Lot's of young, close to arbitration eligible players are complaining about not getting paid over the past week. Prince Fielder, Cole Hamels, and Jonathan Papelbon all experiencing their ill will towards getting their contracts renewed for the league minimum. In these stories, Fielder and Papelbon at least indirectly reference the gigantic sum of money that Ryan Howard made in arbitration.
As I feared with Howard's victory, players just a year away from arbitration realize that they're about to get paid, and have no reason to provide the team any type of discount. The more these stories come out, the sooner the Dodgers are going to have to wrap up their arbitration eligible players so we don't end up bleeding money by 2011. The Dodgers don't just have to worry about Martin and Broxton now. They need to look into wrapping up guys like Billingsley, Kemp, and even Loney who we're pretty sure will be part of the team for years to come before they come close to their arbitration paydays. Again, we can thank Tal Smith and the Phillies for this whole mess.