They often tell you not to become a niche within a niche, but I can’t help it from Nov. to late Feb. That’s because it’s MLB salary arbitration season.

I have now become known as the “salary arb geek”, which strangely is okay by me. The process which is wholly unique to Major League Baseball so fascinates me due to its incredible weight that it places on how clubs structure payroll throughout the season.

For example, as of this posting, there are 31 players that have yet to reach agreements, or looking at it another way, 150 contracts that have been reached since mid-Nov. of last year for salary arbitration eligible players. Total salary cost (both single and multi-year agreements)? $543,520,002, or $336,970,002 for 2010. alone (see my updated tally running here)

To add to my obsessing over salary arbitration, I am doing a 3-part series for Yahoo! Sports, with the first one running this past Tuesday (see Evolution of salary arbitration: an ironic tale), part 2 running on Tuesday the 26th, and the final installment running shortly after the 21st of Feb. when salary arbitration is wrapped up for another year.

So, if you have your geek on, here’s some data I am tracking:

• MLB Salary Database
• Salary Arbitration Filings
• Salary Arbitration Figures
• Arbitration Scorecard

MORE NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK

(THE BIZ OF BASEBALL)

• Astros Agree with Pence on 1-yr, $3.5M Deal to Avoid Salary Arbitration
• Transaction Action: Orioles Bring Miguel Tejada Back
• Transaction Action: Giambi Returns to Rockies for 1-yr, $1.5M
• Dodgers to Play Two Games in Taiwan in March
• Players Unions From MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA Join Clinton Bush Fund-Raising Effort for Haiti Earthquake Relief
• Shane Victorino Gets 3-yr, $22M Deal from Phils to Avoid Salary Abritration
• Transaction Action: Royals Sign Rick Ankiel
• Over Half-A-Billion Dollars Allocated Through Salary Arbitration Contracts
• Brewers Agree with Coffey on 1-yr Deal Avoiding Arbitration
• Transaction Action: Angels Pick Up Pineiro to Fill Out Rotation
• Transaction Action: Dotel and Pirates Agree on Deal
• Phillies, Blanton Agree on 3-yr, $24M Deal Avoiding Salary Arbitration
• MASN Releases 2010 Broadcast Schedule for Nationals and Orioles
• Mariners Settle with League on a 1-yr, $1,087,500 Deal, Avoiding Arbitration
• Texas Rangers Sale Down to Dotting the “I”s and Crossing “T”

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available for hire or freelance. Brown’s full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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