Pitching machines are great for keeping your arm from hanging down to your feet from throwing so much but nothing beats seeing the ball come from a live arm. Picking up the ball from a pitchers arm motion is something a machine can't give. As far as a machine goes you can pay anywhere between $130 to $3500 for a machine depending on your budget. I will post a link at the bottom of this post to a website that has some machines you should look at. The Jugs Lite Flite Pitching Machine is a nice machine at $400.

Here is the link.

http://www.baseballexp.com/Baseball-Training-Aids/Pitching-Machines/baseball/lev/2/Ne/1100001/parentCatId/68/pCategoryId/8/Ns/CATEGORY_SEQ_68%7c0/N/36+1100060+33/Nty/1/categoryId/1100060/view/19/index.cat

you didn't mention the ages of your kids. I found out that they ARE handy for older kids who can adjust to the timing, younger kids, in my experience, seem to not get as much from them. They struggle to get the timing, it frustrates them, they don't enjoy the practice as much, and so it goes. My son who is 11, his batting coach has a Juggs, a popular brand, but uses it only on occasion. He works more frequently behind an L-screen, throwing the balls slower, working on form and hitting the ball where it's pitched. He does bring it out to work on bat speed at times. They certailny have their place, but I was surprised that he doesn't use it nearly as much as I thought he would.
I have an indoor tunnel, electricity, all that we need to set it up, BUT, we preferto work outside in at the HS baseball field that is available to us, but they cut the electricity off duing the summer. What I ended up getting was a spring opperated Louisville Slugger Blue flame. It is portable in my SUV, throws up to 40 MPH, and is PLENTY fast to improve bat speed. As they get older and better, you just move the machine closer or I have seen stronger springs to buy. We haven't reached that far yet, 40 MPH from 30 feet gets on you pretty quick. I like the machine, bought it on Ebay, if I remember correctly I got it for less than $125.00 NIB.

Like Jeff said, nothing replaces seeing the ball out of a pitchers hand, learnig to watch arm speed/angle, ball rotation, etc. They are a good tool, no doubt, but they are not the answer to every problem.

Hope this helps.

I would have everyone try it first and make sure it is what they want. When my u10 baseball team used a pitching machine, at a practice that was moved indoors because of rain, many of the kids thought the single wheel machine was too softball pitch like. Others didn't like hitting the practice balls that the machine used instead of real baseballs. If you plan to use the machine at a field check and make sure that electricity is available.

I can provide you with any pitching maching you need from Wilson Baseball and Softball. Please contact me at rpiening@ifungo.com for more information.