BASEBALL FREE AGENT RANKINGS

The Elias rankings of potential free agents is hot off the presses (well, hot off my e-mail file) from the Major League Baseball Players Association.
The Mariners have two Type B free agents, which means they rank between the top 21 to 40 percent of players (as determined by the Elias player rankings, sanctioned by MLB): Adrian Beltre and Erik Bedard. That means if they are offered arbitration by the Mariners and sign with another team, the Mariners get a "sandwich pick" (between the first and second round) as compensation. None of the other Mariner free agents got a Type A (top 20 percent) or B ranking. Teams that lose a Type A player to whom they offered arbitration are compensated with the signing club's first- or second-round pick (depending on where they are drafting) and a sandwich pick.
The rest of the Mariners' free agents are unranked, meaning there is no compensation required if they sign with other teams.
Here are the Type A free agents, as listed by the union (I'm not even sure if these have already been released; I know there's been a lot of speculation; a few people have cracked the code of the Elias Rankings, most notably Eddie Bajek of Detroit Tiger Thoughts. These are official, however):
A Gonzalez, Mike RP AT
A Soriano, Rafael RP AT
A Bay, Jay OF BO
A Martinez, Victor C BO
A Wagner, Billy RP BO
A Grabow, John RP CC
A Gregg, Kevin RP CC
A Betancourt, Rafael RP CO
A Dotel, Octavio E. RP CWS
A Dye, Jermaine OF CWS
A Polanco, Placido 2B DE
A Hawkins, LaTroy RP HO
A Tejada, Miguel O. SS HO
A Valverde, Jose RP HO
A Figgins, Chone 3B LAA
A Lackey, John SP LAA
A Oliver, Darren RP LAA
A Hudson, Orlando 2B LAD
A Ramirez, Manny OF LAD
A Wolf, Randy SP LAD
A Cabrera, Orlando L. SS MN
A Damon, Johnny OF NYY
A Lee, Cliff SP PH
A Molina, Bengie C SF
A Holliday, Matt OF SL
A Scutaro, Marco 2B/SS TO
And the Type Bs:
B Pineiro, Joel SP SL
B Crawford, Carl OF TB
B Shouse, Brian RP TB
B Springer, Russ RP TB
B Zaun, Gregg C TB
B Byrd, Marlon OF TE
B Rodriguez, Ivan T. C TE
B Barajas, Rod C TO
B Anderson, Garret OF AT
B LaRoche, Adam 1B AT
B Davis, Doug SP AZ
B Mora, Melvin 3B BA
B Varitek, Jason A. C BO
B Wakefield, Tim SP BO
B Harden, Rich SP CC
B Hernandez, Ramon J. C CI
B Beimel, Joe RP CO
B Marquis, Jason SP CO
B Torrealba, Yorvit C CO
B Lyon, Brandon RP DE
B Rodney, Fernando RP DE
B Calero, Kiko RP FL
B Johnson, Nick 1B FL
B Brocail, Doug RP HO
B Olivo, Miguel C KC
B Belliard, Ron 2B LAD
B Garland, Jon SP LAD
B Mota, Guillermo RP LAD
B Ohman, Will RP LAD
B Padilla, Vicente SP LAD
B Cameron, Michael OF MI
B Kendall, Jason C MI
B Looper, Braden L. RP MI
B Lopez, Felipe 2B/3B/SS/OF MI
B Weathers, Dave RP MI
B Pavano, Carl SP MN
B Delgado, Carlos 1B NYM
B Tatis, Fernando 1B/3B/OF NYM
B Nady, Xavier OF NYY
B Pettitte, Andy SP NYY
B Duchscherer, Justin SP OA
B Eyre, Scott RP PH
B Guerrero, Vladimir OF/DH LAA
B Park, Chan Ho SP PH
B Giles, Brian S. OF SD
B Bedard, Erik SP SE
B Beltre, Adrian 3B SE
B Howry, Bob RP SF
B Johnson, Randy SP SF
B Winn, Randy OF SF
B De Rosa, Mark 3B SL
B Glaus, Troy 3B SL
All other free agents are unranked.
The impact, obviously, is that teams really have to want a Type A player to sign him, because the loss of a high draft pick is not something to trifle with. The Mariners have been linked to Orlando Hudson, for instance. He's a Type A. Would the Mariners want to give up their No. 1 pick to sign Hudson? I have my doubts.