10 Best Computer Baseball Games

A baseball player swings for a pitch during a night game

Donald Miralle / Getty Images

Baseball fans love to argue about the sport's different eras and how their favorite players would have performed at various times. For example, how would Babe Ruth stack up today? Would Roger Clemens be able to strike out Ty Cobb?

Fans also like to inject themselves into the front office positions. Do you think you could run the Yankees better than Hank Steinbrenner? How do you think your GM and managing abilities stack up to other baseball fans?

These computer games and board games can satisfy these needs and provide you with a lot of fun doing it!

Sim League Baseball

What If Baseball website

 What if Sports

This simulator from WhatIf Sports, run by Fox Sports.com, is similar to Diamond Mind but has a couple of subtle differences. Players from 1885-2007 are used, and you can manage your club through a 162-game schedule in a 24-team league. There are private and public leagues and there's also a feature where you can play games live.

Sim Dynasty

Sim Dynasty login screen

 Sim Dynasty

Sim Dynasty is more in line with running a franchise instead of just running a team. Managers can control their team over multiple seasons, build a farm system, and compete over a longer span of time. A single-season team is free, so it's a great way to test out the system before getting into a multi-season league commitment.

SimDynasty doesn't have the polish of Diamond Mind, but it has a vibrant online community, and its franchise potential is intriguing. The free-to-start policy is a double-edged sword—yes, it's cheap to try out, but for those who want to stick around, there are inherently more people who end up ignoring their teams after a poor start.

Baseball Mogul

Baseball Mogul 2018 website

Sports Mogul

This is one of the first online baseball video games to take you from season to season and it's still the number-one best-selling baseball PC video game. Compared to the other software-based games, this is also one of the best looking. One cool feature of the game is that it uses real players' names and they age over time.

In Baseball Mogul, you control every aspect of your team—from deciding how much you charge for tickets to picking up free agents and running your farm system. You can choose whether to run the game using salary caps or simulate a reality where the Yankees have more to spend than other teams. The game is generally more of a solitary quest, but there's also an online version where you can play against other owners on the Internet.

Out of The Park Baseball

Out of the Park Baseball website

 Out of the Park

This very good game is similar to Baseball Mogul. There are online leagues with customizable financial systems, auto-generated game recaps, and authentic minor league systems.

Strat-O-Matic Baseball

Strat-o-Matic website

 Strat-o-matic

Strat-o-Matic is a popular card and dice game that was adapted to the computer. Through a partnership with Sporting News, Strat-o-Matic has been adapted to resemble Diamond Mind, with the difference that it uses player ratings from the past season. Like Diamond Mind and Sim Dynasty, it simulates three games per day until the season is complete.

The original dice game is still available each season and there's also a traditional computer game that allows you to play head-to-head on the internet or do your own simulations against the computer.

DYNASTY League Baseball Powered By Pursue the Pennant

Dynasty League Baseball website
DYNASTY League Baseball

Like Strat-O-Matic and APBA, DYNASTY is derived from a classic baseball board/card game, Pursue the Pennant. The board game version is in the permanent archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but there is now a new multi-player online version where you can play solitaire or live head-to-head games in full season draft leagues with stats, standings and leaders updated automatically in real time. DYNASTY has a graphical interface and is praised by the media and MLB Analytics departments for its accuracy, realism, and detail. Past seasons and Greatest Teams are also available in addition to the current season. Available for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.

APBA Baseball

APBA website

 APBA

You may remember the old dice version of APBA Baseball—well, they still make the game after all these years and now there's also a software version that includes Pete Van Wieren describing the games, which is a nice touch. In APBA, you're controlling a team from the past or drafting a team and playing against the computer or a friend in person. This is more of a solitary quest than most of the other games on this list.

Scoresheet Baseball

Scoresheet fantasy baseball website

 Scoresheet

You have to be in the regular season to play Scoresheet, but it's another interesting concept—it doesn't use past stats, as essentially every other game does. Played in real time during the season, this service touts itself as the only baseball simulation that plays based on stats from the current week's major-league games. Scoresheet is essentially like drafting a traditional fantasy team, but playing alternate games on the computer and you actually manage the team—at-bat by at-bat—working the matchups like a real manager.

Strategic Baseball Simulator

Strategic Baseball Simulator website

 SBS

Strategic Baseball Simulator (SBS) isn't the prettiest computer baseball game out there, but it can't be beaten in one area: It's free. SBS is comparable to Strat-o-Matic and APBA, too. It's worth trying—after all, since it's free, there's nothing to lose.

Diamond Mind Baseball

Diamond Mind Baseball website

 Diamond Mind

Diamond Mind is a computer simulation that's been around for more than 20 years. Its intricate engine is used by ESPN and other media to simulate seasons and is considered by many to be the best simulator out there.

The way it works is, users draft a team using past players and then try to beat other owners in a 12-team league for a simulated 162-game season. It's not as easy as sticking Mickey Mantle in center, Babe Ruth in right, and putting Cy Young on the mound, either, as the salary cap means you can only afford a few superstars for your team. Sure, you'll be filling out your roster with players you've probably forgotten about, but that's part of the fun.

The simulator comes in web-based and downloadable versions.