The Cubs have signed their final arbitration eligible player on the day he was set to go in front of the arbitrator. Matt Garza will earn $9.5 million next season, which was the midway point between what the two sides had offered. The deal also includes performance bonuses, which seems kind of odd for me for arbitration eligible players. It's likely the Cubs agreed to the midway point knowing he was worth more and the only way Garza would accept is if they included the possibility to earn more. Not sure what those bonuses are, but my guess is he reaches at least a couple of them and earns more than the $9.5 million they agreed upon. We had written several articles about Garza over the last few months and at least two of them were specifically talking about arbitration.
Another Shitty Season in Review: Matt Garza
Seig to rule on Theo compensation soon
My opinion was that Garza would have won if it had gone to the arbitrator. Based on the performance bonuses it appears the Cubs thought there was at least a decent chance of that happening. Garza also thought there was a decent chance he'd lose or he'd not have signed this contract. Then again, it's possible the performance bonuses are easy to reach and he ends up making the $12.5 million he initially requested.
Aisle424 wrote:
What did you say?
The Cubs had to wait for nearly 50 years before they did anything else that was progressive: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120128&content_id=26502180&vkey=news_chc&c_id=chc&partnerId=rss_chc
Only care if this increases Garza’s trade value.
@ Pezcore:
It improves his trade value if you think Garza would have won, but decreases if you think the Cubs would have won.
[img]http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-C9X1QBLfOhk/Tyv-AV8zQlI/AAAAAAAAADo/F2CiBpVMpws/s800/al.JPG[/img]
Does anybody use the word snark more often than Alvin?
mb21 wrote:
This guy’s brother?
[img]http://thundercatssite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/snarf.jpg[/img]
mb21 wrote:
He comes close.
cdw wrote:
Dude, crap! I need to learn to post pictures, but (dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing)
Aisle424 wrote:
(dying laughing)
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@ Aisle424:
That was fucking awesome..
(dying laughing)
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I mean i had a coworker call me out for laughing so loud
All I really wanted was to give Shawn a hard time (which I know he can take) and there’s Alvin jumping into the middle of it and thereby calling more attention to it.
It would be like Newt Gingrich going out and telling people: “You know when Mitt said I wasn’t a good family man because I keep divorcing women the moment they get a serious illness? You didn’t hear that? Yeah, he said that. He said I wasn’t fit to run on a family values platform because of my womanizing ways, not ringing a bell? Anyway, I don’t think it’s cool that he brought that up into a civil discussion of politics.”
[img]http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-0o0mvd0QuWw/TywI8-DUQgI/AAAAAAAAB1g/x63VnpuVP88/s800/al2.JPG[/img]
Let’s make the facepalm post the active thread:
http://www.obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/daily-facepalm-returns-with-a-fiery-vengeance.html#comment-76919
(dying laughing)
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(dying laughing)
Jesus, Alvin is a comic genius. It’s like watching The Office in real life.
^
@HotStoveCubbies on twitter. He has a source, it’s not a rumor!
based on the settlement, I think both sides thought the cubs would’ve won in arbitration. They didn’t settle at the midpoint because the midpoint was actually 10.225 mill. That most likely suggests that although the cubs thought they probably would’ve won, the chance that they didn’t was too risky to chance on. I think the main reason for settling is because a contentious arbitration could hurt the Cubs’ chance at extending him and if they lost his trade value would drop significantly. Also if other teams thought the cubs wouldn’t extend Garza, they probably wouldn’t offer much in terms of trades either.
As an aside, if understand correctly, arbitration salaries are mainly based on the previous salaries. Therefore maybe it helps the Cubs in arbitration next year if his salary is earned in incentives rather than guarantees so maybe that was a little strategizing by the Cubs, but I don’t know.
@ Andrew J:
Good point, Andrew. I was thinking it was the midway point for some reason. I’m interested to know what the bonuses are though.
Can someone do the trade value garza now has at his 9.5 salary, like the whole WAR hoopla and stuff