Opposition in the batters box isn't just a layer of complexity, an obstacle to overcome, it is the central feature that gives meaning to movement. My sense is that many in the baseball community view the live batter as a linear step to master after mastering other lower complexity pieces, instead of the central feature that we design our training environments around. Part of me understands why this is the case. Pitching is in a challenging place training wise because the behavior of pitches, movements, etc. change so much when you go low effort. In addition we have some limits on volume each day due to throwing being the single fastest movement in sports. Other sports can do unique warmups to work on interpersonal distance (football/basketball/soccer) and tagging games for more of a martial arts context. I simply can't have all 100 throws of a pitchers workload that day be to a live batter. And while I see value in pulling an athlete out of context at times to work on different things, ultimately, the entirety of my paradigm to train pitchers is how to do the real thing MORE, to keep them embedded in a representative environment, rather than treating it as the final step in a linear progression.