If I am counting right, 67 are no longer “on the market” as 55 have signed with a major league club and another dozen have inked minor league deals.

Again, if I am counting right, 29 teams have signed at least one free agent – we’re waiting on you, Cincinnati! – while nine of those have signed exactly one free agent. Nine more have signed a pair of freebies, while seven have inked a trio of players. Oddly, no team has signed four, but three rosters – including your Toronto Blue Jays – welcome five newcomers, and we can raise a beer stein to the leaders at the New Year turn, as the Milwaukee Brewers have already signed no less than six free agents to 2010 contracts.

Okay, that math doesn’t work exactly right, but you get the idea – there are still around 150 unsigned free agents on the market, which leads to an interesting thought experiment … given an unlimited budget, what kind of team could we build from the talent out there right now for “free”? Let’s see …

Starting Lineup
C Ivan Rodriguez
1B Carlos Delgado
2B Orlando Hudson
SS Miguel Tejada
3B Adrian Beltre
LF Matt Holliday
CF Marlon Byrd
RF Vladimir Guerrero
DH Jack Cust

Bench
C Gregg Zaun
IF Mark Loretta
IF Omar Vizquel
OF Johnny Damon
OF Rick Ankiel
UTIL Frank Catalanotto

As for a starting rotation, let's go five-wide and make sure we include at least two lefties. There's a lot of depth but a lot of question marks. How's this look?

Rotation
SP Erik Bedard
SP Doug Davis
SP Joel Pineiro
SP Randy Johnson
SP Pedro Martinez

That's right, no room here for the question mark that is Jon Garland, the clubhouse cancer that is Vicente Padilla, the age question of Jason Schmidt (on a team that already has two quatrogenarian Hall-of-Famers-to-be in its rotation?) or the health risk that is Chien-Ming Wang. Actually, toss Livan Hernandez into that group and that's a pretty decent five-man rotation on its own -- of guys who didn't even make this team! (More on that later.)

But with a rotation that might set a record for fewest complete games in a season, we need a solid bullpen, and we're even going to cheat a little and shore up that pen with two guys who are currently starters, but who have both starred in bullpen roles previously, in the elderly John Smoltz and the rebounding Brett Myers. And who else? Well, Troy Percival edges out Jason Isringhausen in the Battle of the Questionable Closers; Danys Baez is still around; and, hey, Blue Jay fans should recognize that last name, another starter-turned-reliever-turned-starter-turned-reliever! It’s Miggy!

Bullpen
CL Troy Percival
RP Danys Baez
RP Miguel Batista
RP Brett Myers
RP John Smoltz

And how does that roster stack up? Well, it's an old, old team and injury-prone to boot, even on its bench. So we'll grab Mike Green's old visionary mixing bowl, stir it all up, add a dash of Cayenne pepper, and see this team hobbling to an 83-win third place in the 2010 AL East.

But wait ... there's tons more! You take those (arguably not) "Best 25" out of the mix, and you can still build up another entirely different, but pretty decent complete roster ...

Starting Lineup
C Brian Schneider
1B Adam LaRoche
2B Ronnie Belliard
SS Orlando Cabrera
3B Joe Crede
LF Garret Anderson
CF Reed Johnson
RF Jermaine Dye
DH Jim Thome

Bench
C Bengie Molina
IF Nomar Garciaparra
IF Khalil Greene
OF Darin Erstad
OF Brian Giles
PH Jason Giambi

Rotation
SP Jason Schmidt
SP Chien-Ming Wang
SP Vicente Padilla
SP Jon Garland
SP Livan Hernandez

Bullpen
CL Jason Isringhausen
RP Brendan Donnelly
RP Joaquin Benoit
RP Chad Bradford
RP Jeff Weaver

Yeah, I think that first team listed above would play plus-.500 ball in the ’10 AL East, while the “B” team there ends up around 71-91, presuming it – facing the same injury-prone issue as the varsity squad above – can stay more or less healthy.

So, Bauxites, what do you think of these teams? Which is better? Who should be moved? Who’s missing and should be added from that initial long list of “free” agents?