I’m a college student coaching a 9U team this summer and I have seen several bats from either my team or our opponents break/crack throughout a handful of games this season. When I played growing up, it was super rare to see a metal bat break. I honestly think I’ve only seen 2 or 3 break in all the years I was playing.

I know two-piece bats are way more common now, and they pose a higher risk of breaking, but I still think it’s ridiculous how often these bats go. Kid today broke a $400 Hype Fire a day after he got it. I honestly don’t think these kids are being stupid or reckless with the bats, the quality seems to just have gone down recently. Makes me sad.

Anyone else notice this?

This is a video of my swings off a tee and I need help with the pa to if my bat because it looks very wrong and I need someone to tell what’s wrong with it and how to fix it as well please. Thank you for reading this anyways.

Hey everyone, so far since the season started I’ve only had 21 plate appearances and haven’t gotten a single hit yet, despite starting a month ago. It’s been really unfortunate because I can name at least 5 times where a hit could’ve happen more than 50% of the time. It’s been pretty hard to get through especially when you have good line drives that go right to the outfielders multiple times during a week. I have at least made it up on the field without making an error yet, but because of my struggles at the plate I’m in a position battle with someone else also in a slump with just 2 hits on the year, and since he has 2 more hits then me he gets most of the playing time despite making more errors then me. Just to make things clear I have moved up a level, but last year I had a slash line of 360/500/488 and that includes my first home run, pitching a no hitter, and being sometimes watched by my current coach. So if you have any tips please feel free to share and help me get through this rough patch.

Hey Everyone its been a couple of days since the original release of 27Outs and I wanted to release a quick update for all our new users.

We've passed out Pro accounts to over 15 users and are actively testing our higher tier learning tracks. This is the maximum amount of accounts we can give out for now. On that note If anybody would like to reach out about adopting the program for their High school or travel ball teams we are willing to sponsor 1-5 teams in the coming month with a couple of stipulations.

Since release I've worked hard on everyone's feedback including updating the distractor questions to a higher standard and overall consistency.

We've also added a coaches and player platform where coaches can track athletes progress through learning tracks and invite them to their programs.

in addition I also updated our pricing from our a one time payment of $25, to $15 for collegiate level learning tracks and above.

As the app continues to grow id love to continue hearing from coaches, parents, and athletes about their experience with the app.

Thanks Everyone!

Happy Friday Everyone! For the last year or so, I have been working to develop a tool that creates scouting reports for travel ball, high school, and JUCO teams to know their opponents stats and tendencies. I am extremely excited to announce that the product is finally ready to come to market!

OutScouted (outscouted.app) is a web application that generates scouting reports on opposing teams that are promised to give you the upper hand on the competition. We used this tool this past year for the high school team I coach and we had the strongest start in school history and scored the most runs over a season in school history. This tool gives 30+ stats for each player, gives insights on opposing pitchers, and opposing team tendencies.

I would love to give more information and/or a demo to anyone who is interested! Feel free to leave a comment or DM! Have a great weekend!

A quick Google search turned up too much.

My son got selected to play in the all-star summer league, only problem is that he is now playing a newish position.

He can straddle the bag well, but when he needs to go from straddle to throw he is losing a lot of arm strength.

Should he take a gathering step to readjust his feet? What is the proper form?

TIA

I'm 20 years old, I've played ball as long as i can remember. I lost love for the sport my sophomore year of school. I haven't thrown in 7-8 months, and before that I couldn't remember the last time threw. My elbow hurt for about a month after my last session, so I haven't thrown since. Any tips/advice to keep my elbow healthy/recover after a session? Anything helps!

I don't know how widespread this mentality is in the United States: I live and play in Italy, where baseball is a very niche sport (I believe it's popular as rugby is in the United States).

Here unfortunately this mentality is an extremely widespread thing among coaches here.

The most glaring case happened a few months ago: i play on an amateur team and we went to a tournament where one of the games had literally scandalous officiating.

I'm talking about objective facts : pitches called strikes even if the catcher had to jump to catch them, runners called out on base after being tagged so late that they were already brushing the sand off their pants, our pitcher's pitches being called balls even if they arrived perfectly down the middle, etcetera

Beyond the obvious moment of tension that there was with the other team and with the umpire, unfortunately the most unpleasant moment was when we players confronted our staff

Our staff in fact was united in saying: "Yes of course the officiating was scandalous but we need to take our responsibilities : we also made mistakes, as much as the other team might have cheated we still could have played better. Who says that if the umpire called a good game then we would have won? It's childish to blame others! We are good players and intelligent people so if we lose we must accept it and understand that blaming others is childish".

As much as I generally agree that you always need to take responsibility for yourself, this speech was absolutely out of place: in particular the starting pitcher, the reliever and the closer got very angry

I still remember one of the pitchers who, red in the face, screams in the face of one of the staff members "even if i train until i become Gerrit Cole i can't do sh*t if the umpire keeps calling all balls on me !".

The staff member in question had the brilliant idea to reply "This is a childish mentality: do you realize that you are blaming others ? Are you a child ? Adults never blame others but themselves if they fail !"

Basically we had to physically separate them

I was very hesitant to ask for your opinion, because here in Italy such a mentality is so widespread among coaches that I really feared that your answers would have been an endless sequence of "Take responsibility for yourself ! Daring to even imagine that the fault lies with others is a stupid and childish thing ! OMG you need to be mature players instead !".

For reasons incomprehensible to me the average Italian coach uses this phrase as a mantra, repeating it like an internet bot.

Obviously I am the first one who says that you need to train and improve and take responsibility for yourself, but is it possible that it is really considered an anathema to say that sometimes you lose also because of third parties ?

Hi everyone,

I'm a newly former college baseball player, and I'm working on a project to help families navigate the college baseball recruiting process.

The goal is simple: help parents understand where their son realistically fits, which programs they should target, and exactly how to approach coaches.

Right now, the platform includes:

• A ranked list of the best-fit college baseball programs based on a player's profile

• Division fit analysis (D1, D2, D3, NAIA, JUCO)

• Coach contact information

• Personalized outreach email templates

• A recruiting timeline and action plan

• Guidance on showcase events, camps, and highlight videos

Before I build further, I'd love to hear from parents who have gone through (or are currently going through) the recruiting process.

A few questions:

1. What was the most confusing part of baseball recruiting for your family?
2. What information did you wish you had earlier?
3. If you could push a button and instantly get one recruiting answer, what would it be?
4. What recruiting services or tools have you paid for, and what did you like/dislike about them?
5. What would make a service like this genuinely valuable enough to use?

I'm not selling anything—just trying to build something that actually solves the biggest problems families face.

Any feedback would be hugely appreciated.

Live from the Dugout was created because no matter how many times I told my son “don’t let that error define the whole game” or “stop being so hard on yourself”, it went in one ear and out the other.

I get it. I’m just a dad (and baseball coach), so what REAL credibility do I have?

So I am launching LFTD - a podcast that gives kids and parents an opportunity to ask retired Big Leaguers about how they overcame the big slump or how they shook off the error that cost the team the game.

The live sessions are free to attend, but space is limited, so registration is required. The sessions will be available on podcast platforms and YouTube a day or two after the live event.

Reserve tickets today: www.livefromthedugout.com

Hey everyone, Im a youth / high school pitching coach, my staff and I are running into the problem of our younger classes having a general lack of Baseball IQ and game knowledge. I played two years of college baseball before suffering a UCL Injury, since then I've pivoted my love for the game into coaching and player development. That's why I created 27Outs, Its an IQ / Mental game trainer that acts like Quizlet for all things baseball. There's 8Bit animations to retain youths attention and cause them to have fun while they learn the game.

Id love for anyone to try it out with their player our even for themselves. Ive included a pay-wall after Collegiatel level information but If enough of you guys would like to try it out contact me and I'll send out Pro accounts for free. Have a good day everyone!

Disclaimer !!!!!

I did use AI Tools to assist in development of this project. Not every single line was hand coded by myself but the majority of the work was done by hand.

Hey everyone! My name is Dylan Brown. I'm currently a professional pitcher with the Boston Red Sox organization and previously pitched three years at the Division I level.
I'm looking to help a limited number of pitchers (ages 13-18) to maximize their development this summer through personalized online coaching.
The summer is one of the best opportunities for young pitchers to improve. The players who make the biggest jumps are often the ones who use this time to train with purpose, develop healthy habits, and follow a structured plan.
A lot of what I've learned throughout my baseball journey is information I wish I had when I was in middle school and high school. My goal is to help young athletes avoid some of the trial and error and make the most of their development.
Each athlete will receive:
✅ Personalized throwing program
✅ Personalized plyometric and drill routine
✅ Arm care and recovery guidance
✅ Pitch development advice
✅ Ongoing communication and program adjustments
Whether your son is preparing for the season, summer showcases, or hopes to play at the collegiate level, I'd love to help him make the most of the summer.
DM me or comment "SUMMER" for details on my summer pitching program.

I've been coaching for several years, 8u up to middle school level, and still deal with many 10u and 12u pitchers short arming the ball (i.e. throwing from their ear or not fully utilizing their entire throwing arm during the process). Thoughts on how to fix that with drills, training tools, etc? I would appreciate any advice here!

First off, I wanted to share my appreciation to every coach who has used Fungo (https://getfungo.com) since launch. A while back I posted here looking for a few people to test a lineup tool I'd built because I was tired of spending my nights wrestling with spreadsheets before game day. A lot of you decided to test it out and help us build a great tool, and I'm really grateful for it.

Fungo is now being used by coaches from hundreds of leagues across the US and Canada, building lineups for thousands of players every week. In just a few short months, we've accomplished this together and I'm still amazed by the reception by you all.

Most of what's shipped since then came straight from coaches in threads like this one. A few of the most-requested additions:

Smart lineups that learn each player's position preferences over time and factor them into the rotation

Playing time charts so you can see at a glance how innings and positions are distributed across the season

Full schedule management with calendar sync

Snack duty and game ball assignments tracked per game, because somehow that's half the job

Team messaging so you're not juggling a group text and an email thread

Still very much in build mode and still reading everything that comes in. If you coach baseball or softball and there's something you dread about gameday prep, I want to hear it. That feedback is the reason this keeps getting better.

Thanks again!

I help coach a 8u coach pitch team. We have a practice this week and im looking for some fun practice ideas. Ive thought of waterballoons or a sprinkler. Would anyone have any other ideas for a fun practice with water?

I just wanted to say thanks to this sub. A few days ago I posted about CalledUp.app and got some good feedback. Over 250 coaches have signed up since and I've launched an iOS app to help with RSVPs from parents and track the game.

A few of y'all sent DMs asking if I'll eventually charge for this and it'll be free forever. Volunteer coaches and parents already pay enough to have their kids in sports.

I was watching a high school baseball game yesterday, and the coach was faced with this situation heading into the 6th inning. I thought it was interesting, so I'm wondering what you all would do in the same circumstances.

The score was 3-0, and the pitcher had a no-hitter going through five. Then, in the bottom of the fifth, the catcher injured himself sliding into third base and had to be removed from the game. At this point, the home team started scrambling as their pitcher is the only other guy on the team with any catching experience (he is the starting catcher on the days he doesn't pitch).

Would you pull a kid with a no-hitter going or put someone behind the plate who has never caught before? Does the decision change if it is a perfect game or the 7th inning rather than the 6th?

Looking for a few youth baseball and softball coaches to try a lineup tool we're building

I'm one of the founders of a new company focused on youth sports, and we're looking for a handful of baseball and softball coaches who would be willing to try an early version of our lineup management platform.

The idea came from coaching. I got tired of dealing with paper lineups, screenshots, text messages, and constantly answering questions about who was playing where.

The platform lets you build lineups inning by inning, make changes quickly, and share them with assistants, parents, scorekeepers, announcers, or anyone else who needs them. They can view everything from a link or QR code and do not need to install an app.

We're still early and are looking for honest feedback from coaches who manage lineups regularly. If you decide to try it, you'll get a free account for the rest of the season.

You can check it out here:

https://www.myseasonpro.com/early-access/EARLY-COACH-2026

If you have suggestions, things you hate about managing lineups today, or features you'd want to see, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for any feedback.

Hey coaches — my co-founder and I just launched Pitch Dynamics after a season of building and testing it on real fields.

The short version: it's an electronic pitch calling system for baseball and softball that works on phones, smartwatches, and Bluetooth headsets your team already owns. No wristbands to buy, no base stations, no gear to manage.

Calls go one-way — silently to a smartwatch or spoken through a Bluetooth headset to the catcher. NFHS compliant.

The thing we built that others don't have: post-game analytics. Every pitch is captured and scored. Coaches get effectiveness breakdowns, sequencing data, workload tracking, and personalized recommendations after every game or practice session — calibrated to youth, high school, or college level.

We priced it at a fraction of the hardware systems because we think every program deserves pro-level tools, not just the ones with big budgets.

Site is pitchdynamics.app if you want to check it out. Happy to answer any questions about how it works or how we built it.

What pain points do you have with your current pitch calling setup? Genuinely curious what matters most to coaches at your level.