Tag: broadcasting

Will Jim Deshaies Be the Replacement for Bob Brenly?

If Rant Sports can generate blog hits by using incredibly over-the-top and sometimes completely misleading headlines for their posts, then so can I. I figured it was as good a headline as any for the following shallowly researched filler material.

We know Jim Deshaies, the current color commentator for the Houston Astros, got an interview as a potential replacement for Bob Brenly a few days ago. We also know that the other "front-runners" for the open seat next to Len Kasper seem to be a fairly mediocre bunch that includes, Rick Sutcliffe, Eric Karros, Todd Hollandsworth, and Gary Matthews. But what do we know of Jim Deshaies' abilities?

From what I've heard anecdotally from Astros fans and Alyson Footer, the former Senior Director of Social Media with the Astros (now a national correspondent with MLB), the Astros would be big losers if Deshaies jumps to the Cubs. So that is something since I hear almost nothing but sentiments of, "you can have him" about Gary Matthews from Phillies fans. But I wanted to put together a nice video resume for Deshaies that we could all look over and give our OV Stamp of Approval before Rant Sports declares him to be a snake oil salesman, carpetbagger, or some other term they think is just name-calling but has actual meaning.

Also, if we all vault him to the tops of our respective lists, we can all brace for the crushing blow that he'll end up staying with the Astros. In case you weren't aware of what he looks like, Deshaies is the bald guy:

 

 

Based on the very little video I can find of him, I like Deshaies quite a bit. He's extremely listenable and he seems to bring a lot more to his analysis than the typical, "DIS HERE GUY KNOWS HOW TO PLAY DA GAME RIGHT" that is unfortunately the go to cliche for far too many color commentators (including Brenly). He is my new favorite now that Doug Glanville is officially not a candidate anymore. I think Sutcliffe is #2, but its a pretty distant second.

So let me be the first to congratulate Jim Deshaies on his soon-to-be announced contract extension with the Astros.

Daily Facepalm 3.9.12 – Volstad Good, Soriano Good, Marmol Bad

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Rotation battle news

Chris Volstad followed up Jeff Samardzija's strong outing with three solid innings of his own yesterday. Volstad struck out three, walked none, and allowed one hit. Spring training stats don't mean much (especially just three innings for each guy), but as far as we can tell things are very up in the air for the last two rotation spots, and Sveum seems very impressed with Shark. Carrie Muskat pointed out in yesterday's mailbag that Randy Wells still has one option left. I still like Wells much more than the rest of the options. I think he was rushed back from his injury way too soon (and who wouldn't do it with Doug Davis and Ramon Ortiz getting starts?) and it took him quite a while to get his feet under him.

Kerry Wood followed him up with a scoreless inning, but not so much for Carlos Marmol in the fifth. Marmol recorded two strikeouts in between hitting a batter, giving up three line drives, and watching a Dustin Ackley home run. He was pulled before the end of the inning. Sveum mentioned after the game that Marmol was just focusing on locating his fastball yesterday, and would have spun much more sliders if it was a for-real game.

Soriano homered in his first at-bat, prompting cries of watchering from Hobbitton. As Josh pointed out, it would have been a 2-R homer if he hustled out of the box.

Single game tickets on sale today

Get them while they're lukewarm!

Season preview from Brewers fans perspective

Brewers blog Disciples of Uecker did a preview of the 2012 Cubs. They're not too worried about the Cubs this year, but having Thoyer come in is certainly making other NL central fans nervous for the long run,

Ted Lilly trade ephemera

Kyle Smit, who was part of the package the Cubs recieved for Ted Lilly and taking Dance Fever, was released yesterday. Smit showed a little promise in A-ball but struggled when moved up the ladder last year. Even if the stars had aligned for him it looked like he would have been a replacement level relief pitcher.

Tweet I recently enjoyed

Confidential to person who found OV with the search engine phrase "does Anthony Rizzo have what it takes to be a great major league pitcher"

No.

An actual baseball-related tangent in the comments yesterday on broadcasters and statistics

There was lots of discussion yesterday about how much (and what flavor of) statistics we like the broadcast team to include during a game, stemming from comments about Len Kasper. I don't really mind when Len brings up fangraphs. I know he mention BABIP at least once, but from what I remember most of the relatively rare mentions he makes about fangraphs are usually about the pfx data they have on their pitcher pages. I don't think it's that awkward, nor is he a particular evangelist. It's not like Len trotting out the HOF WAR arguments threads that have been beaten to death over the years, or even particularly advocating for fangraphs stats he mentioned. I'm fine with a program showing a slash line, or even just putting up as OPS as many outlets do. It's not *that* far off, value-wise, from wOBA, and it's much easier to grasp for the casual fan who doesn't care about non-integer weights. The actual calculation of, say, SLG looks ugly because of all the terms but they're all integers and it's easy to translate in your head (total bases per AB).

Is there Wrigley Talk Friday today?

Indeed. Will Carroll will be a special guest.

Is there a Cubs game today?

Ideed. They play the White Sox at 2 PM today. It's even televised……by Hawk and Former Playgirl Model Steve Stone. Len Kasper and the AA Tennessee Smokies announcer, who makes Keith Moreland look good by comparison, also have the call on gameday audio.

The Cubs posted today's lineup yesterday. Kevin Millar would approve.

DH Soriano

2B Barney

RF Baker

1B LaHair

CF Byrd

LF Mather

C Clevenger

SS Lake

3B Gonzalez

Travis Wood pitching

Is Bruce Weber the coach of the Illini?

No. At least Illinois fans are inured to late season collapses at this point.

Bunt tournament news

Five players remain. Casey Coleman, Paul Maholm, and Welington Castillo have already reached the Final Four, Either Starlin Castro or David DeJesus will join them. No word yet on whether the Cubs organization will investigate a possible point-shaving scheme involving Tony Campana.

 

Daily Facepalm 3.1.12 – Expanded playoffs edition

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Expanded playoffs have arrived

I thought this had already been decided, but the extra wild card has been approved. I'm kind of surprised that MLB would do this so close to the start of the season. Given the glacial pace at which MLB moved, I figured they had just decided that they were going to do it at some point, but whoa, whoa, let's not be all hasty here. As MB and I discussed yesterday, it doesn't really matter that much at this point if you add more teams. At 8 total teams the best team already has a very poor chance of winning everything, 2 more teams isn't going to make that much of a difference. And for the team that loses the wild-card play in game, I don't see how it's any more anticlimactic than say the 2008 Cubs postseason. 2 team playoff or GTFO, in my opinion.

Apparently most players are annoyed with the Braun situation too

A large majority of the players Buster Olney has spoken to are upset about the Braun decision. I agree with Calcaterra's take

Braun walking on this charge is no more of a threat to the drug testing system than a guy getting off on a burglary charge because the cops didn’t get a proper search warrant is a threat to the criminal justice system. You may hate the result, but the remedy is easy: get it right next time or change the rules to make what happened in that instance acceptable.  It is not something that puts the entire regime in peril.

Finally, I’ll observe that these complaints all seem a little self-righteous to me.  No one who ever wins on a procedural argument themselves ever seems to have a problem with it.  And I suspect that the 80-90% of the players Olney spoke with here were under the gun themselves, they would not hesitate to make the same arguments Braun did if they or their legal advisors thought to do so.

Exactly. Be annoyed with the system that allowed this, not with the player('s lawyer) that shows how toothless it is.

Fireworks factory errata

The PBTNL have yet to be decided, but Hoyer said that the Red Sox will get the better PBTNL in the exchange. I don't think either of these guys will end up being worth anything – I fully expect both of the players moved to be organizational filler types.

Tom Ricketts to speak at SABR Analytics conference next month

Mind ——————> Blown

Cubs broadcasters ranked sixth in Fangraphs poll

Number 1 on the list is pretty obvious. As was number 31. It's too bad they didn't put any of the national broadcast teams in the mix (e.g. Buck/McCarver, Brennaman/whoever his stooge is, Miller/Morgan retro choice). I'd probably put all three of those teams just ahead of Hawk and the former Playgirl model.

The Cubs have a team psychologist in camp

Per Muskat. Did the Cubs have one around in the Hendry years? My memory is terrible. For some reason I think having around one might have come in handy over the past few years…

A.J. Burnett injured in his first week with the Pirates

It hasn't been a great offseason for him. He's out indefinitely with a fractured orbital bone after bunting a ball into his own face. This should put a big dent in the Pirates' dreams of passing the Cubs for 4th place in the NL Central this season.

Happy birthday, Harry