One of the first things that we learned in my Intro to Negotiation course in grad school was to preserve the long-term relationship with whom you are negotiating. The professor identified this person one's negotiating partner. Not opponent, enemy or nemesis; your "partner." Solidifying a relationship with this person can open doors to avenues before which may have seemed unreachable. The importance of communication of respect can not be understated: people act in ways that violate logic because they are willing to absorb the loss at the negotiating table as long as their dignity remains intact.
This is nothing new; the bottom line isn't always the bottom line. Nepotism still reigns free. Personal belief trumps science (people are still unwilling to believe that Obama was born in the U.S. See: Luke Scott).
The point is that the relationship between owner and player has grown to where each party can publicly express some of their interests without having to be concerned with damaging their position at the negotiating table. What MLB needs to do during the 2012 CBA negotiations is to make a concerted effort to enact policies that will progress MLB as a whole so that it can compete with the top North American sports leagues (i.e. the NFL, NBA). It is no accident that the 2011 NFL Pro Bowl received higher TV viewership ratings (8.6) than Game 3 of the World Series (7.6). Anytime a game that's as fake as a WWE match outperforms another league's championship series, it should be apparent that there is a clear discrepancy in popularity between the two.
The Folly Arbitration is designed to expose certain MLB rules for what they are: antiquated notions of negotiated treaty implemented for the sake of appeasement rather than for the greater good of the game. The rules governing arbitration are such a classic case of ineptitude that MLB clubs, both large- and small-market, have begun to exploit the obvious loopholes created by the rules. I'll be devoting a full post arbitration soon, but just to whet everyone's whistle: basically the rules state that teams must be compensated by other teams and/or the League if they offer a player with an expired contract (who has accumulated at least six years of service time) the possibility of extending the contract through arbitration. For those not in the know, MLB arbitration is when the player and his representatives negotiate with the club's reps for what each party believes is a fair shake in front of an independent third-party who must rule in favor of one party and for a certain dollar amount.
The problems arise when these players are graded out by an (antiquated) system that measures a combination of stats based on the position in which one plays. These grades - top 20% are Type A, next 20% are Type B and the rest are unclassified - dictate the compensation that Team X will receive if their player signs with Team Y after having been offered arbitration by Team X. Type A free agents provide their former clubs with the signing teams' 1st round draft choice plus a supplemental round (in b/w 1st & 2nd rounds) selection, awarded by MLB as to not have a team sacrifice two selections. Type Bs only provide that supplemental round pick and unclassifieds do not provide any compensation. It may seem fair until one examines the data. In 2009, the average annual salary awarded to Type B free agents were worth double those annual salaries of the 2009 unclassified free agents, despite the unclassified free agent being worth almost double the WAR.
These illogical conclusions will hopefully come to an end in the next CBA (the current one expires after the 2011 season). Given what we have seen from Major League Baseball over the last forty years, it is more plausible to expect no change than proper change, despite overwhelming evidence that some parties have been exploited in the past. Hopefuly we are successful in changing the overall feeling towards baseball in the coming months.
