Every January, the baseball world converges in one place.
At the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention, you get a rare mix of high school coaches, college staffs, tournament directors, and technology builders. Everyone's in the same room, having honest, unfiltered conversations about what’s actually working and what isn’t.
This year, one theme kept surfacing again and again:
Coaches and tournament directors aren’t asking for more technology. They’re asking for simpler tools that reduce friction, mistakes, and wasted time.
After dozens of conversations on the convention floor, here are the most common pain points we heard, and how those conversations are shaping what we’re building at PlayMaker.
Caption: Our team at ABCA, meeting with coaches, tournament directors, and partners across the baseball community.
Scoring baseball games in real time is harder than it should be
Many teams rely on high school players to score games. When the pace picks up, the biggest issue isn’t effort, it’s interface friction.
We heard things like:
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“I can’t find the right button fast enough.”
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“I’m not sure where that play lives in the menu.”
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“I end up guessing, then we have to fix it later.”
Why this matters:
When scoring isn’t intuitive, mistakes increase and confidence drops, especially for younger or less experienced scorekeepers. Those mistakes then cascade into stat corrections, coach frustration, and loss of trust in the data.
How we’re addressing it:
Our scoring menu is color-coded to make common actions easier to find quickly and reduce hesitation at game speed. The goal is to make the correct choice feel obvious in the moment.
When coaches and players tried PlayMaker scoring at the booth, the most common reactions were immediate and unprompted:
“Oh, that’s easier.”
“That was fewer clicks.”
“That felt like less steps.”
That feedback reinforced a core belief we’ve had from the start: less thinking and fewer taps leads to better scoring and better data.
Correcting scoring mistakes shouldn’t break the entire game
Another common issue we heard was how difficult it is to correct mistakes once a game has been scored, especially when they are discovered a few innings after the fact.
Often, fixing a single play means undoing innings or re-entering large portions of a game.
Why this matters:
When coaches can’t easily correct errors, they lose confidence in the stats, and once that trust is gone, the data stops being useful.
How we’re addressing it:
We’re developing an expanded play editor that allows precise corrections without forcing coaches to re-score games or compromise data integrity.
Exporting baseball stats shouldn’t be restrictive
Many baseball scoring apps allow coaches to view stats, but exporting them cleanly is often limited or inconsistent.
Sharing data with assistants, administrators, parents, or players shouldn’t feel like a workaround.
Why this matters:
If data is trapped inside a system, its value drops significantly.
How we’re addressing it:
We’re actively testing multiple stat export formats so coaches and tournament directors can use their data however they need, not however the software dictates.
Practical stat splits matter more than advanced analytics
Coaches weren’t asking us for complex dashboards or advanced models.
They wanted clear, actionable answers:
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Performance against left-handed vs right-handed pitching
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Count-based outcomes
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Situational trends they can actually coach from
Why this matters:
These types of splits help coaches make better lineup, matchup, and development decisions without requiring a background in analytics.
How we’re addressing it:
We’re building a flexible set of filters and stat splits that allow coaches and players to quickly see meaningful performance patterns, while keeping the experience intuitive and approachable at the high school and youth levels.
Tournament directors are tired of chasing down scores
This was one of the most consistent themes we heard.
Manual score entry.
Text messages.
Paying site directors just to track down results.
Why this matters:
It’s inefficient, expensive, completely avoidable, and it directly impacts a tournament’s ability to scale.
How we’re addressing it:
PlayMaker integrates scoring directly into tournament management, allowing scores to flow automatically without redundant data entry or extra staffing.
Tournament directors want event-level stats, leaderboards, and player profiles
Tournament directors don’t just want brackets.
They want:
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Event-specific leaderboards
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Player profiles
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Shareable stats that help promote their tournaments
Why this matters:
Events that tell better stories attract more teams and grow faster.
How we’re addressing it:
When teams score games using PlayMaker, tournament-level stats, leaderboards, and player profiles are generated automatically, no additional work required.
Tournament management software pricing is squeezing margins
This feedback was direct and consistent.
Between software fees, site directors, and the manual work required to keep events running smoothly, many tournament directors told us they feel squeezed before the first pitch is even thrown.
Why this matters:
Rising overhead eats directly into margins, especially for regional and independent tournaments that rely on tight budgets to stay sustainable.
How we’re addressing it:
We’re building a tournament management solution designed to reduce both software costs and operational overhead, helping directors protect margins while still delivering a high-quality event experience.
Coaches want to be heard — and want products that actually evolve
One of the strongest themes we heard at ABCA had nothing to do with features or pricing.
It was about responsiveness.
Coaches repeatedly shared frustrations around giving feedback, reporting issues, or requesting improvements, only to feel like those messages disappeared into a void.
Why this matters:
When users feel unheard, trust erodes. And once trust is gone, even good tools stop getting used.
For coaches and tournament directors, the best technology isn’t just functional. It’s collaborative. They want to know that when they speak up, someone is listening and actively improving the product.
How we’re approaching it:
We view feedback as a core part of product development. Conversations at ABCA didn’t just validate what we’re building. They actively shape it. Our goal is to stay close to coaches, directors, and partners, and to evolve PlayMaker based on real-world use, not assumptions.
The big takeaway from ABCA
ABCA reinforced something we already believed:
The future of baseball technology isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less, better.
Less friction.
Fewer clicks.
Clearer workflows.
Products that listen and evolve.
The conversations we had weren’t about flashy features. They were about trust, efficiency, and usability, and those conversations continue to shape how we build.
If you’re a coach or tournament director who’s felt these same frustrations, we’re always open to feedback and conversation.