I’ve been using the Thuuz app on my iPhone for a couple weeks now. Here’s a quick review for you.
I’m notorious for downloading an app, trying it for four seconds, only to tap the little shaky “x” if it doesn’t immediately capture me. That the Thuuz app is still on my phone says good things.
What’s helpful about the Thuuz app is that it walks you through it’s features with little pop-ups that are inviting, yet not annoying. And those things can get annoying, am I right? But the way they did them don’t bug, they actually help you jump in and discover new features.
Speaking of features, I should tell you what the app does and what this has to do with fantasy baseball. Thuuz tracks your favorite sports. For me, I clicked off everything but Major League Baseball and Cricket. I don’t know a darned thing about cricket, so I thought it would be fun check out a few highlights. I feel suddenly more regal and pompous as a result. The takeaway here is that you can fine tune your feed with the exact sports you want.
Then it gets interesting. Thuuz gives games an excitement rating of 1-100. Is Yu Darvish an inning away from a perfect game? That game gets bumped to the top and you get to watch the moments that matters. Plus, it learns from you as it goes. I don’t really know fully how the algorithm works, so I’m just going to call it voodoo. The point is that it’s a really nice implementation and it’s ideal to think you don’t have to miss exciting moments.
Did I already tell you that it imports your fantasy baseball teams? I should’ve, because that’s what doubles the interest for us fantasy baseball folks. Importing fantasy baseball leagues is a new feature this year and it’s listed as beta, but it’s been working pretty well for me. It displays what you want: league standings, a smack talk feature I haven’t used (because I watch cricket highlights, which means I’m sophisticated and gentlemanly), and alert settings. I’m a fan of alerts settings so you’ll get injury updates to your players, when he’s up with two guys in scoring position, as well as fun stuff like an alert when one of your guys hits a homer or is up in the bottom of the ninth.
The fantasy implementation’s best feature are the player cards. Every guy on your fantasy team is listed with current stats obviously, but click through and you get the same 1-100 excitement scale that you get with full games. It’s fun when you’re taken to Tampa Bay because the Rays are tied with the Orioles in the bottom of the 9th, but it’s doubly fun when the same treatment is given to your fantasy guys. Madison Bumgarner on one of your fantasy teams and he has a shutout through 7? Well, he’ll be highlighted in your feed as live and the excitement index spikes up. Pretty fun stuff.
There are tons more features that I haven’t even played with. Thuuz is crunching tons of data on their severs to deliver a custom fantasy baseball experience and they have shown that they are working hard to make that experience robust. It’s a nice app. You get full, personalized highlights and updates fro your favorite baseball teams, while also getting individual player reports from your fantasy squad. And I didn’t mention any of the social features or integrated fantasy baseball analysis from the experts (I’m sure my invitation to participate is sitting in my inbox).
Click here and tell them the Crackerjacks sent you. As I type this the Tigers and Twins are in progress, but the excitement score is just at a 44. I’m going to click over to the Gamecast anyway. Might as well, it’s implemented right in the app. Did I forget to mention that?