Recently, the present author announced his intentions of revisiting the broadcaster rankings which appeared on this site roughly four years ago. The purpose of those rankings? To place a “grade” on each of the league’s television and radio broadcast teams — a grade intended to represent not necessarily the objective quality or skill of the relevant announcers, but rather the appeal those announcers might have to the readers of this site. By way of MLB.TV feeds, the typical major-league telecast offers four distinct audio feeds — which is to say, the radio and television commentary both for the home and road clubs. The idea of these broadcast rankings was to give readers an opportunity to make an informed decision about how to consume a telecast.

Today, we begin the balloting process to produce a new collection of scores.

For each broadcasting team, the reader is asked to supply a grade on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 representing the highest mark) according to the following criteria: Charisma, Analysis, and then Overall.

Charisma is, essentially, the personal charm of the announcers in question. Are they actively entertaining? Do they possess real camaraderie? Would you — as is frequently the case with Vin Scully — would you willingly exchange one of your living grandfathers in order to spend time with one of these announcers? The Analysis provided by a broadcast team could skew more towards the sabermetric or more towards the scouting side of things. In either case, is it grounded in reason? The Overall rating is the overall quality of the broadcast team — nor need this be a mere average of the previous two ratings. Bob Uecker, for example, provides very little in the way of analysis, and yet certainly rates well overall, merely by force of personality. Finally, there’s a box of text in which readers can elaborate upon their grades, if so compelled.

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Arizona Diamondbacks

Some relevant information regarding Arizona’s broadcast:

• Play-by-play coverage is typically provided by Steve Berthiaume.
• Color analysis is typically provided by Bob Brenly.
• Luis Gonzalez appears for select games.

Click here to grade Arizona’s television broadcast team.

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Atlanta Braves

Some relevant information regarding Atlanta’s broadcast:

• Play-by-play coverage is typically provided by Chip Caray.
• Color analysis is typically provided by Joe Simpson.
• Tom Glavine and John Smoltz and others appear for select games.

Click here to grade Atlanta’s television broadcast team.

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Baltimore Orioles

Some relevant information regarding Baltimore’s broadcast:

• Play-by-play coverage is typically provided by Gary Thorne.
• Color analysis is typically provided by either Mike Bordick or Jim Palmer.
• Dave Johnson appears for select games.

Click here to grade Baltimore’s television broadcast team.

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Boston Red Sox

Some relevant information regarding Boston’s broadcast:

• Play-by-play coverage is typically provided by Dave O’Brien.
• Color analysis is typically provided by Jerry Remy.
• Dennis Eckersley appears for select games.

Click here to grade Boston’s television broadcast team.

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Chicago White Sox (Home)

Some relevant information regarding Chicago’s home broadcast:

• Play-by-play coverage is typically provided by Jason Benetti.
• Color analysis is typically provided by Steve Stone.
• Hawk Harrelson is still likely to appear for select games.

Click here to grade Chicago’s home television broadcast team.

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Chicago White Sox (Away)

Some relevant information regarding Chicago’s away broadcast:

• Play-by-play coverage is typically provided by Hawk Harrelson.
• Color analysis is typically provided by Steve Stone.
• Tom Paciorek or Chuck Swirsky might appear for select games.

Click here to grade Chicago’s away television broadcast team.