692BH Baseball Pitching Machine, Use Ping Pong Size Training Balls for Visual Acuity and Hitting Accuracy Improvement, Powered by Batteries or AC Power, Includes 60 pcs Balls

I ordered this on a whim for my 14u select team. I didn’t really expect to get my money’s worth, especially considering the mixed reviews and low price point. It honestly looked like a cheap piece of crap for little kids but I thought it might be fun to mess with.For context we hardly ever do hitting practice. I think at this age team hitting practice is a waste of time. Individual work is nice but throwing 10 balls and saying next doesn’t do much. We focus on defense and pitching and have had great results during our 40 game seasons. That being said, we still have days where are bats are cold and we can’t adjust against a particular pitcher.I used this machine today at practice. I’m the only coach with no assistant. I set this up in the outfield with a bucket lid and set pairs of 2 over to hit 30 each, while I worked with the rest of the boys on fielding related stuff. We just rotated the 2 over there all practice. I paired the machin with a Stix heavy skinny bat. 30oz and thin as a broom stick. The machine was about 15 feet away and spitting out balls roughly 30mph.I saw the boys really struggle their first few swings and then make small adjustments and start driving it. I also saw one of our best hitters really REALLY struggle for about 50 swings ? I took the team over and had them watch him struggle. Stopped him and explained what was wrong, he adjusted and started smoking em. His biggest issue is his lack of Adaptability. He really got the hang of it tho. The balls fly surprisingly far for their light weight. Further than those white ones with holes.The boys really loved it and it was a great workout.The cons is that you can’t buy extra balls that I can find. It comes with 60 tho which is nice. Another con is that there’s no indicator when the ball is coming so very difficult to time up. As a coach tho I found it to be a pro as well cause the boys really had to get their front foot down early. It was almost like a very defensive 2 strike approach.Overall a fantastic product for the price. It is lightweight and made of plastic so not sure of its longevity, but we will be using it every practice and before games from now on so will find out soon.