As I have written, one of the things I really look forward to each season is playing in the SOMBOE--Strat-O-Matic Online Experts--League each year.

This is the sixth year that pits some of the fantasy industries most enthusiastic, if not best players in a nine-week 162 game sim recreation of the previous season. The difference being we do an open draft with an $80 million salary cap.

Over the past five seasons, I have fared pretty well in the league making the World Series once, the playoffs three times, and finishing under .500 only once, in 2005 when I decided to try an experiment and purchase the two most expensive players--Eric Gagne and Barry Bonds--and build a team around them.

It failed miserably.

This year I did my usual, looking mostly at OBP, WHIP, defense, and speed, and got a balanced team--four switch hitters included--that I was really happy with.

Well, just about a third of the way into the season--48 games--and my Chicago Hot Dogs, based at Wrigley Field, are a miserable 17-31, worst in the league.

We are 12-15 at home, and a pathetic 5-16 on the road, while being 4-10 against lefties as opposed to 13-21 versus righties. So much for the likes of Austin Kearns, Norris Hopper, Nick Swisher, and Yunel Escobar, deadly against lefties, and Ichicro, Casey Kocthman, Josh Hamilton, and Joey Gathright against righties.

The Hot Dogs have won exactly three of 16 series, and they have not swept anyone.

Among my pitchers, two of the undervalued guys I thought I could exploit were Orlando Hernandez (1-7, 6.70) and Kyle Kendrick (0-7, 6.83), who interestingly pretty much account for the deficit in the loss column.

 One of the things that cracks me up about this is that JP Kastner was disappointed because I got Kendrick during waivers, and he wanted him (I'll trade him to you JP, cheap!).

We are last in offense, and second to last in pitching.

Now, one of the things that I could do in the league is trade my players in and exchange them at 90% of their salary value, and hopefully obtain players with friendlier roles of the dice inside.

But, somehow I believe that messes with the cards and stats and probabilities. Not that I expect Josh Hamilton to kill, but, he could do better than the .209-3-9 numbers he as put up over 91 at-bats. I mean, when Yunel Escobar is your home run leader 48 games into the season, well, that sort of speaks for itself.

I have enough optimism in me, and it is early enough in the season still for me to expect (and hope) that there is a streak and some normalcy in all of this. If not, I will as always ride it out and maybe next year build a rotation of killer lefty starters to see how that works.

In the mean time, I am dying. If you have been there, you know what I mean.