JP Kastner and I were discussing Strat and our upcoming SOMBOE draft the other morning, and he noted talking with Brendan Roberts about strategy for the upcoming league.

As in, Brendan asked JP, "What kind of strategy are you using?" To which JP replied, "Well, basically I am looking to score more runs than I give up."

So simple. So elegant. So true.

As I have noted many times, I really cut my fantasy teeth playing Strat. I mean, I played APBA first, but with Strat-O-Matic, I really began to understand the value of strikeouts to walks, and WHIP, along with OBP.

Somehow, in the context of a board game, I could easily understand what it took to win, which is a bit of an elaboration of JP's basic sentiment.

So, I began to look for pitchers who gave up less hits than innings, playing more attention to WHIP and less to ERA, while with hitters I began to look at walks and OBP instead of batting average.

Which, actually works pretty well. A case in point is Josh Beckett, who in 2006 pitched 204 innings, won 16 games, but had a rather scary ERA of 5.01, allowing 36 homers.

But, within that Beckett also struck out 158, and surrendered 191 hits and 71 walks for a ratio of 1.27, which is pretty good.

My reasoning in drafting Beckett in SOMBOE last year was in a more forgiving park, with better defense, those numbers would be different.

Well, I was mostly right. In a shallow league like SOMBOE (12 team, mixed) I did get some better defense for Beckett, but he faced generally better hitters.

Still the results were a 10-10 record, more of a tribute to my New York Minutes inability to score runs and get a big hit (we finished second in our division, with an 81-81 mark), but his ERA dropped by half a run to 4.55, and his ratio was 1.18.

True, he gave up 42 homers, but again, Beckett was facing better hitters, and with better run support, that 10-10 mark could have easily been 15-5, just a five win swing from one the loss side to the win one. Not bad for a starter who cost a mere $1.28 million in the Online game.

But, the other point here is those numbers, which I got to know well, told me if Beckett can essentially repeat 2006 in 2007, and simply keep the ball down and reduce those walks, he would be deadly. I got him in every league I could in 2007 and the results were, as we know, spectacular as Beckett became one of the premiere starters in the American League.

JP's example was David Bush, his $4.48 million SOMBOE hurler of 2006. Bush finished '06 with a 12-11, 3.43 record, and a ratio of 1.13. For JP and his Rutbuckle Bohemians, Bush shone with a 21-9, 3.64, 1.13 ERA.

The really striking numbers that point how how subtly effective Bush was, are those that contrast with JP's 1-2 starters, Johan Santana (16-18, 4.01, for $7.55 million) and John Lackey (13-23, 4.25, for $5.55 million). (JP won the SOMBOE World Series, by the way, last year.)

Of course the margin of error is that Bush's numbers pointed to the great 2007 that Beckett's did, although the end results (12-10, 5.12) were more in line with Beckett's poorer 2006.

So, if  Brendan were to ask me my strategy going into SOMBOE, I would pretty much echo JP. And, I would dig for the Bush's and Beckett's. It does work.