How can we determine if a player has been designated as a Type A or Type B player? Is there a formula that will compute his value or is there a source, such as a list, somewhere on the internet? Does the list (assuming there is one) tell if he has been offered arbitration?

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Pete's reply: The Elias Sports Bureau creates that list and I don't think the criteria is a matter of public record. You can't compute it yourself, but you can find which players are A's and B's on most of the internet free agent lists.

Listened to show--you guys still sound like Nancy Pelosi (with a way-deeper voice) throwing around those exponential figures.

I know baseball salaries are an economic reality, but could you tone it down a bit.

Do they really make that kind of money? What do you do after the first 5 Mil?

Peter: I don't want to insult you. You're a good writer and I enjoy reading your blog. It's clear that you're a smart guy with good perspective on the Orioles and all of MLB.

However, I'm sorry to say that your argument that "I've watched 2900 baseball games and winning pitchers win" is hogwash, balderdash, poppycock.

How many Yankees games do you estimate that Phil Rizzuto watched? 8,000? Despite that, to the end he was always complaining that today's sluggers should learn how to bunt -- as if Giambi and A-Rod, et al, would be helping their team by giving up at-bats in the third inning.

Watching a lot of games does NOT mean understanding them.

What makes it most frustrating to see this sort of bogus argument from you is that in most areas, you do seem to get it. Most sports columnists these days are all bluster: "Player X should be released for this outrage. GM Y should be fired for that outrage. Player Z took substance A and should be banned from the game and have a red letter branded on his forehead." I can't read those people.

If you don't already have a subscription to Baseball Prospectus, get the Sun to spring for it, it's not very expensive. BP can make the point about the irrelevance of pitchers' win totals better than I can. In particular, look into the game-by-game research they've done about the old saw that Jack Morris "pitched to the score."

I enjoy reading your blog, but I'll enjoy it even more if you'll take this mind-opening step. Have you heard of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? It's true for sportswriters too. Naked-eye observation simply doesn't give one individual a complete understanding of what's really happening -- even 2900 naked-eye observations.

Thanks for reading this.

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Pete's reply: Thanks for putting out the effort. I'm not dismissing anything. I've got a whole room full of Bill James books and various other volumes of statistical analysis. My argument may have been a little petulent, because I was responding to a poster who basically said I knew nothing about baseball because I don't read the same stat books he does. I'm fairly well-read in statistics, and I respect Bill James, but I don't think he's God because he has some interesting ways to crunch numbers. Stats provide a way to crystalize a performance on paper and, to some extent, predict future performance, but there are intangible qualities that make a guy a "winning pitcher" that transcend his ratio of walks and hits to innings. I stand by my dinosaurish cliche. I've been doing this for 30 years and "winning pitchers win." It sounds simple, but -- like WHIP, which isn't a particularly complicated stat -- you can delve deeper into it to find the real meaning.

Can you explain where this new rule in MLB about 13th inning and on starts with a runner on 1st and 2nd came from? Why did this come about? Sounds like little league...

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Pete's reply: That's not an MLB rule. It's a rule that has been adopted for the World Baseball Classic. It's already used in international competitive. If the game reaches the 13th inning, each half-inning begins with runners on first and second to speed things up. I don't like it a bit, by the way.

So what happens when a team signs more than one Type A free agent? I know the Yanks had a compensation pick coming for not signing Garrett Cole, but by my count, the owe their 1st rnd pick to the Angels, Brewers, and Blue Jays for Texiera, Sabathia, an Burnett.

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Pete's reply: I would think they would lose their succeeding picks and the teams losing the second and third guys would get sandwich picks between rounds, but I'm speculating. I'm not sure and will try to find out.

Pete' s correct. On the draft compensation question and the Yankees, a team that loses a Type A to another club (asuming they offered the player arbitration) will always get a sandwich round pick (between round 1 and 2, and not coming directly from any team) in addition to gaining one of the picks from the signing team. If the signing team's 1st round pick is in the top 15, it's protected and they lose their 2nd round pick. When a team like the Yankees signs multiple Type A players, they continue losing picks in successive rounds. Elias does some further ranking to say which Type A player is more valuable. In this case, Teixeira takes the cake so the Angels get the Yankees first rounder, the Brewers settle for the Yankees second rounder, and the Jays get their third rounder. The Yankees other 1st round pick, for failure to sign last year's top pick, is protected. Which sucks, since they should lose that, too.

Here is a full explanation of Type A and B dealings from Keith Law. It is a couple of years old but I saved the link because it is so good. He uses the O's bullpen signings from a couple of years ago as examples.

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=2678840&name=law_keith&action=login&appRedirect=http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index%3fentryID%3d2678840%26name%3dlaw_keith

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Peter's reply: I believe Keith's summary came before the rule that allows the bottom 15 teams to keep their first-round choice.

Pete: The O's picked Tim Bascom in the 4th round in '07 and I think his development has stalled out for now. Arrieta was still around in the 5th due to signability concerns, and I know the O's went over slot to sign him

BTW I would second the advice of the guy who recommended _Baseball Prospectus_.

These compensation rules are so stupid and outdated, MLBtraderumors.com reported that they allowed teams to sign up to 8 A/B free agents this offseason, and if signed after June they don't have to give up a pick this year....so who does this benefit the Yankees of course, I find it in no way ironic that Manfred who's in charge of this and his whole family are yankees fans

Think what Andy inherited in 07, no 2nd thru 4th round picks yet he ends up with Wieters & Arrieta. Where would the organization be had we had those picks. Question - have we lost any picks for this coming draft??

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Pete's reply: No, I don't believe so. Teixeira would have cost a second-round pick, but he would have been worth it.

When are you going to not only learn but also internalize that "it's" is not the possessive for "it?"

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Pete's reply: When I become perfect like you, of course. I had it right and wrong in the same sentence, but have gone back and fixed it.

MLB has to find a way, in its future negotiations with the MLBPA, to maintain player protections at a satisfactory level but make serious alterations of the way draft choices (etc.) play out. The rich keep getting richer and the Yankees, especially, benefit, it seems, whatever happens.

How about roster reductions? A team that signs a Type A free agent who's been offered arbitration should have to play with 24 guys next season. (To satisfy the Union, they'd have to pay one AAA player at the ML minimum.)

Sign a Type B free agent, and you go with 24 players until July 1. (Again, you pay one busher the ML minimum.)

If the Yankees sign THREE top-drawer guys, let them limp along with 22 big-name hotshots, and three overpaid minor leaguers.

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Pete's reply: It's an interesting idea, though paying a minor leaguer the ML minimum wouldn't satisfy the union. I doubt they'd go along with anything that took ML jobs off the table.