Other ballots: Arizona / Atlanta / Baltimore / Boston / Chicago (AL) Home / Chicago (AL) Away / Chicago (NL) / Cincinnati / Cleveland / Colorado / Detroit / Houston / Kansas City / Los Angeles (AL) / Los Angeles (NL) Home / Los Angeles (NL) Away / Miami / Milwaukee / Minnesota / New York (AL) / New York (NL) / Oakland / Philadelphia / Pittsburgh.
Recently, the present author began the process of process of reproducing 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.
Below are eight more ballots — the last on the television side of things — to the end of producing a new collection of these broadcaster 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.
St. Louis Cardinals
Some relevant information regarding St. Louis’s broadcast:
Click here to grade St. Louis’s television broadcast team.
San Diego Padres
Some relevant information regarding San Diego’s broadcast:
Click here to grade San Diego’s television broadcast team.
San Francisco Giants
Some relevant information regarding San Francisco’s broadcast:
Click here to grade San Francisco’s television broadcast team.
Seattle Mariners
Some relevant information regarding Seattle’s broadcast:
Click here to grade Seattle’s television broadcast team.
Tampa Bay Rays
Some relevant information regarding Tampa Bay’s broadcast:
Click here to grade Tampa Bay’s television broadcast team.
Texas Rangers
Some relevant information regarding Texas’s broadcast:
Click here to grade Texas’s television broadcast team.
Toronto Blue Jays
Some relevant information regarding Toronto’s broadcast:
Click here to grade Toronto’s television broadcast team.
Washington Nationals
Some relevant information regarding Washington’s broadcast:
Click here to grade Washington’s television broadcast team.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Don Orsillo for select games is a waste of a great talent. Miss him in Boston.