TOWER GROVE — With less than one month to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, there are more than 150 free agents still on the market, including, amazingly, the National League’s starting pitcher from this past year’s All-Star Game, Ben Sheets. From the pool of free agents still out there, It is possible to put together an imposing lineup, with an All-Star at each position, and outfit a pretty compelling rotation.

Not to mention there’s a bench that could have a couple future Hall of Famers on it.

Saw this fact mentioned a few places, including first at Buster Olney’s blog at ESPN.com, and it got me thinking not just about the lineup you could create from the free agents — a nomadic modern-day Port Ruppert Mundys, if you will — but how competitive would such an “expansion” team be? How would it fare in the National League Central, a division that overall this winter has had as many teams step back as step forward?

That’s the poll that follows today’s lineup: A 31st Team, the bailout roster, and where it would finish.

THE LINEUP: The Unsigned Nine

(click on the position for complete list of free agents still available)

1. Orlando Hudson, 2B
2. Orlando Cabrera, SS
3. Bobby Abreu, RF
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. Adam Dunn, 1B
6. Jim Edmonds, CF
7. Joe Crede, 3B
8. Jason Varitek, C
9. Ben Sheets, SP

The rest of a balanced rotation would be LHP Oliver Perez, RHP Jon Garland, RHP Braden Looper and LHP Randy Wolf. There is also the cornerstones of a capable bullpen with LHP Wil Ohman, LHP Brian Shouse, RHP Juan Cruz and potential closer RHP Brandon Lyon. If you wanted to go for glitz, you could sub in a a former Cardinal — SS David Eckstein — and have that all All-Star lineup. Ty Wigginton would be a valuable member of the bench, and there’s probably room somewhere for Ken Griffey Jr. And so on …

And so, where would that lineup and that rotation finish in this coming season’s NL Central:

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Lagniappe: Predictions, even those about Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, shouldn’t be this easy (from Monday’s riffs entry) — he told the New York Post this week that if a team neads a left fielder, wants a guy who can get on base he’s the guy to call. He said he’d lead the league in steals, even at 50 and even as a Hall of Famer. … The cover story on this week’s Riverfront Times is St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa as “GuitARF Hero”, and in the the Q&A he talks about where he would bat Huey Lewis.

The answer seems obvious: Fore!

Be here all week.

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