November 01, 2007

AL Elias player rankings released: The rankings are compiled based upon player performance over the past two seasons.

posted by justgary to baseball at 02:47 PM - 13 comments

Poor Tony Giarratano. Rated 0.000. I don't even know what that means, but I still feel bad for him.

posted by bender at 03:43 PM on November 01, 2007

where is A rod ranked

posted by Dipper at 03:43 PM on November 01, 2007

These are very interesting ratings

posted by Dipper at 03:44 PM on November 01, 2007

where is A rod ranked Sixth, amongst shortstops, third basemen, and second basemen. Where is the punctuation at the end of your comment?

posted by tommybiden at 03:51 PM on November 01, 2007

Damnit, Eric Gagne can't even get that right.

posted by yerfatma at 04:25 PM on November 01, 2007

The rankings are compiled based upon player performance over the past two seasons. The above came straight from the article. If you want to take such a generic approach to creating this list, then IMO Sizemore should be ranked higher. Just like I'm sure a lot of other people will say about other players. However this list is actually used for something in the MLB: Under the new collective bargaining agreement, the rankings are used to determine whether players are Type "A" or Type "B." The classification determines which draft picks former teams receive as compensation if they sign with another team. At least make the list credible by having it follow some sort of stat categories added together.

posted by jojomfd1 at 04:42 PM on November 01, 2007

Interesting article indeed. Several of these rankings make little sense. Alex Rodriguez at six and AJ Burnett at 23 are just two examples.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:13 PM on November 01, 2007

Here's a rundown of the manner in which the rankings are calculated, which many would argue doesn't really equate particularly well to the true value of a player. For offensive players, the categories include batting average, on-base percentage, home runs, runs batted in, and fielding percentage… for pitchers, the statistics include appearances, innings pitched, wins, winning percentage, saves, earned run average, WHIP, strikeouts and strikeout-to-walk ratio.

posted by holden at 05:17 PM on November 01, 2007

The NL list is here. I believe under the new collective bargaining agreement, a team that signs a Type A free agent gives up its first-round pick to the player's former team (unless that pick is in the first 15 picks of the draft, in which case the second round pick is transferred) and the former team gets a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds. For Type B free agents, the signing team doesn't lose anything, but the former team gets a sandwich pick. In order to get the picks, however, the former team has to offer arbitration by December 1 which is subsequently turned down or the player has to sign with his new team by December 1.

posted by holden at 05:45 PM on November 01, 2007

I think it interesting that Michael Young is rated No. 1 in the shortstop, third baseman, and second baseman group when The Fielding Bible a couple of years ago called him the worst shortstop in the league.

posted by graymatters at 06:24 PM on November 01, 2007

Aside from errors, the formula doesn't really count fielding, so the formula wouldn't have any reason to rate Young negatively. No one takes this formula seriously except the media, and they only do that for one day a year. It's a formula designed by bureaucrats for bureaucratic purposes. It isn't really even an attempt to measure player value.

posted by spira at 10:24 PM on November 01, 2007

Thank you very much for that run down Holden, it makes a little more sense now. I am still baffled at how Raul Ibanez and Paul Konerko got ranked above Grady Sizemore. Grady plays the game at full speed all the time, I can't ever remember seeing him slow up on an easy one hop hit to the shortstop. He runs full go through the bag, and we've all seen him diving, on SC, for the fly balls in the outfield. Now it makes a little more sense though thanks Holden.

posted by jojomfd1 at 02:21 AM on November 02, 2007

IMO, the compensation should be based on the market value of the free agent. After May 1st, they can tabulate how much all of the free agents signed for and the top 20% (based on total guaranteed contract worth, divided by years) are A's and the next 20% (or 40?) are B's. Basing the A's and B's off of some secret, arbitrary, stat-based formula is just stupid. Basing it off of salary assures that the small market teams that can't afford players are being compensated, and that mid-market teams can sign marginal players to low contracts without losing the farm (team). AGNP

posted by AaronGNP at 12:09 PM on November 02, 2007

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