How bad are TBS playoff broadcasts?

Why do I think that should be in the blue sarcasm font, but because Pastor is always in the blue font, I can't tell if he's being sarcastic?

 

This just in... A thirteenth month has been added to the schedule and they have decided to call it "October." While discussions have circulated around the confusion caused by having two months with identical names, the decision makers are confident that people will become accustomed to the new month and the duplication.

 

Watching Dick Stockton reminds me of Weekend at Bernie's for some reason...

 

Lousy Smarch weather.

 

At least they were smart to hire Ron Darling for the postseason. He has become king analyst in New York for the Mets and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Mets fan. Darling has an Emmy to show for it, damn it!! Anyway, as far as Tim and Joe are concerned, I've never had a problem with them. After having MLB.TV for most of the season and listening to just about every NL TV booth guys, Tim and Joe crush the majority of those guys by a lot. I know these TBS guys are bad, but at least Miller and Morgan on ESPN and those guys are just brutal.

 

If you're a Sox fan, you now have a chance to appreciate Don Orsillo without all the promotional garbage and RemDawg huckstering that he has to fit in between pitches.

 

I like Miller, quite a bit in fact. He's guilty-by-association, getting stuck with Joe Morgan.

 

Money, of course. Do you really think there's another reason?

TBS has the entire first round, and the NLCS. Fox has the ALCS and the World Series.

***

And for my money, TBS is doing a decent job production-wise (I wish Gwynn was in the studio instead of Thomas last night. I have a feeling Gwynn's in Cleveland to call that game, though. He's the most talented, experienced national analyst they have; unfortunately, he can't be everywhere.)

TBS' biggest problem is that they don't have a stable of announcers like Fox does -- so they plucked mercenaries from around the league to do this first round. Y'all say, "I know these TBS guys are bad," but none of these announcers are "TBS guys." They're from everywhere else.

COL-PHI has a Red Sox guy and the No. 3 Braves guy, plus a TNT basketball reporter/Philly scribe (the latter two of whom happen to be employed by Turner already.) BOS-LAA has the Angels' radio guy as a sideline reporter. CHI-ARI has a veteran announcer who obviously hasn't done much baseball and a Mets TV analyst ... None of these guys have worked together. And no matter how much preparation they did, most of them (except Stockton and Aldridge) just spent 162 games with their own teams through last weekend, and now they're expected to be acutely familiar with playoff teams they've only seen 3 or 6 or 9 times at most? It shows, both in their unfamiliarity with the players and their unfamiliarity with their partners.

Give them a chance to work a few games together, and they'll be fine. Simpson is very good on Braves broadcasts, and Mota is very sharp with the Angels. (I can't speak first-hand for Darling and Orsillo, but they seem to be held in high regard by others.) ... Stockton's the only one who really worries me, because he just didn't seem to have a clue last night.

But I don't care if you have Vin Scully and Curt Gowdy out there together, if they haven't spent any time with the teams and each other, they're not going to produce a good broadcast.

 

Stockton probably hasn't done much baseball in the past 15 years.

Why Orsillo wasn't kept on the Sox series, other than for the concerns of conflict of interest, baffles me.

 

On Frank Thomas, whoa momma, is he bad. Ripken looks like they took his HOF bust and actually put it on the desk, but Thomas appears to be looking for the door.

Ripken asked him last night about the gyroball and Thomas started talking uncomfortably about how Matsuzaka struck him out in his first AB against him and used five different pitches to do it, essentially deflecting the actual question. Ripken threw it back to him, again asking specifically about the gyroball. It was a nice opportunity for an active player to give some honest-to-goodness insight on what's going on in the game. Thomas looked like Bill Clinton in front of the grand jury (or George Clinton behind a bong), struggling for something to say before Johnson saved his ass.

So, you've got Cal, with a boring answer to anything. You've got Big Hurt, without an answer to anything. Good luck to Ernie Johnson as he attempts to carry these clowns over the finish line.

 

To be fair, most still-active players look uncomfortable in these situations.

They're SOOOO afraid of pissing someone off...

 

Which makes no sense given that Joe Buck does Cardinal playoff games.

Having Bob Brenly working the Cubs-D'Backs series would have made sense too.