This week’s column for Fanball.Com discusses the idea of commitment and planning in evaluating your team’s early performance.

One of the hallmarks of a successful fantasy owner is patience. Frankly, it astounds me that so many people are willing to make drastic moves at this stage of the season. In the Fantasy Baseball Search Expert League one owner has already traded a second round pick. The merits of the trade aside, the fact that an owner is willing to trade a high draft pick in which so much of the team’s value is tied, shows that a cohesive plan either was not prepared or that the owner is not committed to the plan.

Perhaps the most famous story about commitment is the story of Hernan Cortes. Cortes was charged with taking over Mexico with a band of a few thousand soldiers facing up against the millions of Aztecs. His men were naturally scared to fight, and wanted to merely steal some riches and then go back to Spain.

Charged with his duty and fully committed to conquest of Mexico, Cortes had to devise a way to focus his soldiers on the overall goal. So, he deliberately dug holes in all of his ships but one, which all sank. Then his men had a choice they could take the last ship home or stay and fight. Of course when put on the spot they all stayed, and Cortes eventually succeeded despite overwhelming odds.

Cortes was willing to risk everything out of absolute commitment to his plan. If he was willing to do that then certainly the fantasy owner can have some patience and be committed to their plan. Commitment to a plan, assuming it is a good plan, is to be commended and is an absolute necessity if you want to win or at least avoid the pratfalls that can come with early season jitters.

The rub of course is that one must be able to objectively determine whether they did, in fact, have a good draft plan and that they executed it well. Here is where many fall short, committing themselves only to failure.

Of course, it goes without saying that only the individual owner himself knows whether he had a good plan or not. But if you feel confident in your draft and your strategy there is no reason at all to make any moves in the first few weeks unless they are purely a matter of being fair. That is, any move that is made because it comports with the overall draft strategy is fine; a move made out of a perceived flaw or failure in the plan is not fine unless you know that your plan has failed. And how can you know that at this early stage?

Now is not the time to be backing away from your plan. Be committed and be like Cortes, at least for now.