Atkins knows he's on the block. He knows that Stewart is taking his position.
I see Atkins as being in the same situation as Fuentes was last year, having lost his starting spot (sort of) to the new entrant, and I predict Atkins not taking it easy on the Rockies.
This isn't to say the Arbiters are idiots and will just pay Atkins for his 2006 season and give him a good raise on his 2008 salary of $4,387,500. But at the same time, I don't see the Rockies giving him some massive raise either. His 08 season was not very good, but you can't make less in arbitration than you did the season before.
I figure a $2M raise would be generous, but not unreal, so let's make a cutoff of $6.5M.
Will Atkins come to terms with the Rockies and not go to arbitration?