I know a lot about baseball, but arbitration confuses me. Instead of a player becoming a free agent he is given the option of going to court and having his play examined by a judge who then rewards him a contract commensurate to his performance? Something like that. Anyways when a player turns it down and signs with another team his original team is compensated with draft picks. Sometimes it’s one, sometimes it’s two depending on how valuable a player was at fantasy. (I heard last season the Mariners offered Jeff Weaver arbitration and they lost all their draft picks, but that’s just a rumor.) Anyways, here’s a roundup of the arbitration cases I care about.

The Mariners offered Raul Ibanez arbitration.
The Brewers offered CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets and Brian Shouse arbitration.

These are all good things. Raul Ibanez seems destined to misplay a fly ball in a playoff game at Wrigley Field and the Mariners will be compensated with two picks heading into their first draft under their newly hired draft guru. Exciting stuff.

The Brewers are a bit more interesting. Shouse is a pretty low risk gamble and Sabathia is a no brainer as it’s instantly two picks if (when) he leaves. Sheets is pretty interesting. The talk is that he is injured and teams are luke warm to him so he may come back, but doesn’t offering him arbitration say to the rest of baseball “we believe he’s healthy” as they know more about him than anyone else? Or is that what they want teams to think so they can go into this year’s draft with 5 first round picks? I still say he comes back, but it’s interesting to think about.