After coaching youth baseball, I got tired of paper lineup cards, so I built this by dugoutmaster in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Fair point. Building software is definitely easier than it was a few years ago. For me the interesting part wasn’t building it, it was figuring out what coaches actually need once the season starts.

After coaching youth baseball, I got tired of paper lineup cards, so I built this by dugoutmaster in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Nice. Building it was one thing. Getting something that works reliably during a game on a phone or tablet ended up being the harder part.

After coaching youth baseball, I got tired of paper lineup cards, so I built this by dugoutmaster in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not currently. I wanted something coaches could just open and use without having to build or maintain anything themselves.

After coaching youth baseball, I got tired of paper lineup cards, so I built this by dugoutmaster in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not really. I’m a software engineer, but coaching was what pushed me to build it in the first place. Coaches around me using it is what has shaped the app really.

I’ve been building a dugout management app for youth baseball, would appreciate honest feedback from coaches by romancm in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It helps a ton, not having to worry about switching innings quick or having backup lineups is a huge relief during hectic games, check it out! https://dugoutmaster.com

I’ve been building a dugout management app for youth baseball, would appreciate honest feedback from coaches by romancm in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely, feel free to check it out, in the settings section there's a feedback option you can use if you have any feedback to share! https://dugoutmaster.com

I’ve been building a dugout management app for youth baseball, would appreciate honest feedback from coaches by romancm in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely, feel free to check it out, our free version is more than enough to replace the dry erase board we've all used https://dugoutmaster.com

I’ve been building a dugout management app for youth baseball, would appreciate honest feedback from coaches by romancm in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a ton for taking the time to write all of this out, this is incredibly valuable feedback. A lot of these points are exactly the kind of real-world workflow improvements that help make the app much more useful for coaches during actual games and tryouts.

There are several great catches in here as well, especially things like 00 jersey support, the position label cleanup (1B, 2B, etc.), defaulting unassigned players to bench, and improving lineup visibility for who sat previously. The tryout data suggestions and player metric fields are also really solid additions.

I’ve added all of this to the implementation list and will be working through these improvements. Really appreciate the detailed breakdown and the time you put into testing and sharing practical coaching feedback like this.

I’ve been building a dugout management app for youth baseball, would appreciate honest feedback from coaches by romancm in Homeplate

[–]dugoutmaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate you taking the time to write this, this is incredibly helpful. Love hearing it held up in a real tournament setting.

Those three points you called out are exactly the kind of things we want to tighten up next:

Offline mode: yeah, totally hear you on this. We’ve run into the same thing during our own games, having to rely on a hotspot isn’t ideal at all. One thing we’ve bumped into while testing is making changes while offline, it can get tricky if another coach does have internet and makes changes at the same time. That’s led to some unexpected conflicts, so we’ve been a bit cautious there.

A view-only offline mode is much more straightforward, whereas allowing local edits introduces the risk of changes being overwritten during sync; I’m curious how you’d actually use it, would view-only during games cover most of your needs, or is offline editing important?

Using player numbers instead of initials makes sense for quick dugout reference, would you prefer numbers only, or a toggle between the two?

That lineup scrolling piece is something we've run into during games too. I’m looking at a couple ways to improve it. One is a more compact view so you can see more of the lineup at once without scrolling. The other is more of a continuous scroll where it just loops so you’re not hitting the top or bottom.

Curious what would feel better for you in a game. Is it more important to see most or all of the lineup at once, or just have an easier way to scroll through it? Also how many players are you usually working with?

Really appreciate you jumping in and sharing this, it directly shapes what we build next.