You are crazy if you are leaving Fla out of this.... Year round and I mean year round ball. My daughter will be a 4 year letter man at catcher and will be playing D1 as will 8 girls she played travel ball with since age 9 that are all at different schools. I umpire baseball at a national level and the best talents are from Florida first, Texas second and Georgia third. As far as live hitting versus a machine its all good, doesn't matter live or a machine....