Even without the Yankees in the playoffs and an NBA regular season, it’s pretty much a perfect time to be a sports fan. Nelson Cruz broke the MLB record for most home runs and RBIs in a playoff series, Tom Brady has somehow found yet another gear, and Jaromir Jagr is back on the ice at 39 years old. And with all of that great action filling the days, fantasy die-hards still have to find time to manage multiple teams.

Whether your squad is playoff-bound or your star player is saddled on the sidelines, there are any number of iPhone apps to keep track of touchdowns, goals, and penalties. But committed fantasy owners need more than just stats and play-by-play -- and they should definitely consider downloading SportCaster. Casual fans, not so much.

On the surface, the app offers little benefit over ESPN ScoreCenter or Yahoo! Sportacular -- that is, rudimentary stats, scores, and standings -- but SportCaster’s strength is not in numbers. Rather, words are what sets it apart from the pack, as inside each game is a “Conversation” tab that collects tweets from all corners of the Twitterverse. And this isn’t just mindless hashtag stuff: feeds from players, teams, analysts, and local sportscasters populate the feed, more than making up for the app’s surprising lack of play-by-play.

Non-fantasy freaks, however, probably won’t see the value in sifting through dozens of tweets -- there aren’t any advanced filters for content -- just to find out how far Rian Lindell’s last field goal sailed. SportCaster clearly isn’t meant for nonchalant fans; its target audience is face-painting fantasy addicts who follow Teemu Selänne’s post-game press comments and want to digest as much news and commentary as possible about the day’s action. Who knew the little blue Twitter bird was so macho?

The bottom line. When Tom Brady threw his fourth interception against the Bills in week 3, fantasy owners reading SportCaster could have followed the whole scene -- right down to any inappropriate post-game comments. Let’s see a Monday morning box score do that.