Cabrera plays in a pitchers park, Howard plays in the most hitter freindly park in baseball. Cabrera is also three years younger Howard's 2006 was better than any of Miguel's years, but Cabrera's three best years are much better than Howard's second best, plus Miguel Cabrera plays a harder position (poorly, but Howard is terrible at first base).

Does anyone happen to have 4 tickets to tomorrow's UCLA game burning a hole in their pocket? You may consider Logikreader a potential buyer, so I would be interested in taking them off your hands.

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Jon, I like the name of the new site a lot! I am also impressed at their comprehensive analysis.

Miguel Cabrera made $7.4m in 2007 in his first arb year. I would argue that Pujols looms larger with his $7m figure in his first arb year of 2004 (the $7m would have been a losing amount, but was part of a 7/$100m contract). These are the "records" for 1st year arb earners.

But, the key is they had 3 full years of service time, which is one year ahead of Howard. For Howard to make $10m now puts him at least $13m in his 4th year (the same spot Pujols & Cabrera were in with their records of $7m & $7.4m).

Essentially, Howard will have ended up doubling the record, which is absurd and doesn't bode well for clubs with a lot of arb eligible players in the pipeline -- like the Dodgers.

In arbitration, service time is as large a factor -- or larger -- than performance.

Why hasn't Jason Schmidt received the same heat Carl Pavano got/gets? Is it a coastal thing? Are we that laid back?

If Young can accrue his 6 years of MLB service time, he will be able to put himself on the market 11 years after signed his first professional contract.

Is $6/$8.5/$11/$13 out of the question? Heading into next years' arb hearing, Martin is likely to have 2 all-star appearances, 1-2 silver sluggers, and would be considered the best catcher in the NL if not the game.

That's 8.5/11/13 for his 4-6 years.

Mauer got 3.75/6.25/10.5 for his 4-6 years.

McCann got 3.5/5.5/6.5 for his 4-6 years.

Thanks a lot, unnamed arbitrator!

Delwyn Young to start working out at 3B

http://www.insidesocal.com/dodgers

also, depending on how schmidt progresses and how kershaw progresses signing lowe or cc may not be necisarry.

The Dodgers are in a position where they should always go after the best player available. The combation of player development and budget we have should make us near unstoppable. It should at least mean that we can stomp the teams in our division with half our payroll. If you start going after budget guys, you lose the advantages that money brings.

They will still have Billingsly, Penny(team option), and Kuroda, if Schmidt is healthy, he will be on board for 2009. And you still have Kuo.

Whether or not they go for C.C. or similar type free agent will depend greatly on the progress of the young pitchers.

http://tinyurl.com/25vvke

Broxton, Martin and Ethier will be the first ones down this road, no real worries with Broxton and Ethier (unless Andre has a monster year) but Martin being a catcher puts him in a different category as long as he has another year like last year. But even Russ isn't going to burst the bank like Howard.

8 "The Sizemore and Tulowitzki deals look more and more brilliant with the Howard arbitration decision."

And so does the Russell Martin deal.

Oh, wait.

And to me, the whole Martin extension non-talk story probably falls somewhere in the middle, obviously Martin and agent want the Dodgers to make an offer first and it sounds like the Dodgers wanted to feel out what Martin and agent are looking for.

It does not sound like an impossibility to fix and the Dodgers have not announced that they have just renewed Martin's contract which is their right. Let's see how the next few weeks go.

Wasn't it Charlie O. Finley that wanted to make every player a free agent every year? And wasn't Miller secretly scared that the other owners would sign on?

After all, if the baseball market is flooded with hundreds of players every year, won't that increase in supply depress salaries?

Like I say, I could be so, so wrong about this. If I am, please explain.

Of course, some will be leaving. The story of building a long-lasting homegrown team of stars like in the 70s is nice, but it's a little fanciful in this era. If I had to guess, I'd bet Broxton will be the first one out of town, just by virtue of being a reliever.

Clearly, the ruling in the Howard case didn't give much weight to the [crucial] issue of service time. It set a precedent that teams will now have to deal with when attempting to sign their young players.

So it is teams like the Royals and Rays who make money from all those Yankee and Red Sox hats and jerseys sold throughout the country.

51 Certainly Howard's arbitration ruling set a new ceiling but really, it is a pretty high bar, HR leader, MVP seasons. Not too many 3rd year players have those type of credentials.

For example in 2005 Broxton appeared in 14 games. I don't know how many days he was on the 25 man roster. I don't think 2005 counted.

Could 2 partial years count as 1 year?

Broxton spent most of 2006 on the roster, so that brief run in 2005 made it a cumulative year.

Service time is days spent on the 25-man roster or MLB DL, which is why Scott Boras was fighting for Tony Abreu to be on the DL rather than optioned down to AAA. 172 days equals one year of service time.

Both Martin and Ethier will fall into the Super Two category for arbitration, assuming they spend all year on the 25 man roster, they will have 2 years and 150+ days of service time. That will put them in the group eligible for arbitration time. Chad Billingsly will fall a 20 or so days short of possibly being in that group.

Starters
C - Martin - $8m (4th year; 2nd year arb)
1B - Loney - $3.5m (1st year arb)
2B - Abreu - $500k (3rd year)
SS - Hu - $400k (2nd year)
3B - LaRoche - $500k (3rd year)
LF - Ethier - $4m (4th year; 2nd year arb)
CF - Pierre - $10m
RF - Kemp - $3.5m (1st year arb)
Total Starters - $30.4m

Bench
OF - Delwyn Young - $500k (3rd year -- I think I left him off 2009)
OF - Repko - $2m (3rd year arb)
C - John Q. Backstop - $1m
1B - Mark Sweeney Type - $1m
IF - Lucille II Type - $1m
Total Bench - $5.5m

Starting Pitching
Billingsley - $4m (1st year arb)
Kuroda - $13m
Kershaw - $400k (1st full year)
Kuo - $1m (1st year arb)
Withrow/Elbert - $400k
Total Starting Pitching - $18.8m

Bullpen
Broxton - $4m (2nd year arb)
Proctor - $3m (3rd year arb)
Brazoban - $2.5m (3rd year arb)
Meloan - $500k (3rd year)
Seanez Type - $1m
Seanez Type - $1m
McDonald Type - $500k
Total Bullpen - $12.5m

Detritus
Nomar - $1.25m (part of deferred signing bonus)
Total Detritus - $1.25m

Total 2010 Payroll (estimated) - $68.45m

OK, now we have some money to spend! I'm guessing one starting pitcher and one OF (Andruw redux?).

i love it, did you ask riles if you could use that term?

i'm assuming T.O. is the highest paid WR but i don't know the other behind him

And Johnny Brox will be our closer in '10

>> Torre says it will create more versatility for a guy who is out of minor-league options and a virtual lock to make the club as a fifth outfielder. <<

75 I don't think he meant for anyone to take that comment that seriously.

And you're calling other people naive?

Ever heard of pitch counts for minor leaguers?

Kershaw is also on a strict pitch count and not many low-A guys throw huge innings per game.

guys with high walk rates and high K rates usually don't go as long as most pitchers.

But the key thing to keep in mind is he's 19. That really can't be said enough. Nineteen-year-old pitchers improve. Especially in the con