Wednesday Links

Here are some links regarding the Cubs for Wednesday

Bruce Levine reports that the Cubs and Ryan Theriot have cut off negotiations to try and avoid arbitration. Here’s more on where the two sides go from here…

"Major League Baseball and the players union usually refuse to give out dates to the media in advance of arbitration hearings. The reason is both sides want the independent arbitrator to not have any knowledge or be able to research the cases they will hear. Arbitrators are given cases randomly on the day the case is heard."

Theriot is not backing off from his $3.4MM figure that he submitted to the Cubs, and the Cubs submitted a $2.6MM figure to Theriot. In my opinion the arbitrator will likely rule in favor of the Cubs.

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated lists the Cubs as one of eight teams that struck out this off-season in an attempt to improve their team for 2010. While he praises the Cubs for getting rid of Milton Bradley, he criticizes them for getting Carlos Silva in return. He also feels that the Cubs went too high on John Grabow ( 2 yr/ $7.5MM), and Xavier Nady ($3.3MM plus $2MM in incentives).

The Cubs are also playing two Saturday prime-time games this year, one when they cross town to play the White Sox on June 26th. And the other one being on May 22nd when they visit the Texas Rangers. Both games will be featured on Fox.

All in all, it is a pretty slow week for Cubs News. But with spring training around the corner and the Cubs still looking to add a player or two, things will likely pick up soon.