Phillies, Rowand Avoid Arbitration; Utley, Myers, Geary Seem Headed There
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As fans, sometimes we need to question the home club’s salary priorities. Such seems true in the case the Phillies and their salary negotiations with Aaron Rowand, Chase Utley, Brett Myers, Geoff Geary and even with Ryan Howard.
The Phils are still messing and bumbling around with it’s power center-piece Ryan Howard, possessor of the greatest hitting second year in modern baseball history; 58 Homers, 149 RBIs and .313 batting average quibbling over a million or so dollars. And they are fiddling with both an All Star second baseman off of 2 consecutive career years in Chase Utley and with one of their main, consistent, front-line starting pitchers in Brett Myers.
It therefore comes as kind of a shock that the Phils moved to avoid salary arbitration with centerfielder Aaron Rowand to the tune of a one-year, $4.35 million contract off of a 12 homer, .262 season in 109 games while more talented and more crucial players apparently must go the arbitration route. This treatment of young players by team management does not make for developement of player/club relationships when these players reach Free Agency status.
Sure, Rowand won a lot of fans’ hearts last season with his face-first, broken nose catch which the club could have easily avoided by providing proper padding and protection at the centerfield wall.
But, this particular expenditure for Rowand seems indicative of a serious flaw in the club’s cost/benefit projections and analysis. One blog goes further, commenting;
One COULD say that Rowand will bounce back this season, but that ignores history. Rather, that ignores his career history, one of ups (2004) and downs (2005). His career line is a bland 279 avg/334 OBP/446 SLG. Whatever Rowand will ‘bounce back’ to depends greatly on what Rowand’s ceiling is. If one truly believes that Rowand will bounce back all the way to 2004, then this could be a worthwhile signing. If, however, one believes that Rowand’s ceiling is around his career average, then this supposed bounce won’t be bouncing too high. And he won’t be very valuable. And then we’ve loaded our outfield with a bunch of mediocre players.
But, perhaps these apparent flaws in cost/benefit projections and analysis don’t begin and end with the Phils. Associated Press reports for FoxSports about some big names seeking hikes via arbitration;
Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano asked for a raise to $15.5 million while batting champions Joe Mauer and Freddy Sanchez also sought big hikes in salary arbitration Tuesday.
AL MVP Justin Morneau and Florida star Miguel Cabrera looked to cash in, too, as 56 players exchanged figures with their teams.
Zambrano, who went 16-7 for the Cubs last year and made $6.65 million, was offered $11,025,000 by Chicago. Both his request and the club’s offer were the highest numbers traded this year.
Cabrera, eligible for arbitration for the first time, asked for a raise from $472,000 to $7.4 million and was offered $6.7 million by the Marlins. The three-time All-Star hit .339 with 26 homers and 114 RBIs last year, his third straight season with more than 110 RBIs.
Mauer, who hit .347 to become the first catcher to win the AL batting title, requested a raise from $400,000 to $4.5 million, and the Minnesota Twins offered $3.3 million.
Morneau, who batted .321 with 34 homers and 130 RBIs, asked the Twins for a raise from $385,000 to $5 million. He was offered $4 million.
Sanchez hit .344 for Pittsburgh to win his first batting crown and asked the Pirates to increase his salary from $342,000 to $3.1 million. Pittsburgh offered him $2.15 million.
If players and teams don’t settle, three-person arbitration panels will select their salaries next month. Management won four of six cases that went to hearings last year and leads players 269-200 since arbitration began in 1974.
Overall, players in arbitration averaged a 109 percent increase last year.
It would greatly benefit this Phillies team, if both management and players entered the 2007 season with a unified win/win attitude enabling devotion of their talents to the task at hand; winning the NL East, the NL Pennant and the long anticipated confrontation with Curt Schilling and those Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
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