Victor Martinez was among first, followed by your Adam Dunns and your Adrian Gonzalezes. Heck, even Lance Berkman has found home in St. Louie.

As for your Paul Konerkoses, Team’s leader kind of took air out of that one, too, saying reports of “significant offer” to aging White Sock were overblown and that, in fact, really Team just left him Post-It note tacked outside US Cellular Field on pay phone that said “Call me.”

Fan frustration clearly is mounting. After so much futility can it mount any higher? Maybe not. Still all one has to do is patrol news pages or baseball blogs to see it continues apace.

Wayward O is on fence about whether to be mad at this point. Team clearly is not fully in mix this December as talent gets snapped up. Yet this really can’t be regarded as surprise as published reports based on actual sourcing have predicted as much.

$56 million for Adam Dunn? — that absolutely blew away Team’s $40 million offer and just seems like pantload of money for DC’s erstwhile slugging first basesman. Should Team have “blown away” Dunn with a 5 year/$75 million offer?

Similarly Team came up short in Martinez bidding but — again — did Detroit overpay? Should Team have offered $60 million? How else to beat Detroit’s $50 million offer?

And not only did Red Sox reportedly give up four solid prospects for Gonzalez, but presumably they’d also ink him to a Mark Teixeira-like mega deal and pray he doesn’t get hurt for better part of decade. Wayward O asked Andy MacPhail about Gonzalez back in April and was told Team wouldn’t sell farm for Southern California slugger.

Depending upon how you look at it — and you’d be more than justified in taking “glass half empty” view — either Team is shrewdly sticking to plan or simply is out of touch with market.

Your “half empty” view is easy to articulate in a single word: Wiggy. But you could go on: If Aubrey Huff is $11 million guy and Miguel Tejada is a $6.5 million guy then, oh “half empty” arguer, you have a point when you say it steams you Team can’t seem to pull trigger on anything more than the $10 million range per year for any player.

Your “half full” view, however, is a bit more nuanced. It starts with much-improved core of young guys and new manager who immediately got results during final third of 2010 season. It continues with some great talent supposedly coming through pipe coupled with seasoning of aforementioned young core.

Today talk in Team-o-Sphere turned to Mark Reynolds, Arizona’s young, slugging, striking-out corner guy. Wayward O has good feeling about this guy, low BA notwithstanding, and if he can be had via trade that doesn’t expose Team to — Oh let’s call it the “Glenn Davis ex post facto hand wringing boomerang syndrome” — then Team won’t have to rely on Wiggy-level talent* for 2011.

Wayward O remains positive. And not just because Team is putting a LOT of effort into catering. There is still a good decent chance Team will have power bat this Spring. And one can’t forget progress Team has made in terms of talent it already has on offer.

*PS. Wiggy, Blog loves you man. Seriously. No offense. But c’mon you want to win too, presumably.

On page 21 of official rules of baseball it says:

“An out is one of the three required retirements of an offensive team during its time at bat.”

And on page 13 it says:

“[The] bench or dugout is the seating facilities reserved for players, substitutes and other team members in uniform when they are not actively engaged on the playing field.”

Image via MASN

Seriously, Blog thought everbody knew that!

BLOG WOKE UP IN COLD SWEAT LAST NIGHT!!!

PRETTY SURE IT WASN’T FISH TACOS EITHER.

NO MAN CAN STAND THIS MUCH LOSING!

SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE!!!!!!

Aspring Novelist: That was one of the most entertaining clips I’ve seen in awhile
Blog of Team of Baltzmo: Wigpocalypse

Images via MASN

Aspring Novelist: But I’ve got to say, for a team that is just terrible, there seems to be an undeserved sense of arrogance throughout the entire organization, right up to the broadcasters, who chose to focus on whether the call was right or wrong, rather than the hissy fit

That’s why you guys keep losing. there’s no winning attitude

Now, maybe that umpire has been unfair throughout the entire series, and there’s something going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about. That’s fair
But if not, I’d say there’s a little overreaction going on, wouldn’t you?
Blog of Team of Baltzmo: Try for the last 15 years
Yanks, Sox great treated like royalty, get “vicinity” calls and two inches off black either way while have nots get nakedly jobbed
Why? Hey why not? Umps are lazy louts and they’re probably on Yankee payroll too

Aspring Novelist: I’d imagine there’s a lot of resentment for that
Blog of Team of Baltzmo: Your pitchers would basically be our pitchers without all the friendly strike calls
But it’s cool. [Team will] get “good” one day