Enhancement requests after 1.60

[jdonato]

Hello all

I have tried 1.60 (love it, iScore gets better every release) and, as I've done for previous releases, I am posting a few things I would like to see in iScore. Some of these have been stated before, but it could help adding my input to the priority of each request:

1. Position of switch hitters at the plate. I know it's cosmetic, but I would like to see switch hitters at the correct side of the plate. They always appear as batting right-handed. This should not be hard, right?

2. When a ball is in play, Undo as an option right after ball placement. Big fingers obstructing the exact place the ball was hit (I'm a bit tired of undoing many doubles at the wall on right field because my finger placed the ball over the wall....). Love the tap and hold for repositioning, but still would love to undo this, instead of having to finish the play and undo everything.

3. This is more of an error report, but, when creating a game and trying to edit titles (to change date, for example), the standard "magnifying glass" effect to reposition the text cursor only happens once. If I misplace the cursor, there is no way of activating the magnifying glass again, unless I quit the program. I will post this in error reporting as well.

4. Ability to see, on the fly, cumulative stats of the batter, specially average. This will so enrich my experience. Could be somewhere near player's name and at-bats info. I don't want to get out of the game, go to team manager and team stats just to see the current cumulative avg and HRs of a player. We have discussed how this is done in another platform solution (clicking the players name). Maybe we can have something similar, or at least the AVG on-screen all the time.

5. Pitch count of the current at bat.

6. Be able to see current scoreboard directly on play screen. Maybe a pop-up section when clicking the score area?

7. Player on third to score automatically upon sacrifice fly.

8. Option to assign same alternative to ALL runners on a play (ex. "Every runner is held up" button when a batter strikes out, instead of clicking held up for every one of them, etc.)

9. I would like to be able to assign a pinch runner by clicking the runner, instead of the batter: click the runner, select a "pinch runner" button, then, substituion screen appears and I can select the new runner...

10. Export cumulative stats as Excel. Unless there is something I am missing, I can export game stats as Excel but not cumulative stats.

11. Play editing after the fact. (I believe this is coming in the next release [1.70], right?)

You have been so patient and responsive to all our crazy requests, sometimes I feel we are abusing...

Can we become more passionate about iScore than about baseball? For me, it's an expression of the best of worlds I love, baseball and computers/iPhone....

Keep up the excellent work!

[FTMSupport]

Thanks for the suggestions. Many are already on our list, and we have added the ones that aren't so we can prioritize.

Cumulative stats already do export to Excel --- if you email the stats from the Team Manager, you will notice it also sends an .XLS attachment.

Yes, play editing is coming in 1.70. We have put in kind of a preview to this in the 1.65 release we just announced (see announcement on another thread).

[jdonato]

Cumulative stats already do export to Excel --- if you email the stats from the Team Manager, you will notice it also sends an .XLS attachment.

Oops. Sorry about that. I swear I checked all over the email, looking for the xls attachment and didn't found it. Man, I need to rest....

[big67red]

Requests for the next update

1. I see where you tell the program that you are playing nine fielders and hitters, but then I missed unchecking some batters from a previous game and it used them as well. Is there a way to let the program tell you that you have more than nine hitters. Using this for minor league baseball game. They don't show on the batting order, and once the game starts you can't really fix it.

2. Star or some mark for outstanding play.

3. Ability to make notes next to players name, or on the page with name and number. 20 to 30 characters should do. Things like prospect or rehab start would be nice in a remarks section.

4. Would it make things easier to have the program ask what type of game is being scored? Softball vs. rec league vs. standard hardball. Some of the rule could be assigned better that way.

Thanks for the consideration and the wonderful product.

[FTMSupport]

Thank you for the suggestions.

#1 - Notifying a player they have more than 9 players batting would not be effective for a large number of customers --- many use 10 (softball), or the entire lineup (youth sports). You get a chance to change lineups before pressing the "Play!" button. Once play has been pressed, then the scorecard will show all players that were initially marked as batting. We may add a way to remove the additional spots after a game has started in a future release (as part of the pitch by pitch editing for example).

NOTE: As part of our response to #4 below, we may add a setting for "no bat checks", "all players bat", "9 players bat", or "10 players bat" for game options, and then could run a check when you press Play! (need "no bat checks" because there are situations where even in a 9 player bat league, only 8 players show up and you are allowed to play with 8, etc...).

#2 and #3 - these have both been suggested to us before, so it is good to see more interest in the ideas. That helps us prioritize.

#4 - when you go to the Options for a game, we do have a couple of questions that are asked (# of innings, # of fielders). We will be expanding these "custom rules" in an upcoming release (DP/Flex allowed, Courtesy Runner, Tie Breaker rules, etc), but it is unlikely we will be able to have a simple "what type of game is this". There are just far too many variations on the rules, and even the same "type" of game can have small differences in rules from region to region. As long as we are allowing the options to be set, that is about the best we can do. We WILL be supporting the concepts of "Leagues" at some point, and some of these settings will be able to be set in the League. So if you create a "League" that is configured for a certain # of innings/fielders, then any games created for that "League" will default to the right values that you have set.

Thank you.

[jdonato]

Just remembered one more request that has been asked for before:


12. Being able to assign Win/Lose/Save to pitchers

[FTMSupport]

Yes, we have winning/losing/saves for pitchers as a top priority... will probably make it into 1.70.

[gadgetfreak]

I asst coached my first little league game yesterday with this program and I had a blast. Unfortunately, I got a little overwhelmed in the bottom of the 5th and lost track of runs and outs. The kid ump wasn't sure and there was a bit of a disagreement. We lost the game by one run (which may have been incorrect anyway). The kids had fun and there is no championship for this age group so it is not a big deal.

Here is one thing that I would like (and one thing the kids wanted). I would like to see who is on double-deck (not just on deck). We try to get the kids ready with helmets as early as possible. I know I can press lineup but then I may miss something. So, if you can show the next two batters, that would be better.

The kids loved seeing how they batted at their last ABs. Unfortunately, the program doesn't show it until they are at bat (and I can't show it to them). How easy is it to show them the screen when they are at bat (but right before or after they are batting).

I will continue practicing using this program and I am sure I will get much better.

[FTMSupport]

The ability to view more than just the on deck batter will be coming in a future release when we create a more detailed info area at the top of the display. Most likely not in 1.70, but probably the release after that.

We also intend to allow the viewing of any player's batting performance (spray chart and previous at bat detail) at any time in an upcoming release (as opposed to just when they are batting).

Thank you for the suggestions.

[gadgetfreak]

You guys are great. I have a newfound interest in actually learning about scoring for the skill.

The app was a big hit last night to the other father's, the ump and, of course, the kids. Can't wait to see what else this baby can do.

Can anyone recommend the best place to actually learn about scoring by hand and reading a scorecard? There are a lot of resources on the web I just want your opinion on which is best for a newbie. Thanks.