Payton was a Type A Free Agent if we had not picked up his option and it was expensive at 4.5. mil.   I believe the FA distinction is based on the last three years which in this case replaces Payton's Coors-inflated '03 stats with this years. That leads me to believe he will no longer be in the same class and may fall to B or C.

Speaking of Free Agent classes Billy really tried hard not to get a first round pick this year.  Not only did he not offer arby to Ruby or Dotel (which for 80% of their '04 salaries for 1 year might not have been half-bad so they could pump their value; though, their performance for the Yankees and well, last I heard, the Yankees is just as bad as '05's performance was for us), but Jay Witasick was also a Type A FA last year.  BB instead offered him a cheap two year deal with an option before bullpen prices exploded this offseason.  BB must really have felt the '06 draft class was weak.  

As for this year, IIRC, we will have four free agents:  Kennedy, Payton, Thomas, and Z. Z is obviously an A FA and the only question is whether we can re-sign or whether we resign him.  Kennedy, unless he continues pitching like he was before his DL trip (does anyone have any updates on him or Duke?), and pulls an '05 Eyre, I would imagine would be a B or C, but not an A.  Payton, I'm not sure about again.  As for Thomas, he presents an interesting question.  If he continues as he is doing and doesn't get injured (<knock on wood>), he would obviously be an A FA.  Whether he would have a sense of loyalty and again cheaply come back to the A's is a question for another day.  If everything goes right I would think it possible that we could have 4 A FA's at the end of this year, and that's without us trading for Carlos Lee (hint, Billy, hint) or someone of his ilk (a FA at the end of the year).  That could mean as many as 9 first round draft picks if we don't sign any of them!

No matter what class distinction these 4 FA's get at the end of the year, an interesting occurrence looks to be happening.  Z, this year, makes $8.5 mil; Thomas, as much as $3.1 mil; Kennedy, $2.6 mil; and Payton, $4 mil.  That's a total of $18.2 million free this offseason.  Plus, in 2007, the Pirates will pay $5 mil of Kendall's $13 and therefore, there will be a decrease in how much we're paying him this year to next year by about $3 mil.  Some, of course, of this money will go to in-house raises such as to Haren, Ellis, Bunnies and Harden.  But, this offseason's FA crop is awfully strong as well.  If we don't re-sign Z, we could chase the aforementioned Lee, or maybe Huff, if we look for bats (or even a future HOFer who is now known for his amazing OBP; <ducks>).  Pitching-wise, we could go for Z, but Schmidt, Mulder, Doug Davis (a personal favorite), Pettite, and Wood (if his option is not picked up) may also be available.  In a perfect world, I would go for Huff, Davis, and Wood and hope we could sign all three for around 25 mil, because other teams will go for the big stars.  I know, it's a dream.    

This extra money could also be used in season, of course.  We could try for a bat such as Lee, Reggie Sanders, Craig Wilson, Dunn (though CIN is doing well and they no longer have 4 OFs; so, it looks like last year was our only chance, if we ever had one, of landing him), Huff, Lugo (if Croz or Ellis are still under-performing come trading deadline), or even a big star like either of the Miggy's if BAL doesn't come around or Abreu.  Or we could try to improve our bullpen or rotation.  The Cubs are underperforming and may want to get rid of their big bullpen acquisitions of Howry or Eyre for the right price.  Rotation-wise we could try one of the FA's above, but all, with the possible exception of Davis, are with teams in positions like us with Zito.  Or we could take a risk and go with an under-performing pitcher such as Oliver Perez (who along with Mike Gonzalez are two players I love on the Pirates; the Wilson's are cool too).  Oliver did amazing with Kendall as catcher (for those of us who argue that Kendall as a great game caller he could be a great example; on another note is it a coincidence Loaiza's first great start came with JK as catcher?), as well.  

The key question is do we have the trading chips?  We could trade Z, of course, but with the way our rotation is going, we'd need another SP in return.  Payton probably has little value to most contenders if he doesn't heat up (though maybe the Yanks without Hideki Sheffield?).  We probably will have to get rid of some young pitching to get something of value, as cheap pitchers are always overvalued.  Blanton or Saarloos could prove to be our best chips.  Gaudin could as well (though I've wanted him in the rotation for a while now, but Billy traded the other player I was doing the same for: Rhino).  We don't seem to have many good prospects for dealing, as our most promising ones seem to be either too young or injured though maybe TBuck, who I love, or Suzuki would be appealing to cellar teams.  We also have two major chips, though to say this is heresy: Bunnies and the Canadian.  If one could fetch Carlos Lee and Doug Davis (which the Brewers might consider since both Lee and Davis are unlikely to re-sign), or Gonzalez, Perez, and Wilson, Jason Bay alone, or either of the two Marlins, I'd say do it.  

And to everyone who actually read that whole post (that's right both of you!), isn't it amazing I spent this long and didn't answer grover's follow up question with anything more than "I don't know"?  

Bibliography (I know, it feels like an essay):
Cot's baseball contracts

Payton is almost certianly an A.

Windsor was overworked in the Series.  Sullivan, iirc, was overworked his entire season (and maybe his entire career; UH has a terrible rep for overworking pitchers).  I'm pretty sure his workload is why he fell to us, in fact.  Dude was incredible in college.

Sullivan being injured again (sounded like he was put on minor league disabled list).  Sullivan lost some of his velocity his last season in college and thus was available to the A's when their top draft pick slot came around.