Could I see some evidence, please?

Tim Dierkes has gone and done it again. Dierkes runs MLB Trade Rumors, which is an excellent website, but I often find myself questioning the opinions he adds to the rumors. As I mentioned 9 days ago, Dierkes continues to operate under the assumption that players who were not offered arbitration would have definitely agreed to arbitration. He uses this assumption to credit GMs around the league for excellent foresight. Maybe I missed it, but I have not seen any evidence to suggest that the players would have agreed to arbitration. Hell, this was even posted on Dierkes' site yesterday: Gammons says the player's association was "strongly advising" agents to turn down arbitration offers, but that in the end it cost players like Varitek a lot of money.

Assuming the player's association was strongly advising agents to turn down arbitration offers, why would the players not offered arbitration have accepted arbitration if they were given the chance? Dierkes' own Surprisingly not offered arbitration list includes Bobby Abreu, Joe Beimel, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, Braden Looper, Jamie Moyer, Randy Wolf, and Kerry Wood. Out of that list, only Beimel seems like a likely candidate to have accepted an arbitration offer. If you have any reason why the others would have accepted arbitration back on December 7, please enlighten me.

----------------

Tim, if you're reading, please don't take this as a personal attack. I would just like to see some evidence backing up your claims.