The Boston Globe points out that the Red Sox may wind up paying Jonathan Papelbon and Kevin Youkilis big money in arbitration. Kevin, especially, is going to get a huge raise due to Ryan Howard. Both are in their second year of arbitration. Ryan is one year younger in seasonal age, although both were born in 1979. Both are first basemen who can hit. Howard won a $10 million award last winter, and his salary is not going down. This year, Kevin's agent can argue that Youkilis had a better year than Howard. Yes, Howard hit more home runs and drove in more runs, but Kevin did about everything else better. He's ahead of Ryan in both win shares and VORP (subscription required for VORP).

Career wise, Howard posts better numbers, due to his power. Based on 2008, however, Youkilis's agent can make a very good case for Kevin deserving Howard like money. My guess is that Kevin will more than double his 2008 $3 milllion salary, and probably even triple it.