Arbitration is such a weird idea. I mean, I get it, the team doesn't want to pay every salary demand. The player wants as much money as possible. And in Wandy's case, who could have seen 2009 coming? (One may have been able to, but I sure didn't.)
But we see a few interesting things from Brian McTaggart's post on how Wandy is okay with making $4.7m in 2010.
It sounds like Wandy understands it as much as I do:
"Valverde talked to me about it last year, so I knew something about it. It's reasonable, because at the end of the day, it's all about the team trying to make its case and me trying to make my case for it."
Tal wants what's best for the Industry, according to Easy Eddie:
Tal did another tremendous job," Wade said. "To have the representation of Tal and the people that work at Tal Smith Enterprises was great. Tal's presentation was very thorough. There was not a discouraging word said about Wandy. This was about comparables and where he fit in the salary structure, and I think Tal framed the issue very, very well, as he always does.
"This was a big decision for the Astros, obviously, with a $2 million spread. And it was a big decision for the industry, because [of] where the numbers were. As was the case with the Valverde decision a couple of years ago, the work that Tal did not only helped the Astros organization, it helped the industry."
I get that, too. But it sounds so weird.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
