Skip to main content

Sunday School- Economics lesson

On Saturday, the Phillies signed Cole Hamels to a 3 year contract worth $20.5 million, thus avoiding arbitration with the star lefty. Greg Dobbs also signed a new 2-year deal, also avoiding arbitration. Many phans know a little about arbitration. It's one of those things we all hear about for a month or two of the year, we know there are hearings and some bargaining involved, but not everyone has a tight grasp on all the details.

Players are eligible for arbitration when they (1) have as many as 3, but less than 6, years of major league service; (2) a player has filed for free agency, and their team makes an offer of arbitration and the player accepts; (3) the player is a "Super 2", meaning- the player is among the top 17% of players and has more than 2, but less than 3 years of service. There are minimal criteria (86 days of service in the previous year) and cutoffs (2 years, 140 days) to be a "Super 2".
The requirements for teams in this process- (1) the team should offer the arbitration by December 12th; (2) in the case of the free agents player, the former team must offer the player arbitration by December 1st. If the player accepts by December 7th, the player is placed back on the team's roster, and the two sides are permitted to continue to negotiate, or go to an arbitration hearing. If the free agent player declines the arbitration offer, the sides may continue to negotiate; (3) The team's salary offer to the player under its control may not be less than 80% of the player's total pay from the previous year, and may not be less than 70% of his pay from 2 years earlier. However, these rules do not apply to free agents who are offered arbitration.

As far as the people responsible for the arbitration decisions, they are members of the National Academy of Arbitrators. The academy is approved by both sides in the arbitration process. Ideally some baseball knowledge is preferred by the members who deal in the process, but fairness and the ability to process complex information quite quickly is also key.
There are two options for the arbitrators, give the player what the team offered, or make the team pay what the player has asked for. These dollar figures would be based on numbers exchanged the month prior. Decisions are rendered within 24 hours of a hearing, without explanation.

Hearings are held in Arizona and Florida, baseball's home states for spring training. The hearings are designed to force settlements before things reach the hearing stages. 1990 saw the record for filings by players get to 162, but the record of cases that actually went to a hearing was 35 in 1986. Typically, no more than a dozen cases reach the hearing stage each year. In 2008, only 8 cases got to hearings. Of those 8, only 3 of the players won (Oliver Perez, Ryan Howard, Francisco Rodriguez).

The arbitrators are a mixture of males and females. There are teams of 3 arbitrators formed for each case. Prior to 1994's MLB strike, the arbitrators rolled solo in each case.

In the past, a player might only be represented at a hearing by himself (the player is always present) and his agent, while the team might simply be represented by the general manager and prehaps the assistant GM. Nowadays, there are teams representatives on both sides, who might use computers to present videos or PowerPoint clips, as well as booklets full of statistical information. Each case will last 3 hours, or so...each side will get an hour, followed by 30 minutes of rebuttal from each side.

The remaining Phillies who may go to arbitration this year are Joe Blanton, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Chad Durbin and Ryan Madson. Madson turned down a three-year contract worth 12 million dollars on Friday.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Eric B Needs to be Cut (and My Name is Rakim)

While the Phillies are on a hot streak this month, one player on the team is not. Eric Bruntlett is 1-for-12 in July. Since the start of May, Bruntlett's apex in batting average has been .167 on June 14th. Bruntlett's ineptitude can be tolerated no longer. Get rid of this guy NOW! Eric B. is the 2009 Endy Chavez. Remember Endy...the guy who in 2005 managed just 2 hits in his final 42 games played as a Phillie? That is about the sort of output the Phillies are getting from Bruntlett, and it's time to fix this void. Julio Lugo was designated for assignment last week by the Red Sox and is expected to become a free agent. The Metropolitans are rumored to be interested. Why wouldn't the Phillies be interested in a guy who could surely outhit Bruntlett? Lugo was hitting .284 through 37 games played this season with Boston. Suspended Lehigh Valley IronPig Pablo Ozuna is eligible to return next Wednesday. Ozuna is batting .294 through 51 games at triple A. Miguel Cairo is also...