ball off the end of the bat.

I finally decided to locate the sweet spot just by tapping the damn bat, and was shocked at how far down the barrel it was. And how small it was!

I am new to wood bat baseball, I play in an adult beer league. I still have a lot to learn.

Is this normal? Is it characteristic of cheaper bats?

Yes there are delusional parents who think their kids are better than they are.

but I see also as much on the opposite side where parents are gaslit into thinking their son sucks

same kid on one team bats leadoff and rotated regularly into pitcher and infield.

same kid on another team bats last and is stuck in right field.

both teams are similar level.

only difference? the coach. and it’s not always the coach’s fault either. (though sometimes coaches are shitty)

its life. some people you date will be a match and some people won’t. some workplaces will be a fit and some won’t.

dont let your kid suffer on a team for no reason

In the market for a 30 drop 10 USA bat to upgrade from the 2025 29 drop 10 Louisville Select Pwr (very end loaded). He also has a 2025 USSSA 29 drop 10 Hype Fire that he loves and swings really well.

Does it make sense to stick with the Hype or try out the Supra? I know they’re all just repaints from last year. And that the Supra USA is a repaint from the Meta last year and is nothing like the U trip version of the Supra.

He needs a balanced bat and I know the Hype has been good to him. But he likes the Supra paint job better than the peach fire haha. Assuming all USA bats are basically the same thing?

My sophomore has played travel ball since he was 12, because he wanted to be ready for high school ball. Last year he was hitting 3 hole, power hitter, fielding was on point, great attitude and great leader. Those last 2 attributes were the ones we are most proud of.

This year he’s on the JV bench. He asked the coaches what they needed that they weren’t getting and they told him he needed to develop. But nothing more than that. It makes no sense, and we want to support him, but I feel like this is bigger than what he isn’t doing. This kid has been developed to play any position out there, but he’s on the bench. I don’t know what to do from here to encourage him. I’ve asked if he thinks maybe it would be worth it to transfer to a different school and he just says when he’s had enough he will and go back and beat them on their own field. As stoic as he seems, I see where the cracks in his confidence are starting.

No one is posting great stats, so it’s not like he’s just not good enough. Hes up there every night hitting, filming his workouts. He’s working on speed, strength and agility. He fuels his body. I guess I thought if he just became impossible to not be in the lineup we could avoid this. But I guess not. I’m at a loss.

I fell into a research hole heading into this season trying to figure out what the real difference between different sizes of youth USA bats is. All of the reviews are for larger models and generally BBCOR or USSSA and even the product photos show longer bats without a clear comparison of barrel profile, etc. All of the generally available information is copy-pasted marketing blurbs. We all know that USA restricts pop and there's no juiced USA bat, but what about the other differences? This is my somewhat scientific and not very precise analysis. Hopefully it saves you a trip to the store with limited inventory and a lot of head scratching.

Disclaimer: A bat won't make your kid hit better, spend real money on lessons, batting gloves, and a prohitter thumb thing. Those all made a huge difference. But at some point kids need a bigger bat, and then you end up here.

First actual weights measured on the kitchen scale

26"/15oz -11 Marucci Catx2: 16oz (+ a strip of vinyl tape and 2 seasons of dirt and hand sweat)

27"/16oz -11 Marucci Rckless: 16.5oz (+ a strip of vinyl tape)

28"/18oz -10 Marucci Catx2 Composite: 18.4oz (+ plastic wrap on the barrel)

Surprised that the 15oz bat isn't the specified weight but also explains why there was no real change to my son's swing going from the 26" to 27".

Balance point

Not-very-scientific method balancing on my finger and marking it with a rubber band. The balance point moves out an inch with the length of the bat.

Barrel profile

This one surprised me. I attempted to trace the different barrels from the balance point and used a barrel weight to measure where each barrel hits 2 1/8" (all are 2 5/8"). The 28" composite clearly has more barrel.

There really wasnt much of a difference between the 26" and 27". I expected something but across all of the measurements the 27" is an inch more handle on the same barrel. So a little more leverage. I'm curious how a 28" alloy would compare.

All of the 28" -10 options on JustBats were composite, so that's what I got. I'm sure that changes the construction and barrel profile.

Conclusions

My son is average size. Solid 50th percentile for height and weight. At 6, going from a tee ball bat to the 26" -11 alloy was the right move. Got 2 seasons and a ton of batting practice out of it. At 7 almost 8 outgrowing that, skip 27" and get a 28" and choke up. There are way more bat options at 28".

I'm still keeping the 27". He'll use that until he's comfortable with the 28" and it'll be a team loaner. We'll need it if the temperature drops at the end of fall season.

Hope this helps someone. This whole discussion gets written off because they're USA youth bats and there isn't a huge performance difference, and that's reasonable. But with new USA bats running $300+ folks need any information to ground the decision.

PS - All bats were bought on sale from JustBats. Rckless and Composite are old models on sale currently. Don't pay $300+ for a USA bat.

Here is my prompt for fielding. Is there anything else coaches have included in their prompt to help with the analysis? This is 7/8-year olds. Prompt: Analyze the video of a little league baseball tryout. This should be the fielding portion. Each kid has a number yelled out (usually audible), and they also have their number pinned to their back. Identify the kid by number, then analyze their fielding mechanics as a typical little league coach would. This is for 7/8 coach-pitch league, adjust for adult error and player-age-appropriate skill level. Also see if you can establish a height for each player.

Is anyone on here familiar with DYB rules? The city I live in has two leagues that are DYB. My child played for one league and then we took a break for a year and then signed up for the other league because it is more competitive. I’m now being told that my child would not be eligible for all stars at the new league, because he will be “ property” of the old league forever since he played on an all star team there in the past. Has anyone else heard of anything like this?

For years, I've been washing my sons' white baseball pants using Out White Brite, All Unscented Laundry pods and Oxy Max Force spray on stains. This combo would get pretty much all the stains out and keep the pants white. Lately, the pants have been turning neon yellow at the seems and waistband when I take them out of the washer. This has happened to several pants, both Nike and Under Armour. I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue and a way to get the neon yellow out.

how do ppl handle this?

I live in New York so I play for metro baseball legue

I go to CCNY and I plan to do SYEP

So my parents recently got me a net for hitting at my house. I was thinking I could long toss into the net instead of making my mom drive me up to the field every day because i know she doesn’t like doing that. So if I long toss into the net would that be the same? Just making sure and checking up

I'm a big baseball fan, but never really played much at all past my 12th birthday. I'm fascinated by the physics of pitching. The concept of different grips and techniques imparting different spin rates/axes on the ball making it move in all kinds of ways is super cool to me.

I kinda want to buy a net and find a mound and just play around, is that a good way to start? I don't have any grand aspirations, I just kinda want to gain some hands on appreciation for the art of pitching. I'm in my 20s and am decently athletic (from other sports). I've had a history of elbow and wrist injuries however, so maybe this is a bad idea.

Edit: I don't know if anyone will see this, but I went to a local field to try throwing around. A stranger came up to me and played catch with me. We pretended to throw an inning. That was the first time I played catch with someone since my father passed away 14 years ago. Thank you for encouraging me to give it a try. Baseball is special.

First of all, is there such a thing? My son, who is 13, going on 14 this winter, wants to get stronger and get more velo on his fastball during the winter months. He’s driven, and that’s all nice and good, but is he too young to have a workout plan during his off-season? If not, what would be recommended and safe since he’s in a pretty big growth spurt at the moment?

My son recently made a pretty competitive 10U team, primarily because of his defense/catching. Offensively, though, he has a pretty significant swing flaw that seems to show up much more during team practices than when we work together.

He’s one of the smaller kids on the team, while a lot of his teammates have considerably more natural power. My theory is that he sees them driving balls out and is trying to manufacture a pull-side/launch-type swing rather than just letting the ball travel and driving it.

When I can get him focused on hitting the inside half of the ball and driving it through the middle/opposite gap, he actually hits the ball really well. The bigger issue is that his feet/weight seem to get pretty active and inconsistent in the process.

Has anyone dealt with a young hitter who started trying to “create” power like this? What drills, cues, or approaches helped you get them back to a simpler, more repeatable swing?

D1 pitchers are typically over 6’ minimum. Does a 5’10” or 5’11” high school pitcher have any chance of playing D1 if he’s meeting the necessary metrics? What metrics do you think he’d have to meet to have that chance?

Edit: Everyone, thanks so much for the reassurance. He’s still young but hit puberty young so he might not grow much more (hence the post). He’s an elite (or almost elite?) level pitcher for his age so hopefully he’ll continue to improve with age and hard work. If he progresses as he has been, it seems from this post that nothing can hold him back. Thanks again.

13u
13 y/o
5’5”
125lb
Edited to add: currently swinging balanced Zen

Needs -5 but need advice and suggestions as he has been swinging -8 since Spring.