WHY CONVERT TO A VIDEO PITCHING MACHINE?
Introduction
ProBa er understands that non‐video pitching machines have been used successfully for the past half century and, without doubt, virtually every baseball, so ball or cricket player has trained, at one point or another, on such machines. They are the staple of the industry and they have helped hi ers and ba ers of all ages and all types.
There are a wide variety of such machines, including
Manually Operated Pitching Machines
Battery‐Powered Pitching Machines
Electric Motor Powered Pitching Machines: Non‐portable
Electric Motor Powered Pitching Machines: Portable
One‐wheel Pitching Machines
Two‐wheel Pitching Machines
Three‐wheel Pitching Machines
Similarly, there are a number of manufacturers of these machines, including Master Pitch, which manufactures the armed Iron Mike pitching machine and which has been the staple of pitching machines used in many batting cages and training centers.
The two‐wheeled pitching machines marketed by Jugs and Atec were the dominate force in such machines for decades but have been replaced by three‐wheel machines sold by Jugs, Atec, Spinball, and Hack Attack who simply followed the lead of ProBatter Sports who introduced the first commercial three wheel pitching machine in 1999 with its original ProBatter P‐100 simulator. Three wheel machines offered significant benefits over two wheel machines because they could create lateral movement of the pitches without having to adjust the position of the machine. Today, virtually every pitching machine company offers a three wheel machine in one form or another and, generally speaking, these machines are very good at what they accomplish—providing excellent batting practice for hitters and batters of all ages.
The Problem with Conventional Pitching Machines
EVERYBODY who has been associated with the sport of baseball, so ball or cricket has used and appreciates the value of such conven onal pitching machines. They provide excellent training for hi ers and ba ers of all ages without wearing out coaches and pitcher’s arms. They can be adjusted to throw a variety of different pitches delivered at different speeds to different loca ons. Machines like the Iron Mike machine are built with ba ng tunnels in mind and can be controlled by coin operated or swipe card controllers so that they are easy to operate and require li le or no maintenance or support by coaches and facility owners.
That’s all the good news. Now, here’s the bad news and it relates to a hi er’s ming of pitches. Hi ng is all about ming. This is par cularly true as the speed of pitches increase and the type of pitches change. Hi ers are regularly taught to WATCH the pitcher in a game, me his or her windup, and focus on the release point of the pitch. This allows the hi er or ba er to be ready for a pitch and be successful in hi ng it.
The problem with conven onal (non‐video) pitching machines is that there is not visible pitcher to me before the ball is released. With some units, the hi er may be forced to me the pitch by watching a ball roll down a tube before it goes into the machine. This is par cularly true in most ba ng cages.
In other cases, there may be a light that appears on the pitching machine warning the ba er or hi er that the ball is about to be delivered.
Where non‐video machines are used in tunnels or on the field, a coach may handfeed the ball into the machine, aler ng the hi er to a coming pitch by holding up the ball before dropping it into the machine.
This is NOT THE WAY to prepare hi ers or ba ers for a real game. It should therefore come as no surprise that when some coaches rely on conven onal pitching machines to train their hi ers, they are disappointed with their performance in subsequent games. The reason is simple—such machine are throwing off the hi er’s ming for a real game.
This fact, coupled with the fact that many commercial ba ng cages are “short” cages, i.e., less that the normal distance between the mount and the plate, the hi er’s ming gets even more compromised.
The Solution—ProBatter PB II Video Conversion Kit
While ProBatter would urge serious customers to consider and purchase its top of the line, PX3 video pitching simulator, it recognizes that most people have a significant investment in their existing conventional pitching machines and would seek less expensive alternatives.
With that in mind, ProBatter has developed and, over the past two decades, has sold hundreds of its ProBatter PB II video conversion kits for most conventional pitching machines, including Master Pitch’s Iron Mike machine, and Sports Attack’s Hack Attack machines.
The advantage offered by these conversion kits is that they represent a relatively low cost way to enter the video pitching machine market because, in many instances, the customer already has the conventional machine. What the PBII Conversion Kit provides is simply the equipment and electronics required to convert that conventional pitching machine into a video simulator at a small fraction of the cost of purchasing our top of the line PX3 video pitching simulator.
Specifically, the conversion kit provides:
a frame for attachment to the conventional pitching machine;
a projection screen adapted to be mounted on the frame;
a video projector for projecting the video image of an actual pitchers onto the projection screen; and
a computer control box for storing multiple images of pitchers and synchronizing those images with the release of pitches from the pitching machine.
The Cost of ProBatter PB II Video Conversion Kits
Purchase Options
The cost of a PB II Conversion kit for an Iron Mike machine is $7995 while the cost of the PB II conversion kit for a Hack Attack machine is $15,450 Substantial discounts are available for multiple unit purchases, e.g. a 5% savings per each additional conversion kit purchased. Talk with our sales department for discounts of 3 or more conversion kits.
For customers who don’t already own an Iron Mike or Hack Attack unit, ProBatter offers complete packages for both the unit and the conversion kit, e.g., $12,450 for a complete Iron Mike unit or $29,999 for a complete e‐Hack Attack unit (lower costs for the Junior Hack Attack or the regular Hack Attack units).
Leasing Options
Leasing options for the ProBatter PB II Conversion Kits (and complete units) are available to qualified customers with established good credit.
For example, a 48 month lease to buy option for a PB II Iron Mike Conversion kit would be approximately $195 per month with a residual value of $500. Similarly, a 48 month lease to buy option for a PB II Hack Attack Conversion kit would be approximately $395 per month 1
Making Money with PB II Units
In addition to the obvious training advantages offered by PB II Conversion kit, they can be money‐maker for their owners, whether they are commercial facilities or teams for the following reasons:
Commercial batting cages typically charge a premium for video cages and their customers readily pay it because of the experienced. For example, if a cage regularly charged $3 for a round of 20 pitches, increasing that price to either $3.50 or, alternatively, decreasing the number of pitches to 15 would easily cover the lease costs of a PB II conversion kit. Similarly, adding a $10 surcharge to its hourly rates would also yield a significant profit over their current costs because of the increase in use of that cage.
Both commercial batting cages as well as teams can avail themselves of the possibility of on‐screen advertising and sponsorship opportunities which will quickly cover the monthly lease charges.
