Heater Sports Crusher Portable Mini Lite-Ball Pitching Machine with BONUS Steel Tripod & 4 Hour Battery

This thing is amazing. First heard about it in an article of Tommy LaStella. Look him up. He’s one of the best MLB hitters in the league. Dude never strikes out. Why? Because he practices off of this machine. If you are looking for something that will throw you strikes every single pitch. This isn’t it. If you want that, buy a t to hit off of. If you want something that will teach you how to read and follow a pitch in a very short amount of time. Then buy this thing. It will train you quickly how to read a ball and attack (or take). I know a few folks have complained about this machines accuracy, ignore them. By hey don’t seem to understand that the inconsistency is what makes this such a great training tool. As for the craftsmanship of the unit. It’s well built. Not sure how long the battery will hold it’s charge. So far so good. I’ll update in a few months.

Screw didn’t fit, won’t stay up right long.

What a great product. The ability to train a hitter to pick up a small ball at reaction times = 90+ mph is just awesome to have. We can use this anywhere from our basement training facility to at games for pregame hitting. Any one with a son in tournament baseball knows A) taking BP on a field is non existent, B) if there are cages they are full and people fighting for them, C) whiffle balls suck for pregame warm ups (great for training and keeping hands back). This machine allows you to take full speed hitting warm ups in a very small area and makes the kids focus because of the small ball. Try marking the balls with various color dots and have the kids do something different based on the colors. We use black dot = move 'em over (right side of field), red dot = take the pitch, green dot = ground ball, no dot = swing away and change it up with sac fly, suicide bunt, pull the ball, etc.

When using the battery, you must turn off the machine by using the 2 dials. It takes a while to set the pitches. The regular on off switch does not work. If a ball drops before the wheels pick up speed, it jams. The pitches are a too inconsistent. The inconsistency is not bad for older batters. It might be a good thing. If you get around all the little imperfections, it's a nice little machine. The price was good too.

Will not hold a charge and the power button does not work.

Fast shipping, love item!

Got a remanufactured one which did not operate correctly when I received ... Tech support was quick to get back to me but guidance was poor causing machine motors (which are attached to wheels) to break when I disassembled ... Sent replacements that I put on tonight after much consternation including having to reverse polarity when I installed one motor so wheels would turn in opposite directions to launch ball ... Seems to work OK but very noisey ... Will have to buy a battery now so we'll see how that goes

Does this take foam balls?