Odds and Ends: Hearings, Anderson, Selig

What in God's name does Bud Selig add to the game of baseball to "earn" $18 million?

Pure speculation regarding Anderson. I don't think the White Sox are dead set on trading an outfielder. They were testing the market for Dye because he will be gone after '09. But nothing (other than Gregor's article) suggests they were shopping him because they want to get rid of an outfielder. Unless they could get good return, which they can't, it would be silly for the Sox to trade Anderson. If nothing else, Anderson is a fine bench player. He's an excellent late inning defensive replacement / pinch-runner. And while everybody loves the speed of Jerry Owens, if he can't get on base he isn't going to have a job. I believe the Sox would be better served going into the spring with as many options as possible.

Selig's salary is appalling, especially with the current economy. How about he gives some of the cash to some of the small market teams. I think its time for Selig to take a pay cut.

I couldn't find the exact numbers, but for the 2006-2007 football season the NFL commissioner was supposed to have made about $11MM.

"The White Sox wouldnt trade Brian Anderson. Everyone in Chicago likes him..." Everyone, except Ozzie. If dealing BA meant he would get a chance to play, I'm all for it.

“Of course players usually change teams that get involved in the arbitration process. It has nothing to do with the process itself and everything to do with what it means to go to arbitration. It means the player and the team disagree on the players value. Not very surprising that when they have 30+ other options they take one of them”

Actually, read the article again. The numbers they use suggests these players actually resign with that team, or the team trades them, nearly half the time. The article might just be poorly written, and possibly makes a claim that is not completely supported.

“Of the 18 arbitration losers who eventually became free agents while still with the clubs who had gotten the best of them in hearings, every one of them jumped to another team.”

There were 33 such cases. 18 of them became Free Agents and signed with different clubs. That means 15 either resigned or were traded by the arbitration case team. This makes perfect sense, as it is uncommon for a FA to resign with their club after they file. And if the team was not able to work out a longterm deal over 3 arbitration years, its probably unlikely they were anticipating signing them after they filed anyway – the two sides were probably pretty far apart if that was the case, or planned on going separate ways.

Alex Cintron, huh...