Hamels & Valdez Avoid Arbitration

Nobody wants to go through an arbitration hearing. Not the player, not the club. It's two parties haggling over money while either building up the player's worth by pointing out all of his attributes or tearing it down by nagging on all his weaknesses. Coming to an agreement prior to that is ideal and the Phillies did just that with Cole Hamels and Wilson Valdez today.Hamels, in his final season of arbitration before hitting free agency, gets $15M. That's one of the highest salaries for a player that is still arbitration eligible. Many fans were hoping Cole would be locked up with an extension, but now he seems destined to test the open market waters and a $100M payday is a definite possibility.Valdez snagged $930K from the Phils. Pretty good, considering he was a washed up Quad-A player just two seasons ago that nobody wanted and the Phils only ended up using out of necessity.Kyle Kendrick agreed to terms on a 1 year/$3.585M contract last week avoiding arbitration.Hunte...