Friday, August 17, 2007

Best. Aribitration Case. Ever.

It ain't gonna happen, but wouldn't this be tons of fun:

Asked if it would be cost-prohibitive for the Yankees to pursue A-Rod as a free agent, Cashman said yes. He also confirmed that if Rodriguez opts out of his deal, the Yankees can offer him arbitration.

The number one thing arbitrators look at in a given case is what players at the same position with comparable service time make. In A-Rod's case, that would have us looking at third basemen or maybe shortstops that debuted in 1994 or 1995.

Let's see: Chipper Jones ($11M plus some deferred money); Jeff Cirillo ($1.5M); Olmedo Saenz ($1M); Russ Davis ($5.10/hr at Orange Julius); the bad Alex Gonzalez ($3.00/hr + whatever he gets when the other members of the Outback waitstaff tip out at the end of the night); Mike Mordecai ($10M -- not for baseball, but for the proceeds of the blackmail he obviously used to get over 100 ABs on a World Series team in 1996).

No, something tells me that A-Rod will do better by not going through arbitration.

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