Krukow: If Belt, Giants go to arbitration, ‘impossible not to have hard feelings'

Editor's note: The above video is from Nov. 18, 2015.

A week ago, Brandon Belt and George Kontos filed for arbitration.

Last Friday, we learned that Belt filed at $7.5 million, and the Giants submitted $5.3 million, according to MLB Network's Jon Heyman.

Kontos, meanwhile, filed at $1.35 million and the Giants at $850,000.

On Monday morning, Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow weighed in on Belt's situation with the club

"It's the very first time as an athlete, that you really get a dose of reality," Krukow explained on KNBR 680. "The first time you go to arbitration you hear your club, that has pumped you up your whole career, now all of a sudden they're talking about your bad things -- where you don't match up, how you don't compare with other first baseman, why the price that you're asking for is absurd and you're just basically an idiot for asking it -- I mean, that's what you feel like when you're sitting in the room."

If the Giants can't reach agreements before February hearings, an arbitrator will pick one side or the other in both the Belt and Kontos cases.

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The Giants try to avoid hearings, which can become messy, and have done so since going up against A.J. Pierzynski in 2004.

"In the eyes of the player, it really makes it a business," Krukow said. "That's your first dose of, 'This is business.' And then when it's all over and you walk out the room, it's like, 'Hey, no hard feelings. We still like you. It's great. Yoohoo! We kicked your butt in arbitration, but no hard feelings.'

"Well, it's impossible not to have hard feelings. It does motivate you and it does tick you off, but it's part of it."

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