The Game Manager is what separates Franchise Ball from other simulators out there. Released in January of 2019, the game manager became the latest revolutionary tool for managing your games in real-time. By queuing actions on a play-by-play basis, owners can manage their games by calling substitutions, field and bullpen changes, as well as offensive and defensive play calls. The following explains how this tool works and when you can access the Game Manager features.

Before and during a game, you will see an 'Open Game Manager' button at the top of the game tracker page :

• Daily Token Allocation : Depending on your membership plan, you receive a daily allocation of tokens for usage that reset everyday. Free teams get six tokens per day, Basic currently reaps 25, and Premium users get 60.


• Tokens Purchased : You may purchase additional tokens as any type of user for queuing additional actions


• Total Tokens Available : This is the sum of your daily allocation and tokens purchased. This number represents the total amount of tokens you can use for the current day.

There are essentially 3 basic types of games in Franchise Ball : Exhibition, Season, and Playoff games. Any user can queue as many actions as they want for 'exhibition' games. This is a time for testing your managing skills along with new players during the offseason. During the 'season', you may queue actions by using your allocation of tokens. The main difference comes with 'playoff' games. Currently, only subscribers can utilize the game manager, using their available tokens.

The game manager has two menus : offense and field, depending on which team is fielding and batting. The left side of the menu corresponds to substitution actions, and the right for play call actions. Since the games are occurring in real-time, you have the duration of the play to queue actions for the current pitcher / batter matchup, which will be executed on the next play. Each play is 60 seconds (55 seconds to queue, with 5 seconds after to finalize the play). Once you queue an action, you cannot undo it. You can view all queued actions for your current play in the bottom section of the menu. Note that all queued actions will cancel any reliever conditions that could be triggered for your team, for the remainder of the game.

• Lineup Substitution : At any point in the game you can substitute any of your bench players in your lineup. Just as is in the major leagues, you cannot bring a subbed out player back into the game. You can only sub in a player of the same position as well. If a player in the bench list is bolded, that means this player has the same field position as the current batter. Subbing in this player is essentially bringing in a pinch hitter for the current player at bat. Note that, just as your starting roster is final an hour before game time, your bench is final as well.


• Pinch Runner : This action is essentially a lineup substitution, but gives you the current baserunners as selectable options. The same rules apply in that you must have bench players with the same field positions available for substitution.


• Call to Bullpen : You can change pitchers while your team is batting. Simply select a relief pitcher from your bullpen, queue the action, and your pitcher will start the next inning. Just like lineup substitutions, your bullpen player configuration is final an hour before game time.


• Call For Bunt : We can now bunt in Franchise Ball! Simply set your bunt direction, left (3rd base line) or right (1st base line). For certain baserunner configurations, such as man on 1st and 3rd, you will also have the option to select which players to send in a dropdown below bunt direction.


• Hit & Run : Hit & Run is a higher risk, high reward, well known play in baseball we can now execute given the right conditions. If we have at least one runner on base, the baserunners will steal on the pitch as the batter attempts to lay contact on the ball. This play significantly increases the odds of making contact, and will increase your odds of advancing runners in many situations. Consider the speed rating of the runners and the batter's contact rating for successful execution. On the defensive side, the 'Play Infield In' call will counter the odds of this successfully playing out.


• Baserunner Steal : Pretty straight forward here, we can now manually call a steal. Simply select the baserunner from the dropdown to make the attempt. Note that any baserunners ahead of the runner you select will obviously take off too. It will confirm which runners are stealing upon selection.

• Field Substitution : Sub out any player on the field you have a corresponding bench position player for. This can be done at any point during the game as long as you still have bench players available. Just as is in the major leagues, you cannot bring a subbed out player back into the game. An as stated, you can only sub a player of the same position.


• Call to Bullpen : While fielding, you may sub in new pitchers at any time, no warm-up time necessary. Simply select a relief pitcher from your bullpen, queue the action, and your pitcher will start the next inning. Just like lineup substitutions, your bullpen player configuration is final an hour before game time.


• Intentional Walk : You can now call intentional walks. Simply queue the action. The pitcher will walk the current batter. This strategy is useful if the batter is streaking, or you just don't want to take the risk of a big hit.


• Play Infield In : Playing your infielders in will significantly reduce the odds of a successful bunt if one is anticipated, as well as offset the odds of a successful hit & run attempt by the opposing team.


• Anticipate Steal : Anticipating the steal will greatly increase your odds of throwing out the highest base runner if a steal takes place. Whether it be the opposing team queuing a steal action, or an automatic steal by a speedy runner, anticipating a steal is a smart call. This call signals all fielders to be in position and ready.