because i’d like several pairs.

“We gave them a number we thought was fair and told them we’d come up a little, and they’re on crack.”

But I tend to agree with Getting Yosted. There’s a reason why teams try to avoid hearings. The system is set up to favor the players, in my opinion, largely because the assumption coming is that the player has been playing for 20-40% of their actual value prior to the hearing. That and the fact that the arbitrators have to pick between the two numbers that were filed, rather than try to find some common ground, makes it hard for the teams to win. I think Hart is delusional about the kind of player he really is (and even worse, he doesn’t appear to have the first clue how to get better even though there are some examples of how to do it right in front of him), but he probably wins if it goes to hearing.

But paying five times that for a reliever is an easy choice.

If he wins the arbitration, then he plays angry to show the Brewers they’re lucky to have him for under $5 MM. If he loses arbitration he plays angry to show everyone that he’s better than that.
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Or if he wins, he becomes even more of an arrogant ass and takes it to mean hitting breaking balls down and away really isn’t that important and doesn’t bother trying to improve as a player. If he loses arbitration he sulks until Macha has no choice but to bench him in favor of Gerut on a daily.

The Brewers only owe him 1/4 of his salary if they release him before Opening Day, right? If Hart shows he still can’t hit a breaking ball during Spring Training and is just going to be a replacement level player, won’t they have cheaper options even with swallowing $1.2MM of his salary? Put that $3.4-3.6 MM towards a cheap deal (Edmonds?) and a midseason acquisition.