Brewers outfielder Corey Hart won his arbitration hearing, reports Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He'll be paid $4.8MM in 2010, rather than the team's request of $4.15MM. Hart's hearing marked the Brewers' first since they lost to pitcher Jose Mercedes in '98, according to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy.
Hart's victory should come as no surprise, as hearings are often a crapshoot. Hart's representatives at CAA have a reputation for being good in the room, also. One possible comparable, Josh Willingham, settled on Hart's side of the midpoint in January. Despite a weaker platform year than Willingham, Hart was able to win his extra $650K.
That’s because he wears his sunglasses at night and because he never surrenders!
I’m pretty sure that Hart asked me if I wanted fries with that last night.
Wish I could get a 30% increase for missing 2 months out of the year.
politicians get to vote on their own raises and they don’t have to show up every day either :)
No way Hart compares with Willingham. Willingham has career OBP over .360. Hart’s is .327. Willingham also has superior .840 career OPS to Hart’s .795.
Hart plays defense.
Hart’s career UZR/150 is -1.5, Willingham’s is -5.3. It’s not like Hart is Ichiro and Willingham is Adam Dunn.
UZR, OBP, and OPS – probably things that wouldn’t come up in an arb hearing.
I agree, but how likely is it that an agent is going to bring up how good of a defender their client is? They’re mostly going to focus on offense. Bringing up Hart’s back-to-back 20/20 seasons even though his OBP was putrid in 2008.
I was just responding that Hart isn’t a good defender and it’s certainly not a ton better than Willingham, which is what sbmke was implying.
Fair point. Hart has a higher career average (.273 to .264). While OBP and OPS are much better measures, I could see an arbitrator focussing on simpler stats like avg (and Wins for pitchers). To Hart’s credit, he does have more speed than Willingham, has (mostly) been a better defender. You also didn’t mention SLG, where they are close (.470 to .478).
They’re comparables in that they’ve played the same position for the same number of years at the MLB level. Nonetheless, fangraphs puts Willingham’s WAR at 2.3 the last two years, and Hart only at 1.0/0.7. I guess the Brewers didn’t make a good enough case…
Hart also made an All-Star team, which was probably a pretty big thing for the arbitrator
What a joke. Hart doesn’t even deserve the 4.15 the Brewers offered him. His defense sucks and any pitcher with a half-way decent slider can get him to swing at 3 pitches in a row that are 2 feet outside
what time is Lincecums hearing?
I am looking forward to his thread, I hope he wins it which he should.
My fantasy league drafts a total of 270 players and I still don’t know who this guy is.
Is this the first arbitration hearing this offseason?
Anyone know a good site to find the history of baseball arbitration cases?