7:35 p.m.: Pat Courtney, vice president of communications, put out this release on behalf of Major League Baseball: “We believe the grievance is entirely without merit. The deadline was extended to accept minor league contracts voluntarily entered into by the clubs and the players with the help of their agents. It is settled law that the arbitration panel has no authority to disturb such minor league contracts.”

I really think everything is going to work out in some favorable conclusion…

It’s way too early to figure out how this is going to play out but it sounds to me like it might go this way.

Union — our collective bargaining agreement with MLB states that if a player does not sign by midnight on such and such date, he must automatically go back in the next year’s draft. MLB may not alter any matter covered by the collective bargaining agreement, even if the draftee expressly agrees, without first having a “meet and confer” session with the union. Since MLB failed to meet and confer before it waived the midnight deadline it has violated the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act), and the arbitrator(s) must so hold and rule that any contract agreed to after midnight is void.

MLB — Maybe this is all true, but it is settled that the MLB Players Union lacks “standing” to bring such a claim because it involves a minor league contract, which is not a matter subject to collective bargaining between the union and MLB. (Note: Thank the Great Jeebus that Huntington didn’t agree to a major league contract for Alvarez, or MLB couldn’t assert this defense.) Since all players not on 40 man rosters are not members of the union, the union cannot raise this issue and the arbitrator(s) cannot rule on it. (“Standing” is the ability of a party to bring a claim based upon it having a real and actual stake in the outcome.)

My own $0.02. I love procedural arguments — particularly if MLB has in hand a similar ruling by a court or other arbitrator(s) on the same point (the MLB statement implies they are holding this cared when it mentions “settled law”). But what I am not hearing is MLB stating (like DK did in the PG at the time) that the contract was signed, sealed and delivered to MLB offices prior to midnight.

MLB is saying that even if the contract did not make it to MLB offices that the union and the arbitrators are just s.o.l. because it’s none of their damn business. This is a totally acceptable argument, because it avoids the factual issue of when did MLB receive word of the agreement — and you never know what a fact-finder is going to decide when it comes to disputed facts (Boras and Alvarez could testify to the arbitrator that they were watching their watches and had the atomic clock running online and it was after midnight, Huntington’s printout of an his email dated prior to midnight could be called a sweet hack, whatever, and a pro-union arbitrator gets to decide who is more likely than not to be telling the truth).

But I prefer it when procedural arguments are backed up with substantive arguements. PBC — “Arbitrators, you don’t have standing to review this claim, but even if you did, Boras is a known prevaricator of the first water, and he’s just trying to save face cause Huntington smoked him. And he has a conflict of interest since his KC client would also be affected by any ruling you give, so his testimony is twice problematic.”

This will be interesting. Worst case for Alvarez is that by making this claim he probably cannot play MLB next year, which delays his arbitration eligible and free agency years. Best case though isn’t that great — he goes back into the draft NEXT YEAR and still loses this time. Boras expects PBC to bite on thd $200K boost to the bonus, but since this has already dragged on so long, the PBC can just tell him its too late for Alvarez to part of PBC’s 2009 plans, so pound sand. P.S. Boras is a total fraud when he says to talk to the Union — if it’s the Union’s grievance and not his then Boras has got no ability to withdraw the grievance if PBC pays Alvarez the extra $200K.

. . . doesn’t come from the collective bargaining agreement.

It comes from the US Supreme Court. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes authored the opinion in 1922 in Federal Baseball Club v. National League that baseball was exempt from federal antitrust laws.