Wednesday Night Links

Here are some links, as the Cubs pitchers and Catchers are just about a week away from reporting to spring training.

All Cactus league teams oppose the new surcharge on spring training ticket prices, that would go towards Arizona’s efforts to build a new “Wrigley” like spring training facility for the Cubs. One of the first critics to the plan was White Sox Chairman Jerry Riensdorf, and many teams have followed his lead by opposing the bill.

Wrigley Field will once again host three concerts this year. The rumored bands to be performing are Elton John and Billy Joel on July 7th, and then the Dave Matthews band, and Paul McCartney and Phish could be the two performances in September. I am one that opposes the idea of having concerts at Wrigely Field, during the season. Mainly because of the damage it does to the field. Last year is was fairly evident that the outfield grass was damaged thanks in large part to the concerts that were held on it.  Chicago has a plethora of nice arenas in the area, so it would not be hard to have the performances their.

Paul Sullivan wonders who the Cubs leadoff man will be in 2010, saying that Lou Piniella is hinting that it will be Ryan Theriot. Sullivan says that while Fukudome may be the better fit of the two, Theriot will likely get the nod due to the Cubs lack of balance in the lineup. I wouldn’t really consider either of the two to be good leadoff men, but they are above average to say the least. Out of the two though, I would have to go with Fukudome due to him having a better OBP (.404) and Walks (30) to Ryan Theriot’s OBP and Walks (.354, and 18).

Lastly, ESPN Chicago’s Bruce Levine takes a look at broadcasting over the past 62 years. He points out that soon the Cubs will likely start their own cable TV network, similar to what the Yankees have with the YES network. The station will be a 24/7 Cubs station, that will likely feature live games, recaps, classic games, and game previews. However the Cubs still have a contract with both WGN and Comcast Sportsnet, but the general belief is that the Cubs in the future will look to reach a settlement with the two networks, that would give the Cubs Network exclusive rights to Cubs games.