Watching the spring training game yesterday I was as excited to hear the familiar banter of Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez as I was to see a few familiar faces on the field. Keith spoke glowingly about both Robinson Cano’s swing and the way his 2006 Mercedes Benz drives. Sometimes it’s like having Frasier Crane in the broadcast booth. I personally like having him there and appreciate his quirkiness along with his insights. He and Ron Darling were my two favorite players growing up, so this is a dream broadcast team for me. Darling knows his stuff and Cohen is a baseball historian. I also love Howie Rose on the radio. We’re really lucky with our broadcasters. I can watch almost any baseball game, but I find the Yankees announcers unbearable and during nationally televised games with Joe Buck I turn the sound off and listen to the radio broadcast.

27 comments on “Thursday open thread – 2/28/19

  • David Klein

    Smoltz is way worse than Buck with his hatred of today’s game and today’s athlete and his get off my lawn stuff.

  • Rob

    I never understood Joe buck. He doesn’t know sports.

  • Name

    Gary Keith and Ron were the cream of the crop a couple of years ago but they’ve really regressed a lot. Keith’s refusal to accept analytics (his “old school style”) and Gary’s extreme wariness of it mean that their overall analysis is often flawed. Some days, i find myself screaming at them for making statements that are 100% false.

    Darling is the only one of the 3 that has taken the time to learn the new metrics, and it’s not unsurprising that he’s the one that also has a contract with a national broadcaster.

  • David Klein

    Harper signs with Phillies the Mets May win 86 games and finish in 4th place https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/02/phillies-reportedly-agree-to-sign-bryce-harper.html

    • Name

      There were only 8 position players aged 35+ that got the qualifying number of at bats, and 5 of them were DHs, so if i was their team accountant, my internal accounting would transact as a 8 year / 330 mil deal with 5 free option years.

      That is, i would treat him as an asset with a useful production of only 8 years, and anything after that would be treated as a gift. Unless baseball salaries start rising after the next CBA, i can’t see Harper fulfilling my $41 mil internal AAV

      • MattyMets

        Name, AAV is only 25.5mm which is a lot now but the way things are going, that could be a middle reliever salary by 2032.

        • Chris F

          Matt, he only sees 8 years of useful production, so the aav is prorated to that.

    • Mike Walczak

      I am glad that we didnt sign Harper to that kind of money. Not worth it. If he hits .247 again, the Phillies fans will be unforgiving.

      • Chris F

        Look, Im an old school guy that has a healthy dose of advanced analytics being wildly misappropriated from a math standpoint, but who cares if he bats .247? That might also come with 30 HR, 100 RBI, and a 130 OPS+. No one no how complains about that.

        Additional side note: In the <24 Hours since being signed, the Phillies have set a record in ticket sales, logging more than 100,000 sold since the announcement.

  • eraff

    I am thrilled that Harper is still in the NL East, specifically with The Phils….more great baseball players to watch!!!

    • Chris F

      Eraff, that right there was old school baseball. Well played.

  • Bloom

    Prediction – Either:
    1. Harper gets injured in Spring Training trying to ramp up to quickly and misses significant time this season

    or

    2. Harper slumps through the first month of the season as his bat isn’t quite ready to face the heat of the Nationals or Mets pitching staffs (11 of their first 29 games) and Philly fans mercilessly start booing him, until he overcompensates and sprains something…thereby missing significant time this season.

    Pop Quiz:
    Which of the Mets starting 5 pitchers has had the best results against Harper? (try not to cheat)

  • Metsense

    I was really impressed with ARod’s analysis during the postseason.

    • TexasGusCC

      Me too Metsense. I think he’s great, and always thought he was a very smart guy.

      Tony Gwynn, RIP, would have been excellent also.

  • TexasGusCC

    While I do hate the suave Joe Buck – more in baseball than in football – listening to Braves announcers is equivalent to eating cold fried chicken. It’s possible, but it sucks. The Yankees are not terrible, but the Red Sox, Cubs, Nationals and White Sox all suck.

    Conversely, some good ones are the Phillies guys, Gary Thorne in Baltimore, Dave Sims in Seattle, Tom Brenamann in Cincinnati, Tom Grieve with the Rangers, and Mark Grace with the D-Backs are all an enjoyable listen. Also enjoyed Josh Lewin’s “take no prisoners” approach, and the Astros radio guys are pretty good too.

    • TexasGusCC

      I meant to say “brutally honest” with regard to Lewin…

    • Brian Joura

      Cold fried chicken >>>>> Braves announcers.

      It’s a toss up if I’d rather listen to Joe Simpson or eat canned peas straight out of the can.

      We need to find a way to combine Chip Caray and Josh Lewin. Chip has the golden voice but no baseball sense while Lewin has a voice for newspapers but really knows his stuff. I think it’s a good move for Lewin to get away from Howie Rose. I thought he was too deferential to Howie and he certainly didn’t need to adopt any of Howie’s bad habits.

      • eraff

        I love cold fried chicken!

    • Chris F

      Living in the South, my Braves games are blacked out from mlbtv so I have to watch on TV, which I do on mute. Caray and Simpson are complete imbeciles and homers to the nth degree. Listening to them is way worse than cold fried chicken, which to be certain is gross, but still carries nutritional value. Listening to the braves TV team is like being forced to swallow broken glass. Its painful every moment and you will be sure to get absolutely nothing out of it.

      • Metsense

        + 1, me too Chris. I think Nimmo was listening to a Braves game the other night when he was eating dinner.

        • TexasGusCC

          LOL

  • eraff

    Chris…Lebron and the Warriors play past my bed time…Trout and Machado as Well…. I need some greatness in my own time zone, and the NL East is shaping up as a great spot to see fantastic baseball for a very long time.

    As for the Broadcaster comments…… it’d be tough to be a Yank Fan, Shelf full of trophies and all, to listen to that Radio Disaster they have going with Sue W and John S.

    I do wish the Met Radio booth could support a Player/Tech Analyst, or even a Stat Guy to add some depth. The economics of it are tough…anyone who does it well can get TV Pay

    • Brian Joura

      I still cringe from the segment where they had Kevin Burkhardt try to teach advanced metrics.

      My opinion is that the best way to handle advanced metrics on a broadcast is to ignore them completely. SNY doesn’t need to hire a guy for that role – they need to tell Gary to stop mentioning them because once he quits, Keith will follow suit. Strangely, I feel like Keith will come around eventually but I have little hope for Gary.

      Cohen’s strength is his history with the team dating back to when he was a kid. We need more of that perspective and less of the “get off my lawn” approach that seems to be coming out more and more here lately.

      • David Klein

        Gary’s been more open to analytics the last few years and even mentions articles and stats from Fangraphs.

  • MattyMets

    Mets just signed Carlos Gomez to a minor league deal. He’s our boomerang.

  • José

    Someone named Mike Walczak posted something last July which caused me to LOL (Egads! Did I just employ that painfully lame acronym?)

    “This organization reminds me as a kid of looking at that one brussel sprout on my plate. Tortured by just looking at it and the awful experience of having to chew it up and swallow it.”

  • TexasGusCC

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