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Originally Posted by jaxmagicman
Wow. A run at the division. Say it isn't so!
I got a question. How did you simulate a manager change?
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Thanks for the comment, YODA55. It felt the same to me when I opened SHORT HOP after 10 days of ignoring it during the holidays.
As for a run at the division - no one was more surprised than I. Then again, KC has several young first rounders on the team: Dave, Bobby Frisina, Von Jones, Joel Kral, and Jose Araoz to name a few. Lots of potential.
As you know, manager changes are not a part of ITP, but when I looked at the numbers and saw a certain pattern of success after the All-Star Break, it seemed like the perfect time to achieve one of my story goals: that John Grier become manager of the Knights at some point. What I noticed was that these young neglected players were finally playing. The AI had gotten rid of some older vets. Why would it do that? Probably because KC wasn't really in contention and not likely to make a run anyway. They had the worst pitching in the league, remember. I got depressed just writing down the game scores.
But I asked myself: Would McKinnon make those changes? Answer: Not in a million years. Who would make these changes? Answer: a new manager bringing in a new approach. John Grier. I had already spent considerable time "setting the table" by establishing certain conflicts with Clark McKinnon, and establishing that Grier was a good manager. What better time than the All-Star Break to bring him in? Also, the whole Lance Britt/Mark Lieb trade fiasco happened and (truth be told) I was a little pissed myself. When Lieb was almost immediately traded for Sebastian Pena it seemed to me that's what a new manager would do - a dynamic new leader who wouldn't waste time dealing with old bad deals would absolutely drop a guy like Lieb ASAP. Plus, Pena's numbers after the trade also made it easy to write his storyline (old dog learns new tricks with new manager and has success, thus proving new manager's approach is the right one).
So, like so many things in SHORT HOP, the ITP results fit one of my goals for the story. In goes Grier. I had no idea KC would challenge for the division. I hadn't simmed that far ahead.