Franklin Sports Total Pitcher Baseball + Softball Training Aid - Pitching Machine + Ball Launcher for Batting + Fielding Practice - Spring Loaded Portable Pitching Machine for Backyard + Batting Cage

This pitching machine is a total arm saver for us and also helps really deliver consistent pitches for batting practice. The functionality and accuracy is exactly why you would want to use one of these over throwing by yourself, and because of the thoughtful design, you can easily break it down to transport from your home to the field.

Such a great training tool for my kids. I have a 12 year old son and 10 year old daughter. The total pitcher is very easy to switch back and forth from baseballs to softballs so they can both get their swings in. The ground ball feature is very nice too so I don't have to hit. Couldn't recommend it more!

Update 2: I’ve welded the bracket back on. After a few hundred pitches this thing is pretty awesome. I contacted Franklin customer service and they said they will send out a new assembly with the bracket. I sent them pictures of the defective weld and my Amazon invoice to get this covered under warranty. I’m currently waiting for this replacement part. I will update my review again after receiving the new part and inspecting the welds. I did put a block of wood under the frame where the bracket is welded on for extra support. I really think they should also have put a plastic foot under this assembly for added strength and reduce stress on the joint ( note for manufacturing update). If the replacement part has a solid weld I will likely increase the rating to a three or four. If this came welded as solid as my repair I likely would have rated this between four and five stars.Update: My boys took this pitching machine out today to use since we had a nice day before a snowstorm. As my initial review mentioned I was concerned about the bracket that the release arm was mounted to on the main beam. Unfortunately it snapped right off with little use. I dropped my rating from 4 stars down to 1 based on this early failure. I’ve attached a few pics of the horrible weld which is clearly visible after this snapped off before I even got to try my hockey puck idea. One of the two welds holding this on clearly have no penetration on the beam or bracket. The other weld has very little penetration on the bracket and none on the beam. My youngest son welded better than this at 10 years old! This is a dangerous problem that the company needs to have addressed with their manufacturing facility in China.If this were to snap off while setting the throwing arm or after stepping on the power pedal there is a chance of getting injured if you are not expecting the arm to be released. If this was made to a higher standard this could definitely be a 4 or 5 star product. I don’t know if I just happened to get the one defective product of the bunch, but that is highly unlikely. As it stands I can’t recommend anyone buy this. You might be throwing your money away.Fortunately I don’t see any other locations that are likely to fail and think it’s worth my effort to weld it on correctly. I will weld this back together and expect it will perform excellent. It’ll be fairly easy and only take a few minutes. A buyer shouldn’t be expected to have his own welder like I do to fix a defect in a new product though. I really hope the distributor sends a rep to the factory for inspection and improve quality control. Save your $200 for now until they update the design and welds.This review is based on the initial setup and a few pitches. This is a pretty cool manual pitching machine. It is quick and easy to assemble. There are only four bolts, two screws, and a thumb screw required for ass. Most of the parts come pre assembled. It is a solid design with clean welds in the few spots that are welded, and a nice painted finish. The directions are ok but the images ar a little difficult to see. That was only an issue for the one upright support. You just need to make sure the welded bolt is on the spring side. Honestly you could put this together without the directions. There are three adjustments you can make on this machine. First I is pitch height, then trajectory, last is power. Trajectory and power are adjusted quickly with spring loaded pins that can be pulled allowing you to slide the corresponding slide to the proper setting. Pitch height is also easily set by using a thumb screw to adjust where the ball sits on the throwing arm. There is an easy to read chart on the protective shield which tells you what three settings to start with for a given pitch speed, baseball or softball, and the distance from batter. It’s a quick easy place to start your settings. Once you determine your location for pitching, after a few practice throws, you can stake down the front of the machine. Your foot will hold the back down when using. You can make small adjustments left or right without removing the stakes since the main assembly pivots on the front cross brace. There aren’t a ton of adjustments required if you decide to change the speed up or down. You mostly just need to adjust the power setting. Setting the arm is easy. Pull the pitching arm back and place the release lever over the plastic end of the throwing arm. Now stem on the power arm to increase spring tension and secure the back of the pitching machine. When ready pull the release lever and let er rip! So far my son and I have only tried about twenty pitches at night into a net after setting up. We we’re pretty impressed with the speed and accuracy, but this is preliminary. We’ll update after a good weekend of use if we don’t get snow this week. Although we have a powered pitching machine we don’t use that in real cold weather. I also wanted something my son could use with his friends when I’m not around to set up the electric machine. When using the electric machine we need to fine a field with power or bring a generator. This he can use on his own. The only thing I don’t like so far is how the release lever bracket is welded to the main assembly. After stepping on the power pedal we started to bend the release arm bracket a bit. I don’t think it will break, but it affects where the throwing arm catches the release lever. I simply bent it back a bit after using. Part of this has to do with the three point ground contact design. The front cross member touches the ground at two point, one on either end. The main arm assembly only touches the ground at one point under the power pedal. This leaves the release arm bracket floating above the ground without support. A better gusset weld would correct this. I may do that in the future. As a quick easy fix I plan on drilling a few holes in a hockey puck and using a few zip ties I’ll attach it to the bracket so that it is supported by the ground. This will prevent any bending. I will add photos of this after installing that. Stay tuned for further updates.

Well made pitching machine for home practice from Franklin sports. The unit is sturdy with all metal construction and has a powerful launching spring. The versatile machine is great for practicing hitting as well as defense. It's easy to assemble with all hardware included and detailed instructions.