I am currently at the end of my first season with franchise mode. I have all the management stuff set to auto including signings and free agency and draft signings. The only thing I control is lineups/rotations/trades. I also had to adjust sliders because you gotta be a brain surgeon with quick reflexes to hit decent, but besides that its fun.
My biggest complaint is stats are not in depth enough. Like mentioned above, I miss how it used to be when I could research any player even retired ones and see how many years they played and who they played for each individual year. Little things like that make a huge difference. Especially when generic faces get added once a player changes teams from the default one he's on when the game was made.