Scorecard

Baseball Ratings
A Rank Ranking System

The annual player rankings released by Major League Baseball last week present puzzling questions for fans huddled around the hot stove. Cleveland Indians third baseman Travis Fryman, who last season hit .287 with 28 home runs, is rated as a better infielder than Seattle Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez (.310 average, 42 taters)? Cleveland's 41-year-old setup man, Doug Jones (13 saves in 22 chances), rates higher than New York Yankees fire-baller Mariano Rivera, who was 36 for 41 in the saves department? Sammy Sosa is only 13th-best in the National League among the group category that includes first basemen, outfielders and designated hitters?

The number-crunching that determines the ratings is performed by the Elias Sports Bureau using a formula that was concocted by players and owners in their 1981 strike settlement. Well, what formula could possibly determine that Jones deserves to be ranked higher than Rivera? This one uses myriad stats—different for each position—from the preceding two seasons: For example, batting average, homers, RBIs, plate appearances and on-base percentage are the numbers cobbled together in mysterious ways to rate outfielders. We'd like to tell you more, but Elias and baseball guard the formulas the way the Pentagon guards launch codes.

The rating system was established to put players (divided into starting pitchers; relievers; outfielders, first basemen and DHs; catchers; and in-fielders) into three tiers. The top 30% in each group gets an A rating, the next 20% a B and the next 10% a C. The groupings are then used to determine compensation for franchises that lose free agents. A team that lures an A-rated star like the Yankees' Bernie Williams—tops in the American League among the outfielder-first baseman-DH group—would surrender its first or second pick in next June's draft to that player's former club. Teams that sign B or C players lose less-valuable picks.

Baseball execs say that determining the groups is the raison d'être for the ranking system and, further, that individual rankings don't figure into contract negotiations. Still, the fact that ballplayers of such varying abilities are classified together (e.g., Orel Hershiser, 20th among National League pitchers, would cost the same in compensation as top-ranked Kevin Brown of San Diego) has an impact beyond next year's draft. Until last week Philadelphia had been planning to pursue free agents Hershiser and Mark Gardner—each of whom last pitched for the San Francisco Giants. But when both starters received an A rating, the Phillies, leery of losing high draft picks, decided to look elsewhere for pitching help.

As for the assertion that ratings don't figure in negotiations, we say bunk. Marvin Miller, who was head of the players' union when the ranking system was created, says agents and general managers use the rankings to bolster their cases in salary arbitration hearings. It's hard to fathom that the asking price of, say, free-agent first baseman Mo Vaughn won't leap into the Piazzasphere after he was ranked second in his American League group, just behind Williams. "The only way the ranking system means something is if you're in the top four or five," says agent Scott Boras, who represents, among others, Williams. Hmmm, sounds like Williams's price just climbed a bit.

NBA and the Law
Sprewell: Court Jester

Regardless of the denouement of the NBA lockout, Latrell Sprewell is likely to have a strong court presence this winter. After serving a 68-game suspension for choking his Golden State Warriors coach, P.J. Carlesimo, Sprewell sued the league twice last summer, alleging civil rights and antitrust violations. On Oct. 23 Sprewell brought legal action against his agent, Arn Tellem, on the grounds that Tellem was negligent in failing to negotiate a personal-conduct salary-protection clause into the four-year, $32 million contract Sprewell signed with the Warriors in 1996.

Some would say these suits are frivolous, which is exactly what Vaughn Walker, a federal district judge in San Francisco, suggested when he threw out Sprewell's first suit against the NBA. But we say, Hey, why not go on a lawsuit spree, Spre? Here are a few comparably meritorious claims the league's leading litigant might consider:

•Defendant: New Jersey Nets' forward, Kendall Gill, who held Sprewell to his season-low four points last year. Cause of action: interference with use and enjoyment of land, intrusion upon solitude, false imprisonment. Given that battery is defined in California, in part, as "an unconsented touching," Gill might also be liable for the foul he committed during the game.