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Moody Little Guys

by The Fanatics

Reprinted from HPN,June 02, 2005

There are many, many different training methods utilized when training a team. I have heard most of them in conversations with fellow owners. The one method that I have never heard anyone speak of is the method that I always have used, training that is dictated by a particular players mood. Most people never look at the mood sort after their players have reached the happiest face. This in my opinion is a big mistake. From the day I started playing this game I have always used the mood sort to find out what each of my players want, creating an individualized schedule for each player. The following are some examples of how I used the mood sort list.Before I trained any of my players I sorted by mood. I started out with my highest rated (on the mood sort) player. For example let's say I was going to practice this individual in the power cage. When the first piece of pie is used up, if my player stayed the same (remember he was on the top of the list) on the mood sort list I considered this to be acceptable and marked it down on that individuals schedule. I would continue to practice this individual in the power cage every day until the time came that he did not want to bat anymore. I determined that my player did not want to bat anymore when after the first piece of pie was used up he plummeted to the bottom of the mood sort list. I wrote down the number of consecutive days that this player wanted to bat. The next practice I tried a different skill for this individual, lets say catching. Again I sorted by mood before practicing. Usually the next day after a player plummets to the bottom of the mood sort list they rise back up some before the next practice and are no longer at the bottom of the list. After the first piece of pie is used up I check to see if the player went up, stayed the same or went down on the list. If he went up or stayed the same I noted this as part of his schedule. If he went down I tried something else the next day. Lets say he liked catching practice and I noted this as part of his schedule, the next day I would try batting again. I would always try to go for batting practice over all others and if the player shows me that he doesn't mind more batting, I will bat him until he shows me that he doesn't want to anymore. After a while it was clear to me that each player on my roster had his own unique training schedule that was repeatable time after time. By sticking to each player's schedule I knew that I would never do anything to harm their moods. I also found that not all players had the same length of schedule before I could restart to the beginning of their schedule again. I have players that have as little as a nine day schedule and others that have up to a seventeen day schedule before starting the schedule over. My best player from the NASCAR Fanatics had a schedule that went- bat, catch, bat, bat, bat, run, catch, bat, bat, throw, bat, bat, bat, bat, catch, run. When I finished this schedule I started it over again. I have another player that is much more simple, his schedule was- bat, bat, catch, bat, bat, run, bat, catch, bat, throw. As you can see the two schedules aren't even close to each other, customizing each schedule to the player. The only players I did not do this with were my pitchers. My pitchers pitched EVERY day, very rarely practicing anything else, but that's another subject.This form of practice did very well for my teams, and was the most influential part of my training schedules. It took me up to three months to finally settle on every player's schedule. Remember, every player on your team is a unique individual. Practicing the entire team the same way practice after practice will help your team become good, but practicing them as individuals will help make them great. There are a few other little things that helped influence how I trained, but for now these influences I will keep to myself. Hopefully this will enlighten some of you fellow owners. While there is an infinite number of ways a team can be trained, remember this…They are moody little guys.

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