At the end of each season, The Elias Sports Bureau ranks all MLB players numerically based on a bunch of stats. Every player is categorized in one of five position groups and by league. The rankings cover a two-year time period. They are used to determine whether free agents are Type A, Type B, or neither. If you'd like a reminder on how draft pick compensation works, read up here.
Eddie Bajek of Detroit Tigers Thoughts reverse-engineered the Elias Rankings last year. Eddie's incredible work was made possible in large part due to information provided by ESPN's Keith Law. Eddie is now providing the rankings exclusively to MLB Trade Rumors. Today's snapshot covers the beginning of the 2008 season through July 23rd of 2009. So the rankings will obviously change over the next few months.
Keep in mind that if players change leagues, they are ranked in their new league. So Matt Holliday and Rafael Betancourt are ranked in the NL, Adam LaRoche in the AL. Holliday remains a Type A; Betancourt just barely makes the Type B cut, and LaRoche misses the Type B cut. As for the Mariners pitchers under scrutiny, Erik Bedard is a B with a shot at A and Jarrod Washburn is entrenched as a B (not sure how they'd look in the NL though).
Click here to see the latest Elias Rankings.
