And a neat Chass-generated shout-out from Len.
Well, fast forward from 2002 to 2012: the landscape has completely changed, and for the better, I think.
On a personal level, I just finished my eighth year in the Cubs TV booth, and I’m still pinching myself. I work with the best analyst in the game in Bob Brenly, and we have a national audience for about half our broadcasts on WGN, which gives us a good platform to talk about some of the things you read about at Baseball Prospectus all the time. We added a fun Stats Sunday feature and had a star-studded list of guest bloggers help us teach our viewers about some stats they should know. I’ve also gotten a chance to observe Theo Epstein and his incredibly bright front office do its thing up close on a daily basis. While 2012 was the first time I ever covered a 100-loss team, it was pretty enjoyable on one particular level—I am watching Theo, et al rebuild this organization from the ground up, a pretty exciting and new way of baseball business here on the north side of Chicago.
...But here is where it really crystallizes for me. Recently, two long-time New York sportswriters took personal and unnecessary shots at us “geeks.” Murray Chass called Bill James a “self-professed expert” and wore as a badge of honor the fact that he had no clue what Baseball Think Factory was. And Bill Madden wrote that WAR is ludicrous and that all the smarty-smarts have somehow disparaged guys like Miguel Cabrera and R.A. Dickey (which, by the way, is totally false in both cases).
But guess what? These horribly out-of-date, the-earth-is-flat diatribes were received by the Twitter universe and the blogosphere just how you’d expect them to be taken: with a chuckle and a figurative wave of the hand. You just can’t get away with writing uninformed stuff like this anymore in an arena in which the audience has gotten so smart.*
And that’s why we are in a better place now. We all know better, and we now have a wonderful, wide-open forum in which to make our thoughts clearly known. Keep spreading the word. It’s working.
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1. asinwreck Posted: October 16, 2012 at 04:11 PM (#4272788)Seriously, TFA is a great read. Len impresses me more and more as time passes.
Really, Cubs fans? Has Brenly upped his game?
I don't know if I'd go with that superlative, but Brenly has improved drastically since 2005. I find him insightful, amusing, and open-minded enough about "new" statistical analysis that he's found room for it alongside some of his gritty, old-school take on things.
I never thought I'd say this when he was hired, but Brenly is, in fact, one of the best. When he managed he seemed really old school, so I did not have high hopes. My recollection at the start is that he was nothing special. But he's really adjusted (learned?) and it's now at the point where I would be sad if he left. However, like kids leaving home after school, I would like to see him get another crack at managing if he wants it.
They do a SABR Sunday thing, right? Explain a stat? Like, in those I have not observed Brenly diving in head first. He just kinda goes with it.
Now granted - there are 27 teams whose booth I don't get to hear regularly, but off the top of my head... from the national broadcasts? ESPN? Every name that comes to mind is a "God, no..." I agree with everyone that Stone has just gotten too bitter or arrogant (forget the way the Cubs bounced him, but also remember -- Stone also variously wanted a front office job, tried to become part of an ownership group, and if memory serves -- at one point was fishing for a manager's job, but wouldn't take a pitching coach job).
I don't think I'd trade Stone for Brenly at this point.
Anyone from the non-Braves, non-ChiSox have any ideas of color men I'm missing? The legends - Scully, Jon Miller - are PBP guys...
Who really is a "good" color man?
Geez, he must be black and blue all over!
The fact that both NESN and TBS keep Dennis Eckersley back in the studio most of the time is not using him to his full potential. Eck was the main substitute for Jerry Remy during his sick leaves, and maybe it was just because he was a short-timer, but he's fun to listen to, smart, and brutally honest.
Then again, I'd hate to see him used regularly enough that he started measuring his words.
Sure he does, he used the word (well, sabermetricians) in his "these geniuses are ruining the game by using defensive shifts instead of playing the game as Abner Doubleday created it" rant.
Alan Ashby's a great colour commentator, it's a shame he's stuck doing radio when Pat Tabler is used on TV broadcasts.
What annoys me most about Sutcliffe are these moments:
"Johnson is coming out to talk to Zimmermann."
"Well, Davey can see he's getting tired and he's got Storen warming up in the bullpen, this is absolutely the right time for this move."
"Johnson's leaving him in the game."
"This is absolutely the right move here. Zimmermann is a real gamer and Davey is showing confidence in his pitcher, letting him work out of a jam."
"It's gone, 3-run home run. And here comes Johnson out of the dugout."
"This is absolutely the right move to make here. Zimmermann is clearly tired and Storen is gonna be tough on these hitters."
Alan Ashby's a great colour commentator, it's a shame he's stuck doing radio when Pat Tabler is used on TV broadcasts.
Except when the bases are loaded.
Do have to say, after he retired but before he took up broadcasting, he bought me a beer (and then signed the can) at a bar called Kronies that was once famous for penny beer night...
That's what I thought! I bet he's checked in on Cubs chatters before! (back when we had Cubs chatters)
I feel like the Braves botched a tremendous opportunity with Chipper's career, if that's true.
That's what I thought! I bet he's checked in on Cubs chatters before! (back when we had Cubs chatters)
We will all probably come around when the team gets better. Its hard to comment much when the season is such a drag. I'll have to remember to post some shoutouts to Len. Ask him to play the meow game or sometime.
I think it was Ashby who filled in for Jerry Remy last year when the Red Sox were in Toronto and be was excellent. Easy voice and insightful.
The Red Sox team is the only one I feel real comfortable talking about. Orsillo is a good if somewhat bland guy though I prefer that. Remy can be excellent when he wants to be. While he rarely rips a Red Sox player he will be critical and is more than willing to compliment an opposing player. The problem the two have is they get silly too often. In blowouts it's great, I find them amusing. They do it in close games or early in games too often.
I think Eck was tolerable because of his short timer status. His schtick was already getting old for me when Remy came back.
This. Darling's IQ seems to drop 50 points when he walks into the TBS booth.
That name is awesome.
I like the job Jim Palmer does on Baltimore broadcasts.
I just want to weigh in concurring with this. He is the worst announcer I have ever heard, and I have heard Hawk Harrelson, Joe Morgan, Joe Buck, and Phil Rizzuto. Pompous, ponderous, and wrong on a consistent basis. Awful.
Bob Walk on the Pirates' broadcasts.
-- MWE
Rod Allen, of internet-viral-video-japanese-pitcher-chasing fame. Detroit's TV booth is really good, though they've added some unecessary bells and whistles in recent years. Allen wasn't much of a player, but he spent some time as a hitting instructor in the minors and his baseball IQ really shows. He makes a lot of spot-on predictions involving the next pitch in a sequence and it's effectiveness or lack thereof.
Confimartion bias is always an issue, but it surprises me how often Allen will say something like "if he throws this pitch here he will get a strikeout/it will get crushed" and it immediately happens.
I just want to weigh in concurring with this. He is the worst announcer I have ever heard, and I have heard Hawk Harrelson, Joe Morgan, Joe Buck, and Phil Rizzuto. Pompous, ponderous, and wrong on a consistent basis. Awful.
The content is indeed awful, but the voice is even worse.
The assumption is that he'll be joining the Arizona booth for 2013.
Wonder what we'll get stuck with now. Hopefully not Mark Grace or Keith Moreland.
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