Why is this date so important? What is non-tendering?

Not exactly sure, but you can find good guys who were nontendered. Look at Ortiz last year.

http://www.soxtalk.com/index.php?act=calen...ent&eventid=113

When you non tender a player, it means he wasn't offered arbitration by his team and becomes a Free Agent

Can someone explain it to me? I am not following. What is the diff between the 7th and 20th?

Can someone explain it to me? I am not following. What is the diff between the 7th and 20th?

The 7th is for players who are unrestriced free agents. The 20th is for players who haven't got to free agency, but will become free agents if their teams don't offer them arbitration.

Can someone explain it to me? I am not following. What is the diff between the 7th and 20th?

I believe these are players that do not have the service time in to be unrestricted free agents. Lee and Buerhle could be non-tendered because we do not want to pay them. A non-tender is a guy with less than 7 years of ML service time and the team has to give monry to that they do not want to. I think.

Guys who are in contract years 4-6 are eligible for arbitration, but are not free agents. If their original teams choose not to offer them arbitration, then they are in effect setting them free and they becme free agents. As was previously said, guys over that 6 year service time were free agents as soon as they filed in October or early November.

Thanks guys.