General Description - From this page, you, as a franchise owner, can put the pieces in place to begin molding your entire franchise. This is the place to hire coaches to fill the job openings throughout your organization. Since coaches can only accept 1-year deals in the game, it's an annual process that has a huge impact on player development during the upcoming season. Remember, though, it's not just you trying to hire a coach but it's all 31 other owners attempting to land the better coaches. So focus on the guys you want, use your entire coaching budget (since any excess doesn't roll over to the following season), and go for it!

Coaching Role Description - The big league level requires 7 coaches and each minor league level requires 3 coaches. The fielding instructor is a roving coach that impacts player development at each level. Bench coaches at the minor league level play a role in all facets of player development. Pitching coaches and bullpen coaches impact pitcher ratings. Hitting coaches, 1B coaches and 3B coaches impact hitting and baserunning ratings.

View Options, Coach List - The Coach List lets you filter on what coaches you want to see listed. "Previous Season" will show the coaches that were part of your staff the previous season. "Available" shows all coaches that are looking for a gig. "Negotiating" shows all coaches you are currently negotiating with. Please note that any coach with an asterisk (*) beside his name is a former player who has since retired and become a coach.

View Options, Previous Level - The Previous Level filters the coach list by where they coached the previous season.

View Options, Previous Role - The Previous Role filters the coach list by the role in which the coaches were assigned the previous season. Click the "Go" button when you're happy with the View Options.

Status, Negotiations Begin - You can only hire coaches during a specific timeline during the season schedule. This lists the date/time when negotiating can begin.

Status, Negotiations End - You can only hire coaches during a specific timeline during the season schedule. This lists the date/time when negotiating ends. If you haven't filled all of your roles, you'll be assigned the coaches from the bottom of the scrap heap.

Status, Coaching Staff Budget - This is the amount you assigned to the coaching staff from your franchise budget.

Status, Total Salary From Signed Coaches - This is the amount you've already spent locking up coaches for the season.

Status, Required Minimum Remaining - This is the minimum amount you have to spend in order to fill all available coaching positions.

Status, Additional After Minimum - This is the amount you have to play with above the minimum required. Use this money to bring in the guys you want molding your players!

Coaching Needs - This chart shows you your franchise's coaching staff broken down by level and role. The big league team has 7 roles whereas the minor league clubs only have 3. The chart lists the minimum salary for each role as well as the coach in place if the slot is filled. If you are currently negotiationg with a coach the chart will display the number of pending negotiations you have out for that level and role combination. Please keep in mind that you may only have 3 pending negotiations for any role/level combination. You can click on the coach's name for his Coach Profile. The number in parenthesis indicates how many vacancies there are at that role and level. If that number is high you can expect a bidding war for that combination.

Coach List, Icons - If you've made any previous offers to a coach, an icon will be displayed next to his name. Click on the icon to view the last piece of correspondence you've had with him.

Coach List, Exp - This is the amount of professional experience the coach has had. For more complete details regarding his coaching history, click on his name for his Profile.

Coach List, Prev Fran - This is who the coach coached for the previous season. Click on the abbreviation for the Franchise Profile.

Coach List, Prev Level - This is the level the coach was stationed at the previous season.

Coach List, Prev Role - This is the role the coach served last season. The role abbreviations are taken from the Coaching Needs chart.

Coach List, Prev Salary - This is how much the coach was paid the previous season.

- This is the coach's hitting IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their batting skills.

- This is the coach's pitching IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their pitching skills.

- This is the coach's fielding IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their fielding skills.

- This is the coach's baserunning IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their baserunning skills.

- This is the coach's patience rating. The higher the rating, the easier it will be for him to tolerate and coach younger players. Of course, if he's really good in the other areas, his lack of patience may be acceptable.

- This is the coach's strategy rating. The higher the rating, the more likely he'll succeed as a bench coach. Bench coaches are important, because they can improve/hurt the day-to-day management operations of a minor league franchise as well as affect in-game decision making (even at the big league level if the manager gets ejected). They generally have different managerial settings than the ones you've set, for instance.

- This is the coach's discipline rating. The higher the rating, the more focused he'll be on the fundamentals such as bunting, throwing strikes and hitting the cutoff man. Of course, this means he'll spend less time on some of the other important aspects of his role.

- This is the coach's loyalty rating. The higher the rating, the more likely the coach is to re-sign with your club.

Interested Franchises - This is the count of franchises with an offer on the table for this particular coach. This count includes any offer your franchise may have pending/considering for this coach. "1+" indicates 1 or more franchises are interested.

Coach List, Action - If you want to begin or continue the negotiating process, this is what you want to click.

Conclusion - The actual negotiation/communication process is described in the Coach Negotiation page.

Additional information :Player Ratings | Player Statistics | GM Basics | Guide | Manual