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Archives 2004-2005 Arbitration Eligible Candidates - Let's Make a List
In today's roundup thread I asked:

    Does anyone know of a list of players that are likely to be arbitration eligible this year? If there isn't one online, perhaps the Batter's Box should make one.

Since I cannot find such a list anywhere I've decided to work on making one. But I need your help.

Firstly we need to identify who is eligible for arbitration. According to Major League Rules:

    A player with three or more years of service, but less than six years, may file for salary arbitration. In addition, a player can be classified as a "Super-Two" and be eligible for arbitration with less than three years of service. A player with at least two but less than three years of Major League service shall be eligible for salary arbitration if he has accumulated at least 86 days of service during the immediately preceding season and he ranks in the top seventeen percent in total service in the class of Players who have at least two but less than three years of Major League service...

Source: Brewerfan.net

Thus any player who:
  1. Has enough service time
  2. Is not under a long-term contract
  3. Will not be a free-agent


Is arbitration eligible.

Fortunately Kevin Bumbaco has a page of 2004-2005 Potential Free Agents so we can narrow down the list of players who may be arbitration eligible.

Using these criteria, it appears that the 2004 Jays break-down into the following categories:

  1. Not arbitration eligible due to lack of service time: Bush, Chulk, Douglass, File, Frasor, Frederick, Glynn, Miller, Towers?, Cash, Quiroz, Adams, Crozier, Hudson?, Gross, Johnson, Rios
  2. Free agents: Berg, Delgado, Gomez, Myers, Zaun
  3. Long-term contracts: Batista, Lilly, Halladay, Hinske, Wells, Cat
  4. Arbitration eligible: Speier, Woodward, Menechino?


Am I missing anyone? Do I have anyone in the wrong category?

Does anyone care to tackle some of the other 29 teams in MLB?
Posted by Pepper Moffatt on Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:20 AM EDT.
2004-2005 Arbitration Eligible Candidates - Let's Make a List | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_Ryan Lind - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:43 PM EDT (#27144) #
How do you find out how much "service time" a player has?
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_Moffatt - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:45 PM EDT (#27145) #
How do you find out how much "service time" a player has?

That's the tricky part. I just looked at their stats at ESPN and eye-balled it. Hence the question marks.

If anyone knows of a site that includes service time (which is different than the Experience that ESPN lists), please let us know.
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_Rob - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:48 PM EDT (#27146) #
Free agents: Berg, Delgado, Gomez, Myers, Zaun

These players are also arb-eligible, right? The only difference (in these conditions) between Berg and Woodward is the former can become a free agent?

The Jays' Media Guide (Warning: Dreaded PDF File!) lists service time, maybe MLB.com does the same.

BTW, I'm currently working on the Angels, since they are first in the alphabet. ;)
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_Jonny German - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:49 PM EDT (#27147) #
Josh Towers came into 2004 with 1 year, 76 days of service time, so he will fall short of Super-2 status. Likewise Orlando Hudson, he came into 2004 with 1 year, 68 days.
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_Ryan Lind - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:51 PM EDT (#27148) #
Damn it, Rob, I was going to do Anaheim! ;)

Fine, I'll do Boston
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_Jonny German - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:53 PM EDT (#27149) #
I call San Diego!
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Lucas - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 02:56 PM EDT (#27150) #
I'll do Texas and Colorado, my '04 preview teams.

Here's a scenario I've alwasy wondered about re service and free agency: Let's say Toronto non-tenders Rios after the season (bear with me). Seattle signs him to a one-year ML contract. At the end of 2005, is Rios Seattle property with only 1+ year of service time, or would he become a free agent?
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_Moffatt - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#27151) #
Let's say Toronto non-tenders Rios after the season (bear with me). Seattle signs him to a one-year ML contract. At the end of 2005, is Rios Seattle property with only 1+ year of service time, or would he become a free agent?

I don't think Toronto can non-tender Rios. I think they can only waive him, in which case he would be Seattle's with only 1+ year of service time. Not entirely sure, though.

Thanks for helping out, guys!
[ Reply to This ]
_Rob - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:24 PM EDT (#27152) #
  1. Not arbitration eligible due to lack of service time: Amezaga, Figgins, Gregg, Jenks, McPherson, Rodriguez.
  2. Free agents: Glaus, Halter, Mondesi, Percival, Sele, Washburn.
  3. Long-term contracts: A whole bunch.
  4. Arbitration eligible: DaVanon*, J.Molina*, Ortiz**, Shields*, Weber.


* Not sure about service time. If fewer than three years, move to Group 1.
** Not sure about service time. If more than six years, move to Group 2.
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_Marc - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:26 PM EDT (#27153) #
Let's say Toronto non-tenders Rios after the season (bear with me). Seattle signs him to a one-year ML contract. At the end of 2005, is Rios Seattle property with only 1+ year of service time, or would he become a free agent?

Any player signed after being non-tendered still does not become a free agent until they have completed six full seasons in the majors or are non-tendered again.
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_Rob - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:27 PM EDT (#27154) #
That Angels logo came from a site advertising team flags, and it has 29 out of 30 MLB teams represented.

Guess who the loser team is?
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_Marc - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:37 PM EDT (#27155) #
Chicago Cubs...

Eligible for arbitration: Ryan Dempster (?), Kyle Farnsworth, Michael Barrett, Jose Macias, Carlos Zambrano and Ramon Martinez. A lot of these guys apparantly JUST miss being free agents.
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robertdudek - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:40 PM EDT (#27156) #
There was the recent case of Danys Baez. Baez and his agent claimed that because he had signed a major league multi-year contract, he became a free-agent when it expired, though he did not have the requisite 6 years service time. The Indians chose not to fight it (I think they would have won) and allowed Baez to sign a contract with Tampa Bay.
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_Moffatt - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:41 PM EDT (#27157) #
Thanks to the Media Guide that Rob provided, I've updated the Jays list:

Not arbitration eligible due to lack of service time
(Numbers in brackets represent total service time prior to 2004)
P Arnold, Jason (0.000)
P Bush, David (0.000)
P Chulk, Vinnie (0.030)
P Douglass, Sean
P File, Bob? (2.013)
P Frasor (0.000)
P Frederick, Kevin
P Glynn, Ryan
P Kershner, Jason (1.001)
P Miller, Justin (0.130)
P Towers, Josh (1.076)
C Cash, Kevin (0.076)
C Quiroz, Guillermo (0.000)
SS Adams, Russ (0.000)
1B Crozier, Eric (0.000)
2B Hudson, Orlando (1.068)
OF Gross, Gabe (0.000)
OF Johnson, Reed (0.146)
OF Rios, Alex (0.000)

Free agents:
UT Berg, Dave (6.000)
1B Delgado, Carlos (9.002)
UT Gomez, Chris (10.041)
C Myers, Greg (14.155)
C Zaun, Gregg

Long-term contracts:
P Batista, Miguel (Through 2006)
P Lilly, Ted (Through 2005)
P Halladay, Roy (Through 2007)
3B Hinske, Eric (Through 2007)
OF Wells (Through 2007)
OF/DH Catalanotto, Frank (Through 2006)

Arbitration eligible:
P Speier, Justin (4.082)
SS Woodward, Chris (3.153)
UT Menechino, Frank

Do other media guides list service time?
[ Reply to This ]
_Marc - Tuesday, September 14 2004 @ 03:42 PM EDT (#27158) #
With the Angels... Molina and DaVanon are not eligible for arbitration. Nor is Shields unless he is a super-2 at the end of the season. Ramon Ortiz does not have six years after this season so he will not be a FA, just eligible for arbitration.
[ Reply to This ]
2004-2005 Arbitration Eligible Candidates - Let's Make a List | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.