Baseball Broadcasters Impressions: Miami Marlins

Continuing the baseball broadcaster impressions project today with a look at the Florida Miami Marlins broadcast teams. 

TV Announcers: Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton

"Freddie Freeman has the glasses thing figured out now."-Rich Waltz 

Man oh man I don't think I've ever heard a broadcaster as uncomfortable to the point they just sound plain awkward in the booth. Read that quote above from Marlins broadcaster Rich Waltz again. That was said last night during the Marlins-Braves game. I guess you had to listen to what he said instead of reading it because it was said more awkwardly than it reads.

 The Marlins have one of the more mediocre TV announcing crews in the majors. Waltz is more awkward in that booth than just that one quote and his partner, Tommy Hutton, can be a rambling hot head. Combine all of this and you have a mediocre tandem.

Notice that I didn't say bad though. There's a difference between bad and being mediocre. Bad broadcasters to me are humongous homers (See: Hawk Harrelson) and guys who spout nonsense (See: Rex Hudler). Mediocre broadcasters to me are guys who either don't bring anything to a broadcast (personality, chemistry, etc.) but don't take anything away from a broadcast.

Maybe if Waltz and Hutton had better chemistry the Marlins broadcast would be more enjoyable. But they don't have chemistry at all turning that broadcast into one of the most awkward and mediocre broadcasts in the majors.


Radio Announcers: Dave Van Horne and Glen Geffner

When the Giants played the Marlins a couple of weeks ago I decided to listen to the Marlins radio team. Glen Geffner was calling the innings I listened and all I could do was sit back and laugh. And not in a good way.

Geffner I swear is a machine. He must memorize every single game note he is given, because between pitches he can spout off player vs pitcher matchups at a high frequency while not taking a breathe. It's quite fascinating to listen to. My only complaint listening to Geffner is that he doesn't give the count during at bats. This would be fine on TV, but on radio we can't look at the screen to see the count. Geffner just spouts off his notes so fast you don't realize how many outs there are or what the count is.

Geffner's partner Dave Van Horne is a legend and a Hall of Famer, but like most Hall of Fame broadcasters his best days are behind him. Van Horne can still be very entertaining to listen to
 but like Geffner he sometimes forgets to mention the count and how many outs there are in the inning.

Van Horne and Geffner are good broadcasters but they're far from the best.