aNewDomain — Serious baseball fans are geekish. They don’t just want stats on their favorite teams. They want them on all teams. That’s a lot of data to track and process. And lucky for all of you baseball geeks out there, Major League Baseball has a free app — MLB At Bat — that makes following all the baseball stats a whole lot easier. I took a look.
And here’s my MLB At Bat review. You’ll see in a moment why it’s my choice for this week’s Freeware Friday.
Who’s on First?
I reviewed the Android version of MLB At Bat, but it’s also available for Apple iOS, Windows Phone and both PC and Mac. Also, I looked at the free version for this review, but I should note right off that buying the subscription version of the app will provide the best experience. Subscription options involve a monthly fee of $2.99 per month or an annual fee of $19.99 per year.
Another point of interest: The app draws its statistical and game information from the MLB website, so the data is actually available outside of the app. This explains its freeness. What you get with MLB.com At Bat, though, is a mobile-friendly presentation. If you’re out and about and don’t have anything else to track the national pasttime, that alone makes MLB.com At Bat worth it.
Pick Your Favorite Team(s)
As you might expect, when you fire up MLB.com At Bat, the very first screen you see will ask if you have or want a subscription. The premium features will be worth the subscription price, especially if you have already subscribed to MLB.TV.
When setting up the app, you’ll need to pick your favorite team(s). Because of proximity and the franchise association with the Triple-A Louisville Bats, the Cincinnati Reds have always been my favorite major league team.
The Notifications screen lets you choose how often and for what event you wish to be notified for your favorite team.
Unfortunately, the Lead Change notification has been going off too often for the Reds this year.
Once you’ve set up the app to cover your favorite major league team, you’ll arrive at the main Scoreboard screen where you can keep track of all the baseball games being played that day. At a glance you’ll see starting times, who is pitching, and, if the games are in progress, current scores.
If you tap on a specific game, you can get more details including news and potential lineups.
You can also buy tickets to the game. The Buy Tickets button will take you directly to the team’s ticket-buying section of its website.
Notice the headphone and television icons in the upper-right corner.
If you have an MLB.TV subscription, you can listen or watch the game right on your mobile device.
And yes, the game lets you vote for your favorite player to be part of the the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
That game, so you know, is scheduled for July 14, 2015 at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.
I like that MLB At Bat doesn’t forget the fantasy baseball fan, either. The latest baseball news is invaluable when you’re creating your weekly lineup.
The Bottom Line
The MLB.com At Bat app isn’t perfect, but the league knows what its fans like and what they want from a mobile experience. It has put a tremendous amount of effort into creating an app that provides the scores, news and statistics necessary for a baseball fanatic to track all things major league baseball. The free app will adequately provide scores and track daily baseball happenings, but you’ll want and need the subscription version if you want it to bring you stats whereever you are or on whatever device you happen to be using.
For aNewDomain, I’m Mark Kaelin.
Featured image: Louisville Bats, Wikimedia Commons
All screenshots: Mark Kaelin
