April 1, 2014

Baseball Broadcasters Impressions: TV Rankings

Back in 2012 I gave you my baseball broadcaster impressions of all the local broadcasts. This year I'm doing my personal rankings. Basically the rankings go like this. I have MLB.tv and when I watch a game I have a choice between two broadcasts. Which one would I rather listen to? I can check this ranking, see one broadcast team is ranked higher than the other, and choose that one.

30. Cleveland- Matt Underwood & Rick Manning: If you need a good nap, listen to these two.
29. Toronto- Buck Martinez & Pat Tabler: Martinez's voice is why they're ranked here. Nails on a chalk board are more delightfully sounding than his voice.
28. Atlanta- Chip Caray, Joe Simpson, & Tom Glavine: Glavine and Simpson are fine. Chip Caray isn't.
27. Cincinnati- Thom Brennaman & Chris Welsh: Welsh is fine. T-Hom though can go die in a fire with his condescending opinions.
26. Colorado- Drew Goodman, Jeff Huson & George Frazier: Nothing distinguishable about this crew.
25. New York Yankees- Michael Kay & a different array of analysts: This is a fine broadcast when Ken Singleton or David Cone is in the booth. Horrendous though if it's anyone else with Kay.
24. Milwaukee- Brian Anderson & Bill Schroeder: I complained about Anderson a lot during the NCAA Tournament. Here's my problem with him, he's freaking boring.
23. Philadelphia- Tom McCarthy, Matt Stairs & Jaime Moyer: McCarthy ruins this team though they might jump up depending on how well the Stairs-Moyer combo sounds.
22. St. Louis: Dan McLaughlin, Al Hrabosky, & Rich Horton: Another boring broadcast team.
21. Washington: Bob Carpenter & FP Santangelo: Carpenter ruins the broadcasts with his arrogant homerism.
20. Miami: Rich Waltz & Tommy Hutton: Boring announcing crew for a boring team.
19. Oakland: Glen Kuiper & Ray Fosse: Ranked up here because of my personal hatred for Fosse. He's so grumpy, such a big homer, and never stops talking. Take a breathe every once in a while Ray.
18.  Anaheim: Victor Rojas & Mark Gubicza: Rojas isn't very exciting and Gubicza's surfer bro act can wear thin.
17. Boston: Don Orsillo & Jerry Remy*: Asterisk because Remy might not be around long after that Boston Globe story detailing how fucked up his family is. Still though I never found this broadcast team all that appealing before that story.
16. Chicago White Sox: Hawk Harrelson & Steve Stone: Is Hawk a homer? Of course but you know what? I'd rather listen to him that the teams below him. Games are at least interesting when he's on the call.
15. Pittsburgh- Tim Neverett or Greg Brown & Bob Walk or Steve Blass: They rotate before the TV and radio side so it's hard to rank them any higher than this.
14. Houston- Bill Brown, Alan Ashby, & Geoff Blum: Brown is still really good. Ashby is as good of an analyst as you'll find. And Blum is alright himself.
13. Kansas City: Ryan Lefebvre & Rex Hudler: Don't ask why but I find Hudler's beach bro act much more enduring than Gubicza's.
12. Detroit- Mario Impemba & Rod Allen: Allen can be a clown but him and Impemba are still a very good team.
11. Seattle- Dave Sims & Mike Blowers: Sims and Blowers are really good together. They make late night Mariner blowouts less hard to endure.
10. Texas- Steve Busby & Tom Grieve: Busby's voice can tend on the Buck Martinez annoying side but he doesn't have near the screw ups as Buck.
9. Tampa Bay- Dewayne Staats & Brian Anderson: Staats has the great voice and Anderson is becoming one of the better analysts in the game.
8. San Diego- Dick Enberg & Mark Grant: Grant is a good analyst and Enberg's voice is from heaven.
7. Minnesota- Dick Bremer & Bert Blyleven: I'm more bothered by the horrendous camera angle they show for home plate than I am with this broadcasting team.
6. Arizona- Steve Berthiaume & Bob Brenly: They straddle the line of analytics and old school analysis very well together.
5. Chicago Cubs- Len Kasper & Jim Deshaies: Probably the best booth in baseball if you want to hear about sabermetrics.
4. San Francisco- Duane Kuiper & Mike Krukow: Krukow is honestly starting to get long in the tooth. He's starting to analyse the ballpark environment more than the game and he's rarely critical of the play or decisions on the field. Kuiper is still very good though.
3. Baltimore- Gary Thorne & Jim Palmer*: Asterisk because both Thorne and Palmer take a lot of games off. If they did all 162 they'd be 2nd in these rankings.
2. New York Mets- Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, & Ron Darling: Fantastic pairing all the way around. I'll watch more Mets games than anyone outside of the Giants.
1. Los Angeles- Vin Scully: Still the best while in the booth.

3 comments:

  1. My only complaint is that I wouldn't have the Texas crew that high. They're white bread and water. I'd switch them with the Houston broadcasters.

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  2. I much prefer Paul O'Neill to anyone else in that YES stable of commentators.

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    Replies
    1. I disagree here. O'Neil and Flahery bring out the worst in Kay. At least Singleton, Cone, or Leiter don't bring out the morning radio zoo persona out of Kay.

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