2/12/2004 10:04:00 AM by Rob

Chicago Held Hostage - Day 46

I put in a link for Rooftop Report, a self-published daily Cubs service by a Mr. Kelly, who quite possibly has more boobs on the brain than I do. Of course, that's the Irish in us.

Anyhoo, if you have not heard, the Cubs for the umpteenth straight year have avoided arbitration with all of their eligibles, splitting the difference with Mr. Loosecum himself, Kyle Farns 44. This to me is one of the things that the team does right. Perhaps one of you deeper thinkers can present a case where it makes financial and thus competitive sense to take players to arbitration. It just seems like a part of the system that has never worked the way it should. There have been too many hard feelings, and on the other hand, it has done more for the inflation of salaries than anything else. Many times, the arbitration findings of like players have been factored into the negotiations of other players. "Well, if player X received $6.2M through arbitration, then player Y is worth at least $8M, with his superior RBI and OBP."

I don't have much today. Today is my beloved wife's 40th anniversary of her birth, and as of right now, I have nothing. No flowers, no gifts, no cake, no ice cream, no nothing. So, off I go.

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