Description: Managers are 100% optional for teams in Franchise Baseball. They are the in-game generals on the field. Playing without a manager is like a yellow baseball manager in all statistics.

Topics

Salary
Record
Styles
Hit and Run
Sacrifice
Steal
Patience
Matchups
Pitching Management
Defense
Temper
Availability

Salary: Managers are paid by the day (not game). For each day that a team employs a manager, they will be responsible for paying his salary. If a team cannot afford the salary, the manager is released back to the managers pool. There is no warning that a manager is going to leave. If there is not enough money to pay him, he becomes available for other teams. Revenue for a team is calculated before a manager is paid, so, ticket sales, merchandise, concessions, etc. will be credited before the manager is paid. Penalties such as the salary cap excess are also taken out before a manager is paid. It is not a good idea to rely on variable revenue to pay a manager. To make sure that a team has enough money to retain the services of their manager it is suggested that a team has enough money to pay him in cash or the bank.

Record: A number of records are kept for each manager. The current season record for each manager is kept as well as their playoff and career records. This may or may not influence the decision to hire a manager.

Styles: Each manager has eight styles (listed below). A manager with a yellow baseball style score in an attribute is considered average. Blue and green are above average. Red is below average. It is important to note that there is no color that is better or worse than any other. All styles simply refer to how a manager plays the game. So, a red ball in Steal would mean that the manager doesn't like to steal, and a team managed by him won't try to steal a lot (if at all). On the other hand a manager with a blue ball in steal will steal frequently. All managerial attributes work in this way. None of them give the players on a team any bonus'.

Hit and Run: This skill refers to how often a manager will try to hit and run. Hit and runs are putting baserunners in motion while allowing the batter to swing away. Often times, hit and runs will keep a team out of a double play, allow runners to take an extra base on a single, and also, unfortunately result in caught stealings when the batter misses the ball.

Sacrifice: This skill refers to how likely the manager is to sacrifice bunt to move runners over. Sac bunts almost always result in the batter being out, but, the runner (or runners) advancing a base.

Steal: This is how frequently the manager has players try to steal a base and the player with which he will try to do it. A manager who is high in steal would send marginal base stealers more often, sometimes resulting in more caught stealings as well as more stolen bases.

Patience: Patience is the measure of how proactive a manager is with respect to pitchers and batters. Managers with high patience will let the game flow, not removing players quite as fast as some people might. Managers with low patience have a quick hook for pitchers and often pinch hit for batters.

Matchups: This is how much a manager believes in matchups, Left handed batter vs. Right handed pitcher, etc. A manager with a high matchup ability will tend to play the matchup game more than other managers.

Pitching Management: This is how well a manager manipulates his bullpen. This isn't so much when and where pitchers will be replaced, but, more about who will replace someone, how much rest he likes to give players, etc.

Defense: This is how important defense is to a manager. Defensive replacements late in the game to protect a lead are part of what to expect from a high defense manager.

Temper: The managers temper can get in the way of a game, or, spur his players on. Sometimes managers will also get ejected from games.

Availability: Teams should be able to hire a manager if they wish (meaning there are at least 36 available). There is not, however, an infinite supply, and some teams (if they choose to hire a manager) will have to settle for managers that don't fit the goals of the team 100%. Again, managers are 100% optional. Teams will function fine without one. In fact, teams with little revenue or trying to build up their office may want to avoid the manager.