My son just finished his Fall ball season playing up with the Minors (9-11 year olds) as a 7 year old. Was really fun to see him compete and grow during his first “real” baseball experience, both with his hitting and pitching. He has really caught the bug and we’ve made an entire “batting cage” setup in our basement with the SKLZ lightning pitch machine, tiny foam balls, and their thin underweight training bat (30 inches, 12 oz.)

Now I’m just making it up as I go as I wasn’t expecting my kid to be that good at baseball and now I find myself trying to set him up for success with the help of ChatGPT 😆

His current bat is a Rawling 27 drop 11 he’s been using since tee ball. He’s 4’6” and 62 pounds and just turned 8

Here’s my question/dilemma - he seems to hit the underweight training bat better than his current bat because he can get around on it easier and hand eye coordination isn’t an issue since he’s smacking these tiny balls with this thin bat. He’s late all the time with his normal bat. I also feel like it’s a touch short for him. In season he hit it really well against pitchers that weren’t too crazy, but had no chance against any of the kids who could really throw the ball.

Should I look at 28” drop 12 or 13? Maybe a better balanced 27” drop 11 bat? 29” is probably out of the question right?

He’s going to be playing up in the Spring and I’d like him to feel better at the plate with what he’s holding.

I’m not a baseball player, I’m a golfer, so this drop 11 stuff and composite bats, etc, etc is foreign to me, but I play a lot with him and finally see his problem is getting around on the ball. Practice will obviously help, but from my golfing experience, properly fit equipment is always helpful.

Thank you!

So he's been pitching since 8 and during pitching lessons, he's throwing the ball noticeably faster/harder compared to games. Typically he averages 50-60% strike rate during pitching lessons. He's not a big dude but his pitches have some zip in them when he really goes for it.

I asked him about this discrepancy and if everything's ok, and he says he purposely throws at 80% to be more accurate and with the intention of throwing more strikes. I don't know enough about baseball but his pitches seem to kind of die off at the end like a splitter, which is leading to bunch of swing and misses and weak ground balls especially when batters are facing him for the first time (he's never been taught how to throw anything other than FB). And, to be fair, he's throwing ~63% strikes on GC after about 90 pitches in fall season, so I just said, ok whatever works and left it at that. Kind of small sample size, perhaps. I don't know if that strike rate is good but it's better than during lessons.

I know some of you guys may be dismissive of this because he's young, but he really enjoys pitching more than anything, so I'm wondering if he's hindering himself in anyway by not pushing himself to throw harder.

Is the 2027 Hype Fire different/improved from the 2026 in drop 10? Trying to decide if I should pay the extra for a 2027 or get a 2026 that is on discount.

He's been using a teammates 2025 Hype Fire and likes it the best. Also has swung the same sized Icon and 2026 Supra that are on his team and still likes the Hype Fire the best.

Wanted to get other takes on this. My son is 8 and was moved up to the minors (9 & 10 year olds) for the fall season. He and I love it, coaches are great and he’s become a better all around player. He’s a good hitter (can hit 40-50 in the batting range pretty well and was great with coach pitch too in instructional league). He has literally walked every at bat so far this season (he’s got a good eye plus not all the pitchers throw consistent strikes). There is a part of me that wants to tell him to start hacking at anything somewhat near the zone, but I don’t want to mess with his patient approach here either. Anyone have any suggestions on how I should approach this (or just not?), thanks!

We bought it used last year, my son has used it this year on a weekly basis, it still has pop in it, but my son believes it is starting to sound 'weird', and I admit I have heard some weird hits as well. I am worried about those horizontal lines, it doesn't feel like actual scratches... What do you see?

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Sunday men’s league first time pitching in a month or
so.
I’m usually a short stop anybody have any success coming back to playing baseball after this as an adult (30) ?
Radial nerve damage but not torn and no predisposed conditions like bone lesions or cysts. Very painful and couldn’t imagine doing that again

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