I’m not sure if this is helpful to anyone or not, but it’s been helpful to me as I make allocations across my leagues. Given the requirements that exist when allocating arbitration dollars (namely that each of the 11 other teams in your league must be assigned at least $1 but no more than $3, and you must spend exactly $25 to have your allocations count), there are a finite number of ways you can distribute your arbitration money (just five, by my count):
$3 x7, $1 x4
$3 x6, $2 x2, $1 x3
$3 x5, $2 x4, $1 x2
$3 x4, $2 x6, $1 x1
$3 x3, $2 x8
I take a couple of different approaches using this information, top-down or bottom-up. With a top-down approach I identify the teams I think deserve $3 allocations, and then I know which distribution of allocations I can select. For example, if I decide there are only 3 other teams in my league that I want to hit with full allocations, I know I will have to hit the other 8 teams with $2.
The bottom-up approach is obviously the opposite, I identify the teams I think I only should assign $1 to, and use that to select my distribution. If I feel like only one team should receive $1, I know I now need to pick four teams to receive $3 and the the remaining six get $2.
Obviously you can shift up or down within each of these five distributions if you decide to change how many teams should be hit with $3/$1, but I’ve found this is a good way to visualize the “shape” of the arbitration hits I want to apply depending on my specific league.