Keeping the Peace | This is old news by this point, but bears noting regardless: By signing Kevin Millwood and Placido Polanco to contracts last week, the Phillies once again have enjoyed an arbitration-free off-season. DugoutDollars has the positive financial impact of the signings, but to me the more important aspect of the deals is the team's ability to preserve good relations with a couple of players they'd like to have around for a while. I've never much understood why teams go to arbitration, tell the arbiter all of the reasons their players don't deserve the kind of money they're asking for, and then think those players won't remember all of the negative comments when it's time to negotiate contracts with them the next year. To Ed Wade's credit, the Phils have largely been able to avoid the acrimony created by publicly declaring their employees' shortfalls.