Elias Rankings

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.

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 11th of 2009.  So the rankings will obviously change over the next few months. 

Click here to see the latest Elias Rankings.

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 June 25th of 2009.  So the rankings will obviously change over the next few months. 

Click here to see the latest Elias Rankings.

Yesterday we listed the projected Type A free agents.  Today let's take a look at the projected Type B free agents, based on work done by Eddie Bajek for MLB Trade Rumors.

Catchers

• Rod Barajas
• Ivan Rodriguez
• Ramon Hernandez*
• Brian Schneider
• Jason Kendall

First Base/Outfield/DH

• Vladimir Guerrero
• Hideki Matsui
• Carl Crawford*
• Marlon Byrd
• Hank Blalock
• Carlos Delgado
• Brian Giles
• Garret Anderson
• Jerry Hairston Jr.
• Reed Johnson
• Mike Cameron
• Rick Ankiel
• Nick Johnson

Second Base/Third Base/Shortstop

• Placido Polanco
• Adrian Beltre
• Mark DeRosa
• Pedro Feliz*
• Freddy Sanchez*
• Felipe Lopez

Starting Pitchers

• John Lackey
• Andy Pettitte
• Erik Bedard
• Tim Wakefield*
• Justin Duchscherer
• Randy Johnson
• Randy Wolf
• Todd Wellemeyer
• Doug Davis
• Braden Looper*

Relievers

• Darren Oliver
• Brian Shouse*
• Rafael Betancourt
• Luis Ayala
• Troy Percival
• Fernando Rodney
• Russ Springer
• LaTroy Hawkins
• Will Ohman
• Scott Eyre
• J.J. Putz*
• Joe Beimel
• Trever Miller

* denotes a 2010 option.

Keep in mind that there is a lot of time left for these designations to change.  Free agents on the border between Type B and nothing: Ramon Castro, Mike Redmond, Gregg Zaun, Jose Molina, John Smoltz, Jamey Wright, Chad Bradford, Brandon Lyon, Eddie Guardado, Fernando Tatis, Jack Wilson, Brett Myers, Jon Garland, Jason Marquis, Ron Villone, Chan Ho Park, and Bob Howry.

Eddie Bajek has reverse-engineered the Elias rankings, and we'll now be providing that information exclusively at MLB Trade Rumors.  Today let's take a look at the 2010 free agents who would be Type A, if the season ended today.  Click here for an explanation on free agent compensation.

Catchers

• Victor Martinez*
• Jason Varitek*
• Bengie Molina

First Base/Outfield/DH

• Matt Holliday
• Aubrey Huff
• Jason Bay
• Magglio Ordonez*
• Johnny Damon
• Bobby Abreu
• Jim Thome
• Jermaine Dye*
• Xavier Nady
• Randy Winn

Second Base/Third Base/Shortstop

• Marco Scutaro
• Orlando Cabrera
• Melvin Mora*
• Chone Figgins
• Miguel Tejada
• Orlando Hudson
• Troy Glaus

Starting Pitchers

• Cliff Lee*
• Vicente Padilla*
• Josh Beckett*
• Rich Harden

Relievers

• Octavio Dotel
• Jose Valverde
• Trevor Hoffman
• Billy Wagner*
• John Grabow
• Mike Gonzalez
• Kevin Gregg
• Ryan Franklin*
• Doug Brocail*
• Rafael Soriano

* denotes an option for 2010

Near the borderline of Type A/B status: Rod Barajas, Vladimir Guerrero, Placido Polanco, Adrian Beltre, John Lackey, Darren Oliver, Carlos Delgado, Randy Johnson, LaTroy Hawkins.

Of course, a lot can change between now and the end of the season.  But it's interesting to see that players such as Guerrero, Beltre, and Lackey are no locks for Type A.  Wondering about Erik Bedard?  He has 69.259 of 100 points, while the lowest Type A American League starter has a 74.815 score.  He's in the middle of the AL Type B starting pitchers at the moment.  But if Bedard is traded to an NL club, he'll be ranked with that league's starters.