So, last week I noted my basic strategy for SOMBOE, the Strat-O-Matic Baseball Online Experts league, noting that I was looking at hitters who got on base, and pitchers who kept baserunners off the paths, all within my $80 million salary cap.

So, I slowly filled out my potential draft list, almost randomly selecting by position, although I did grab Ichiro (a 1(-5) at $7.9 million) and Jason Varitek (1(-1) at $3.94 million) as my first two players, and looked hard at defense, but, I basically went through my spots, drafting 25 players, without really ordering my selections beyond those first two guys noted.

Why did I not pay that much attention? Well, for one thing, I thought I would have a chance to review my picks one more time before submitting (I was wrong), but, I also feared overthinking and second guessing my picks.

That is because the last couple of years I tried that and wound up having the most conflicts, meaning my high picks were also sought by other teams, too, and as a result I had the most potential picks picked off between 2006 and 2007.

Well, lo and behold, in 2008 I hade the lowest number of draftees plucked off elsewhere, so the zen certainly worked this year. But, my fear was I then picked last over the waiver period, which favors the teams with the most players taken, giving them first pick of the leftovers in the free agent pool.

But, I also got all five of my six waiver picks (Brendan Roberts copped Kelvim Escobar) including bad boy Josh Hamilton who is a 3(-3) with a wicked card against right-handers.

A couple of other deadly cards include Rafael Bettancourt, Nick Swisher (versus lefties) and believe it or not, starters Orlando Hernandez (109 hits over 149 innings) and Kyle Kendrick (129 hits over 121 innings, but just 25 walks for a 1.27 ERA).

Those guys back top three starters Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Dustin McGowan. While, my outfield has Austin Kearns in right and a platoon of Norris Hopper and Joey Gathright, while Ryan Thierot is my defensive sub, behind Casey Kotchman, Asdrubal Cabrera, Yunel Escobar, and Mark DeRosa around the horn.

As I spoke with Trace Wood and JP Kastner last Wednesday, reviewing both our teams and the waiver, I happily noted how happy I was with my team, housed at Wrigley Field.

All three of us agreed we were itching for the season to start, which it did yesterday (Monday evening).

But, part of the discussion focused on OBP versus not just slugging, but clutch hitting ability, which is a factor in Strat, and which JP, the best Strat player I know, has been studying and factoring into his successful teams.

Well, I can say that my argument for a guy like Jack Cust, high OBP, lotta homers, lotta whiffs, some double plays, no glove, and nothing else, is that the cards and the dice simply don't know that Cust is facing Johan Santana or Eric Bedard.

So, of course I woke up and found my team was swept during our first series by Jeff Erickson's Minnesota Misquitoes.

How deflating. And, a good thing there are 159 games left for the Hot Dogs and me to get well. I just need those dice and cards to do their thing.