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Cody Ross - Arbitration Hearing Three

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

Cody Ross and the Florida Marlins headed to their hearing this morning. According to reports that I have read, the arbitration panel for this case was Margaret Brogan, Howard Edelman, and James Oldham. The Marlins, like their counterpart in Tampa Bay, use a file-and-go philosophy with their salary-arbitration players. Ross played in 2009 for $2,225,000, and he is seeking a raise to $4,450,000. The Marlins responded with an offer of $4,200,000 leaving a midpoint of $4,325,000 and a gap of $250,000. Another similarity with the Rays is the relatively small gap in the two exchanged figures number. The gap in the Upton-Tampa Bay case was $300,000. The Rays won their case on Saturday to maintain the only perfect record in arbitration. The Philadelphia Phillies had a 7-0 record until they lost their case to Ryan Howard in 2008.

Ross?s primary 2009 and career statistics are:

G - 151 - 483; PA - 559 - 1506; 2B - 37 - 99; SO - 122 - 354; HR - 24 - 72; BA - .270 - .264; OBP - .321 - .323; SLG - .469 - .484

Ross and Corey Hart are in the same service class. The Hart decision last week did not help the Marlins.

I will place additional analysis in the comments section related to this post. There is one more hearing that will most certainly happen this week because the Astros have a similar philosophy to the Marlins and Rays. That one is between Houston and Wandy Rodriguez on Wednesday. Other cases that have not settled yet are the Angels and Erick Aybar and Jeff Mathis, the Nationals and Brian Bruney and Sean Burnett, and the Chicago Cubs and Ryan Theriot.

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on February 15, 2010 (boomark / email).