On Type A Free Agents and How It's Not a Personality Type

Unless you're a decently avid baseball fan, you have no idea what Type A or Type B free agents are. This is partly a primer, partly an analysis and partly a proposal for improvement. Major League Baseball realized that high-price free agents tend to sign with large-market teams, those with more money. To help parity and compensate the teams that lost these free agents, type A and B free agents were created. To simplify things, the team signing the free agent will be called the signing team and the team losing the free agent will be called the losing team.

The Elias Bureau ranks all players using pretty basic counting stats: H's, RBI's, G's, AB's, IP's, ERA and then separates all players into tiers: Type A, Type B and the rest. If a team signs a Type A free agent, they give up their first round draft pick (2nd round if their pick is in the top 15) and MLB gives a compensatory pick to the losing team (a pick after the first round but before the second round). If a team signs a Type B free agent, they give up a second round draft pick and MLB gives a compensatory pick after the second round to the losing team. A small caveat: the losing team must offer the free agent arbitration and the free agent must decline it. It helped distribute talent somewhat, but has led to some serious market inefficiencies. 1) The Elias Rankings do a pretty poor job at actually ranking players based off of value. While not publicly available, the formula has been reverse engineered and playing time is a large component. It's also calculated over a two year period and quite a bit can change within that time span. 2) Relievers are the most overvalued as they are equally treated by Elias even though they are much less valuable than position players or starting pitchers. As a result, relievers receive below market value in the free agent market as the signing team must relinquish a draft pick, often making the signing not even worth it.

These inefficiencies have been exploited, most notably by Tampa Bay and more recently by Toronto. Both of those teams have amassed a number of relievers that gain Type A or B status, offer them arbitration, then collect the draft picks when those players are signed in free agency. Tampa Bay parlayed this strategy into 10 extra picks in the 2011 draft, all in the first 80 picks or so. Toronto looks to do the same for the 2012 draft. So how do we improve this? For one, alter the Elias Rankings. I'm not saying switch to WAR necessarily, but many statistics exist that would do a better job of ranking players. This alteration would reduce the number of relievers gaining Type A or B status, which would eliminate an inefficiency and better allow these relievers to get market value in free agency. The tweaks are easy to make and would result in a better functioning system both in free agency salaries and in talent distribution and overall parity.

Websites

Brooks Baseball

Takes the pitch data from MLB gameday's pitch f/x machines, and gives you data plots, charts, tables, etc. Extremely informative for measuring everything about a pitcher.

Stracka

Online golf scorecard and handicap tracker. Pretty simple, but can give great data. I guess I score better on par 5's when I drive it in the rough compared to the fairway. Figure that one out. I am currently playing to a 9.4 handicap.

DarkRoastedBlend

Aggregator for links. Great for perusing and finding crazy, informative, and mind-bending stuff.

Sugar Stacks

Shows how much sugar is in the stuff we consume. Not for the sweet tooth.

TED

One os the best websites I have found. TED is a conference that provides a forum for the innovators and great minds of our time to articulate their ideas for the future. There is something for everybody here.

This Is Why You're Fat

The most outrageous, disgusting, delicious, and fattening foods imaginable.

Fangraphs

I'll just throw this one on here because it's my favorite place to go for baseball sabermetric analysis, fantasy analysis, innovative stats, and more.

Fantasy Baseball

This saturday is the annual Delta Six fantasy baseball live draft. I had a down year last year, finishing sixth? The draft is a large component of overall success. I have a lot on confidence in my ability to not only project the value of players, but also their relative value. In my mind, that is the most important thing. It doesn't matter as much what a player's actual value is. It matters what their perceived value is. Then all I have to do is exploit the differences between the two. Of course, determining those values is an extremely inexact science.
Another aspect of the draft closely related to the perceived value of player's is a player's relative value with other players. I did not say that well at all. What I mean is all positions are not created equal. An outfielder, starting pitcher, and shortstop getting the same number of points are not equal. Some positions have far fewer good players, and greater gaps between tiers. Understanding that the top few catchers are more valuable than most top outfielders and first basemen is key to building a successful team.
Another realization I have is that over half of players drafted do not finish the year with their original teams. Because of this massive turnover, it is smart to take risks near the end of the draft. Drafting the solid, known quantities are useless because the marginal gains over those in the free agent pool are miniscule. Taking a chance on Mark Prior, Andrew McCutchen, or Dan Giese can prove extremely valuable.
The draft is an exciting time of quick decisions, gamesmanship, and witty banter. I always look forward to it.

This blog

This blog will be about anything and everything I want to write about. A lot of it will be about baseball. But not all of it.

The Mariners are rumored to be involved with two players: Rich Hill and Bobby Abreu. After an offseason of signing Chris Shelton, Russell Branyan, Mike Sweeney and trading for Franklin Gutierrez, Endy Chavez, Garrett Olson, Ronny Cedeno, Jose Lugo, Jason Vargas, Maikel Cleto, Mike Carp, and Ezequiel Carrera, new general manager Jack Zduriencik has started off his tenure in a fantastic way. Rich Hill is out of options with the Cubs, and even though he has exhibited Rick Ankiel syndrome, he still boasts great upside, and if gained cheaply, would be another solid move. Bobby Abreu gets me really excited. His price has steadily been dropping this offseason, and is now open to a one-year deal. If the Mariners can sign him for one year for something between 6 and 12 million, I would be ecstatic. The commitment is small, and Abreu's incentive to perform is enormous. The Mariners are moving in the right direction.


The Hope College men's basketball team has been getting better throughout the entire season. After graduating four starters and many other reserves. Hope seemed to be rebuilding. Early in the season, the Dutchmen seemed to be searching. Coach Glenn VanWieren would play as many as 15 players per game, switching starting lineups, looking for a good combination. The transfer of Doug Sharples and the ineligibility of Jon Snikkers actually helped the team by paring down the amount of players vying for minutes. Since then, GVW has settled on a rotation and the team is improving fast.

Jesse Reimink is as good as he has been all year, leading the team in many categories, playing harder than any other player in the country. A true leader, Jesse may be able to will this team past Calvin twice more and perhaps into the national tournament.

Pete Bunn, a transfer from D1 Oakland University, is starting to realize that he is better than everyone else. Only 6'3, his leaping ability is rivaled by few. Because of this, he can get his own shot at will. His scoring is increasing and he is a true second option.

Will Bowser is finally growing into his enormous potential. At 6'6 and with awesome "hops" Bowser is a force on the boards. After 27 points and 20 rebounds in his last two games, he is adding real value to the team. As his offensive game continues to develop, he becomes more and more dangerous. MIAA first-team honors await in future years.

David Krombeen, a freshmen point guard from Grandville, has worked his way from fourth on the depth chart at the beginning of the season, to an entrenched starter that is invaluable to his team. Lighting quick, Krombeen pushes the action constantly, a key point for the smaller and quicker Dutchmen. He is smart, accumulating steals, quick, accumulating blocks, and a great finisher. He will be a very special player as he becomes more comfortable.

As I sit here at the community table in LJ's, I gaze outside at the intense snow flurries. We have not had a thaw here since the beginning of the month. When the sun is out and the snow is fresh, it is truly beautiful. When it is overcast and the snow is dirty, it dampens the spirit.