Deep, honest buying guides for coaches, players and travel-ball parents — catcher gear, training aids, dugout tech and everything in the bag. From the team behind the MAVTRAX pitch-calling app.
The right chest protector is the one that actually fits your catcher's torso — too long and it rides up into the throat, too short…
Catcher's leg guards live or die on one number: the length from the player's ankle to mid-knee. Get that right and everything else…
A good glove gets broken in by playing catch and pounding the pocket — not by drowning it in oil or, please, microwaving it. Here …
Your first-time tee-baller needs surprisingly little: a glove small enough that a 4-year-old can actually close it, a light bat si…
The single most important thing about a youth baseball glove isn't the brand or the web — it's the size, and the right size depend…
A good bat backpack carries the whole kit — two bats, a glove, a helmet, cleats, and water — on the player's own shoulders so you'…
A full kit is heavy — bats, a helmet, cleats, and (if you catch) a chest protector, leg guards, and a mask. A wheeled bag lets a p…
On a sunny day, a flyball that disappears into the glare is the difference between a routine catch and a triple off the wall. Good…
A radar gun turns 'he's throwing harder' into a number you can actually train against — and these days you don't need a $1,000 sco…
Breaking in a glove is mostly patience, a little conditioner, and a lot of catch — not the oven, the microwave, or a tub of shavin…
Every legal high-school and NCAA bat carries the same BBCOR stamp, swings as a -3, and uses a 2 5/8" barrel — so the real choice i…
The right youth baseball bat is the one your league will actually let your kid use — and one light enough that he can swing it fas…
An infield glove is built to be small, shallow, and fast — so you can get the ball out and turn the double play. Here are the pick…
An outfield glove is a different tool than an infielder's: longer, with a deeper pocket built to track down fly balls and snow-con…
A catcher's mitt is the most specialized glove on the field — round, deep, heavily padded, and built to absorb hundreds of pitches…
A pitching machine turns one parent and a bucket of balls into hundreds of quality cuts a week. But the right machine depends enti…
A batting tee is the single most-used piece of training gear a hitter owns — and a good one disappears so the swing can do the wor…
A first base mitt is its own animal — no individual fingers, a long, scooped pocket built for digging short-hop throws out of the …
The single decision that drives a baseball cleat buy is the stud: molded plastic, metal spikes, or turf. Metal grips best but is o…
Easton and DeMarini are two of the biggest names in BBCOR baseball, and they chase the same hitter from opposite directions: DeMar…
Two of the most popular BBCOR bats in the dugout take very different paths to the same -3 weight: the Marucci CATX2 is a stiff one…
BBCOR, USSSA, and USA Baseball aren't reading on a spectrum of "better" — they're three separate certification stamps, and which o…
Wood and metal each win in a different place: metal owns game day in most amateur leagues, and wood owns the cage, the off-season,…
Composite bats flex through contact for a bigger sweet spot, more pop, and less sting — but cost more, need a break-in, and can cr…
The two most famous flagship gloves in baseball, head to head. The Rawlings Heart of the Hide and the Wilson A2000 1786 are both p…
A hockey-style helmet wraps the whole head in one piece and never moves — but it can't come off for a pop-up. A traditional two-pi…
The right youth fastpitch bat is the one your player can actually swing fast — and the one your league will let her use. Here are …
Batting gloves aren't mandatory, but they're one of the cheapest upgrades in the bag — better grip on cold mornings and sweaty aft…
A first baseman scoops throws in the dirt, stretches for wide ones, and presents the biggest target on the infield — and a regular…
A fly ball lost in the sun is the most preventable error in youth ball — and a safety risk when a kid loses a pop-up over their he…
Outfielders need reach, a deep pocket, and a glove that shields the sun on fly balls — which means a bigger 12.5"-plus mitt than t…
Almost every youth and travel softball league requires molded cleats — metal is banned below high school. Here are the molded girl…
A softball player hauls a bat or two, a glove, a helmet, cleats, water, and sliders to every game — and a good bat backpack carrie…
Practice softballs are the cheapest thing in the bag and the first thing teams run short on. Here are the dozens worth buying — fr…
A line drive off the bat in fastpitch leaves a corner infielder or pitcher almost no reaction time. A defensive face mask is the c…
Most fastpitch leagues require a batting helmet with an attached face mask. Here are the ones that fit real kids' heads, meet the …
Dirt diamonds are brutal on bare thighs. Padded sliding shorts turn a strawberry-raising slide into a non-event — and keep a hesit…
Catching comes down to five skills: stance & receiving, framing, blocking, throwing, and game-calling. Master them in that order. …
A called strike is worth roughly an eighth of a run. Multiply that across a season's worth of borderline pitches and an elite fram…
Blocking is angle, not bravery. Knees to the dirt, chest over the ball, chin down, and deaden it straight in front. Here's the tec…
Pop time is the clock on a catcher's throw to second — glove to glove. The MLB average is right around 2.0 seconds; elite is sub-1…
In baseball, the battery is the pitcher and the catcher working as one unit. It's the only pair on the field that touches the ball…
Every term a catcher, pitcher, coach, or baseball parent needs — the battery, framing, pop time, the five-hole, indicators and mor…
Calling a game isn't guessing — it's a system. Establish a pitch, change the hitter's eye level, work the count, then finish off t…
One finger fastball, two curveball — until there's a runner on second who can read your hand. Here's the standard sign chart, the …
Wireless pitch calling only works as well as the headset under the mask. We ranked the Bluetooth options that actually fit under a…
The mitt is the catcher's most personal piece of gear — and the most-misbought. We ranked the youth baseball and fastpitch mitts t…
Outfitting a young catcher is the most expensive — and most confusing — gear job in youth baseball. Here's exactly what to buy, wh…
A catcher squats 150+ times a game. Knee savers are the cheapest insurance in the gear bag — here are the ones that actually fit y…
The helmet and chest protector are the start, not the finish. Five inexpensive add-ons — throat guard, thumb guard, and friends — …
Helmet, chest protector, two shin guards, mitt, cleats — catchers haul double the gear of any other player, usually through a grav…
Catching is the most skill-dense position on the field, and almost nobody trains it directly. Six tools that build soft hands, fea…
Most training gear ends up in the garage by July. These seven earn a permanent spot in the bag — picked for the drills coaches act…