BSN Sports Bulldog Baseball/Softball Pitching Machine

We have had this machine for 2 months now and it is exactly what we are looking for in our 40’ trapezoid cage.Daughter (age 10), son (age 7). We don’t bother switching baseball-softball feeder or leg adjustments; the height of the machine legs at “baseball height” is slightly above my waist (I’m 5’9”) so it’s a reasonable simulation of pitch release height for my kids.We use the jugs sting free balls; very accurate if you use balls that at bought at the same time; if they were manufactured at a particular weight they will throw the same. Different weights by the gram will affect a low or high pitch, just like those Louisville Slugger UPM machines.Speed adjuster is very precise. Height controller also robust and easy. The machine doesn’t “jump” after each pitch needing adjustments left and right.The black rubber wheel DOES leave black on the balls (Jugs sting free) so your bats WILL get black all over the barrel.A good thought the manufacturer employed was a thick metal guard just below the pitch exit point; it protects the motor from come backers. A lot of machines don’t have this and the line drive will either hit the wheel (ball flies in an uncontrollable direction) or hit the motor and break it.For an fastball pitching machine for the backyard batting cage, I don’t see any machine for a better value. True the replacement wheel is $220 ish, but by the time the wheel needs replacing (I’d guess 2-4 years) id just get another machine.I played D1 college ball in my day and none of us trained with a curveball machine. If you’re looking for curveballs, use the slot hole wiffle balls and throw them live arm.In short, for a backyard batting cage, this is a great value. It’s used for about 8 hours a week run time for the past two months and no issues. We use it to break in new gloves, work on catching transferring drills, and just learning how to catch. Have fun!

The media could not be loaded. Solid packaging. Machine works great. Simple is good here. Bang for the buck is awesome. Pop fly balls, baseball, Slowpitch Softball, Fastpitch Softball, fielding drills, portability with a decent amount of speed (life hack - shorten distance to machine and increase your reaction time ~ simulates faster than 60mph). Highly recommend this machine to clubs and parents. Better to let machine do pitch so you can focus your eyes on the player.

This is by far the worst product that we have ever purchased at our facility. The machines simply stop working after 2-3 weeks of LIGHT use and there is no solution ever provided on what the issue is. Do not walk away, RUN away from this product. A complete joke.

I took a chance with this Buldog machine and it paid off. Compared to the $1200 Atec machine I've used prior to this, I feel the Bulldog works better. The Atec's wheel strips off the cover of 12" Softballs (Leather or Synthetic) and throws off the balance off the machine, this hasn't happened with the Bulldog. If you use a quality Leather Ball with raised stitches it works best with this machine, pitches are accurate if you load it in smooth, if you change the way you lay the ball in you can get a little action on the throw. For $600 the Bulldog does it's job, the way it's constructed I'm sure it will last

***18 Month Update***Since last review our Team has moved up to 12U. The dial is set to "9" now but to simulate the speed of the harder throwers we had to move the machine 5' closer to the plate (35'). At this setting the wear on the wheel has noticeably increased. So much so that I started looking for a replacement wheel. To my surprise a replacement wheel cost over half the price of a new machine. So now I'm stuck between dishing out the money for a new wheel (hoping the motor doesn't crap out), buying a new unit, or shelling out twice as much for a higher end machine. Knocking off a star from my initial rating as I consider it to be somewhat shady business to charge over half the price of the entire unit for a wear and tear replacement part. Equivalent of paying $15k + for new tires on your 18 month old car.10U Travel team uses this machine in our 50' cage once a week over the past 9 months and glad to say we've had no issues. In the cage the machine is placed 40' from home plate. At that distance we set the dial to "8" and from there the machine simulates pitch at speeds similar to what the boys face during the game. Machine accuracy is not perfect, but it is close enough that the batters can get in the box comfortably without fear of getting hit by a random ball.Notes...1. The legs that the machine comes with are too short to be able to use a pitching screen. We simply made longer legs out of HD conduit.2. The machine head does not pivot left to right. To change location (inside or outside) of the pitch you must lift the unit and reposition it. Luckily the unit is light enough.3. The wheel is made from solid rubber so it does and will mark up any ball you feed it. Also overtime the wheel wear down. The wear rate was was worse when we used real baseball's4. Balls - we started with real baseballs and the unit pitched them just fine. But as stated above the wear on the wheel was very noticeable. We switch to McGregor dimpled balls and are quite happy with the quality of the balls amd wear rate of the wheel. We highly recommend the McGregor balls. The price point is significantly cheaper than other brands allowing you to buy more.

Throws leather baseballs very well. Synthetic baseballs are "iffy" because it doesn't get a good grip, plus it marks up every ball. Used it for both baseball and softball so it works for different size balls. Also used it on plastic balls (not the dimpled types). Worked on most, but split the cheaper ones. Threw hard enough to put a hole in my vinyl siding of my house (with a plastic ball). Make sure your player uses a helmet!