HR and Verducci are out at FOX, Smoltz is in.

Snodgrass'Muff

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My favorite from last night was when he argued that Roberts should have "gotten an OBP" on the error because "He is on base!" and his "speed caused the error."

I envision pregame meetings that start 15 minutes before Reynolds is told to be there where the production team takes bets on what asinine directions they think Harold will take the scripted discussion. Sort of like the gambling from Cabin In The Woods, only with less irony.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Buck Showalter said:
Well to all the Harold-haters that also complained about McCarver......

Now you know why some of us appreciated Tim.
 
It's really a lesser of two evils thing comparing McCarver to Reynolds.  They both suck.  But McCarver's suck was, in retrospect, almost tolerable compared to Reynolds.
 
And as I believe has already been alluded to upthread, McCarver was once fairly decent as an analyst.  He got worse as he got older.  But once in a while, he could still hump up and hum a 94 mph fastball that was reminiscent of his prime.  Reynolds offers no hope of even that.  He's always been terrible and likely always will be.
 

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The Williams OBP  projections were painful to listen to and beyond inane. One had to wonder if Reynolds had any idea about Williams and his insights into the science of hitting.
 

EricFeczko

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Snodgrass'Muff said:
My favorite from last night was when he argued that Roberts should have "gotten an OBP" on the error because "He is on base!" and his "speed caused the error."

I envision pregame meetings that start 15 minutes before Reynolds is told to be there where the production team takes bets on what asinine directions they think Harold will take the scripted discussion. Sort of like the gambling from Cabin In The Woods, only with less irony.
How is there less irony? Reynolds talks to the production team 15 minutes later, which is equivalent to the horror movie clichés feasting on the gambling corporate lackeys in the movie.

EDIT: Otherwise, completely agree. Additionally, I believe the production team drinks heavily during the show in order to maintain their sanity via a drinking game, where every time Reynolds says something stupid they drink.
 
 

Snodgrass'Muff

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
 
It's really a lesser of two evils thing comparing McCarver to Reynolds.  They both suck.  But McCarver's suck was, in retrospect, almost tolerable compared to Reynolds.
 
And as I believe has already been alluded to upthread, McCarver was once fairly decent as an analyst.  He got worse as he got older.  But once in a while, he could still hump up and hum a 94 mph fastball that was reminiscent of his prime.  Reynolds offers no hope of even that.  He's always been terrible and likely always will be.
 
Even at his worst, McCarver was like your senile old grandfather who you could just tune out and let drone on out on the porch.  Reynolds is abrasive and argumentative and the pitch of his voice is more difficult to ignore.  There were probably only a handful of human beings on the planet who had a chance at getting this job.  Only one of them was worse than McCarver, so of course, that's the one Fox chose.
 
EricFeczko said:
How is there less irony? Reynolds talks to the production team 15 minutes later, which is equivalent to the horror movie clichés feasting on the gambling corporate lackeys in the movie.
EDIT: Otherwise, completely agree. Additionally, I believe the production team drinks heavily during the show in order to maintain their sanity via a drinking game, where every time Reynolds says something stupid they drink.
 
 
I don't mean to derail this thread into a breakdown of the film, but the irony of that scene was in the group of people appeasing the old gods by sacrificing teenagers engaging in "perverse" behavior doing something actually perverse in betting on the outcomes of the ritual.  As out of touch as Fox can be in their sports coverage, there aren't a room full of people as idiotic as Reynolds laughing about how stupid Reynolds is and then going out and saying things just as stupid.
 

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I actually like Reynolds' voice. That is literally the only positive thing I can think to say about him.
 

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
 
It's really a lesser of two evils thing comparing McCarver to Reynolds.  They both suck.  But McCarver's suck was, in retrospect, almost tolerable compared to Reynolds.
 
And as I believe has already been alluded to upthread, McCarver was once fairly decent as an analyst.  He got worse as he got older.  But once in a while, he could still hump up and hum a 94 mph fastball that was reminiscent of his prime.  Reynolds offers no hope of even that.  He's always been terrible and likely always will be.
 
Just like he was on the field.
 

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Tim was iconic in a way I guess because he did it for so long, so I could almost understand why executives kept him in the booth despite how much he sucked. With Reynolds, I honestly can't imagine how Fox or MLBN execs listen to him and think, now there's a guy we want on our high-profile broadcasts.
 

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glennhoffmania said:
Tim was iconic in a way I guess because he did it for so long, so I could almost understand why executives kept him in the booth despite how much he sucked. With Reynolds, I honestly can't imagine how Fox or MLBN execs listen to him and think, now there's a guy we want on our high-profile broadcasts.
Is it hopelessly cynical to think it's a ploy to attract more blacks to the broadcast? Or to appear "liberal?" I know I'm reaching here, but only some devious explanation seems to make sense.
 

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Verducci is good, though. If we can just have Reynolds killed, the national announcing team would be good for the first time in decades (back when McCarver used to be good, long long long time ago). 
 

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InsideTheParker said:
Is it hopelessly cynical to think it's a ploy to attract more blacks to the broadcast? Or to appear "liberal?" I know I'm reaching here, but only some devious explanation seems to make sense.
 
I don't think that has anything to do with it, John Kruk is almost as bad. 
 

Al Zarilla

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Christ, Ted only drove in as many as 159 runs in a 154 game season when he was young and playing most every game and had a good offense around him.  What kind of shit head (who betrayed no particular knowledge of hitting in the course of his own career) would have the fucking nerve to criticize the philosophy of hitting of Ted Williams?  I'm not saying that no one can ever criticize Ted.  But bring something to the table not just a caricature of what you think Ted was doing.  When he was a part of big offenses, he had huge rbi totals.  He had guys like Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Vern Stephens and Jackie Jensen batting behind him.  He wasn't batting 8th and leaving it up to the pitcher. 
 
The other thing is that dopes like Harold Reynolds probably want you to believe that every time Ted walked with men on base he was watching a pitch just an inch out of the strike zone that he could have swung at and mashed.  But perfect pitcher's pitches like that are pretty rare.  More likely, Vic Raschi threw a slider in the dirt or Billy Pierce bounced a curve off the plate or Herb Score threw a fastball neck high.  And a fair number of any pitches juuuust off the plate that Ted saw would've been thrown further off the plate if pitchers thought that Ted would swing at them.  There were two parties making choices there.  Yes, pitchers do not have perfect control but come on.  The Harold Reynolds thesis ignores the fact that pitchers likely knew they could try to dot the outside corner and hope for a call from the ump and if they just missed Ted wasn't going for it.  Ted's walking wasn't entirely Ted's choice.  A lot of those times the pitchers semi intentionally walked him to face Cronin or Doerr or Stephens or Jensen instead.  If Ted had started going for some pitches juuuust off the plate, pitchers would have recognized that and their target would have gone from an inch off the black to four inches off.  Would Harold still want him to expand the zone? 
Nice post. I remember back then Ted getting some criticism for not swinging at pitches just off the plate with runners on, say 2nd and 3rd, taking a walk instead of trying to drive in a run or two in a close game. With VLD (very low def.) TV and just one camera high above and behind the plate (or on radio) you couldn't tell much of anything for pitch location, so you had to rely on reporters. Most of the Boston reporters had it in for Ted from his sophomore season on, so who to believe? Ted said he was afraid he may in part ruin his swing by going after balls off the plate.  I actually let writers like Dave Egan sway my opinion and decided my favorite Sox player for a while was Jackie Jensen, undoubtedly in 1958, 1959. What I mostly came here to say though is that it is just as well I didn't see any of the Fox telecast. Reynolds talking about Williams could possibly drive me back to drinking. 
 

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Towards the end of the game they were discussing Tanaka's transition to the USA involving becoming used to pitching on less rest, experiencing more travel, etc. Harold chimed in with "Yeah, Japan is a lot smaller, he didn't have to travel all over the country there"
 

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InsideTheParker said:
Is it hopelessly cynical to think it's a ploy to attract more blacks to the broadcast? Or to appear "liberal?" I know I'm reaching here, but only some devious explanation seems to make sense.
 
Reynolds, oddly enough, was actually pretty popular among average baseball fans as an analyst for ESPN and later MLB Network.  The backlash against him that we're seeing now didn't really pick up steam until he got the job with Fox.
 
I don't think he's long for the world of color commentating, but there probably isn't much more too it than he was a fairly well known household name who fit the "former player with broadcast experience" mold they were looking for and was already familiar to the average fan.
 

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When Reynolds started as an analyst he was fun, as in he brought in a heavy dose of "remember this is a fun game?" which I think speaks to his popularity that Snodder alludes to. I remember a bit about explaining sliding through the second baseman and without warning the guy, during the demonstration he basically really did it.
 
I see it kinda like a practical joker, though. Practical jokes are fun and instructive, but the guy who's the practical joker 24/7 gets old.
 

the1andonly3003

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Reverend said:
When Reynolds started as an analyst he was fun, as in he brought in a heavy dose of "remember this is a fun game?" which I think speaks to his popularity that Snodder alludes to. I remember a bit about explaining sliding through the second baseman and without warning the guy, during the demonstration he basically really did it.
 
I see it kinda like a practical joker, though. Practical jokes are fun and instructive, but the guy who's the practical joker 24/7 gets old.
Reynolds and Lyons in the booth would make it pretty old school..they can illustrate batting stance and catchers protecting the plate...
 

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He is so-so on the MLB network when they just do break downs on fundamentals, such as defensive positioning and *gasp* bunting or odd plays.  He is just embarrassing as a real time analyst.  He asks inane questions, gets his facts wrong, and rarely changes his mind when he's already made it up,  I think adding Veducci was sort of hedging against his awfulness. 
 

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but Fox has the Orioles/Red Sox game next Saturday at 7:00PM; if that is the case, I'll use some leftover fireworks from the 4th and blow myself up right before game time.  I cannot listen to this guy two weeks in a row.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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54thMA said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Fox has the Orioles/Red Sox game next Saturday at 7:00PM; if that is the case, I'll use some leftover fireworks from the 4th and blow myself up right before game time.  I cannot listen to this guy two weeks in a row.
 
There's a chance it won't be Reynolds.  Reynolds hasn't consistently been in the booth with Buck and Verducci, but it might also be a completely different broadcast team next week (Orioles-Sox isn't necessarily the A-game in the mix).
 

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
 
There's a chance it won't be Reynolds.  Reynolds hasn't consistently been in the booth with Buck and Verducci, but it might also be a completely different broadcast team next week (Orioles-Sox isn't necessarily the A-game in the mix).
I'm pretty sure I heard Buck say that "we'll" be in Boston next week on last night's broadcast.  So he'll be there with someone.
 

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Reverend said:
When Reynolds started as an analyst he was fun, as in he brought in a heavy dose of "remember this is a fun game?" which I think speaks to his popularity that Snodder alludes to. I remember a bit about explaining sliding through the second baseman and without warning the guy, during the demonstration he basically really did it.
 
I see it kinda like a practical joker, though. Practical jokes are fun and instructive, but the guy who's the practical joker 24/7 gets old.
 
Back in the day on Baseball Tonight, they'd put him on their fake field set-up in studio, and he's demonstrate stuff, like handling the bat during a bunt, or setting up to catch before you throw home, or the sliding bit rev mentions. Those are actually interesting things, but those aren't very useful during a game, except maybe as a pre-recorded set piece. But on Baseball Tonight, they could set something up spur of the moment to react to something that happened in that night's games, whereas in the booth, you can't really do that. 
 

54thMA

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
 
There's a chance it won't be Reynolds.  Reynolds hasn't consistently been in the booth with Buck and Verducci, but it might also be a completely different broadcast team next week (Orioles-Sox isn't necessarily the A-game in the mix).
 
 
From your lips to God's ears or else my ears will be bleeding
 
 

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glennhoffmania said:
I really think he may be the worst baseball announcer I've ever heard.  He is a very stupid man.  I didn't like McCarver or think he was any good at analyzing a game, but I never thought he was a complete moron in general and he didn't come across like someone who had minor brain damage.  Reynolds is barely coherent at times.
Do I have to remind everyone who his roommate was in the minors?
 
Interim GM for the Padres
 

JimBoSox9

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The answers to all your questions about Reynolds lie in watching his work on the days where MLB Network sets up their desk right on the field for a pregame. Whatever else he is as an analyst and a man, he's an extremely convivial, garrulous dude and it happens to make him objectively a genius when it comes to cracking all the camera-shy exteriors that come through his orbit (Millar is the only equal in their stable). My experience with athletes leads me to believe that if he can pull that king-of-the-room act with a bunch of jocks, he can definitely do it with a TV crew and even a TV exec meeting/interview.

Of course, now he is Peter Principle'd up to a slot that totally minimizes his only competitive advantage, and more people are realizing he's dumb as rocks.
 

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jon abbey said:
 
I don't think that has anything to do with it, John Kruk is almost as bad. 
 
Hey, Mookie Betts will always have Kruk's voice talking over his first major league hit.
 

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Wait, do people not like Kruk? Maybe he's a little homespun, and the crap about him loving to eat gets old, but I thought him and Shulman were pretty great together. 
 
Kruk seems to regularly call what's about to happen, and I think he's got interesting insights into how the players are thinking and experiencing the game. He's great at analyzing at-bats. 
 

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MyDaughterLovesTomGordon said:
Wait, do people not like Kruk? Maybe he's a little homespun, and the crap about him loving to eat gets old, but I thought him and Shulman were pretty great together. 
 
Kruk seems to regularly call what's about to happen, and I think he's got interesting insights into how the players are thinking and experiencing the game. He's great at analyzing at-bats. 
 
Kruk is harmless.  Overally pretty neutral, in my opinion.  Might say some dumb things from time to time but most do.  He doesn't really bring a sabermetric tilt to things but he doesn't seem to really be strongly opposed to it either.  He's just a guy who played ball telling you what he's seeing...bringing something to the table without really taking anything off.
 
Reynolds on the other hand has an agenda.  He'll ignore what he's seeing or what actually happened (or common sense) if it doesn't fit in with what he's pushing.  And sadly, what he's pushing is stupid.  Reynolds burns the food, knocks the table over, and then sexually assaults all the guests.  While being upbeat and cheery.
 

joe dokes

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Damning with faint priase, but I thought Kruk was a bit better in the booth than the desk, while Reynolds is hopeless in the booth, and was occasionally useful at the desk.  Kruk does seem to offer occasional insight into how the game of baseball is played, (AND in contrast to Reynolds, how THIS game is being played) and he at least seems to acknowledge that people occasionally disagree about the right way to skin the cat. All I can say is that I made it through 7 innings of TV last night, but only 4 on saturday.
 

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Hendu for Kutch said:
 
Kruk is harmless.  Overally pretty neutral, in my opinion.  Might say some dumb things from time to time but most do.  He doesn't really bring a sabermetric tilt to things but he doesn't seem to really be strongly opposed to it either.  He's just a guy who played ball telling you what he's seeing...bringing something to the table without really taking anything off.
 
Reynolds on the other hand has an agenda.  He'll ignore what he's seeing or what actually happened (or common sense) if it doesn't fit in with what he's pushing.  And sadly, what he's pushing is stupid.  Reynolds burns the food, knocks the table over, and then sexually assaults all the guests.  While being upbeat and cheery.
 
I also enjoy Kruk's self-deprecating humor, which couldn't be in starker contrast to Reynolds' ego-driven tirades.
 

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Turned on MLBN and Harold was talking going into break. I'm not using hyperbole to say I think he's drunk.

Slurring, talking super slow, drawing out words with weird inflections.
 

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canderson said:
Turned on MLBN and Harold was talking going into break. I'm not using hyperbole to say I think he's drunk.

Slurring, talking super slow, drawing out words with weird inflections.
Oh please, oh please, have him pull a Rick Sutcliffe and a repeat of what ESPN fired him for in '06. Hard to believe it was that long ago. 
 

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I only watched the first two innings. I'm glad I shut it off.

Hey, Fox, Tony Gwynn Died, You Know...

Heres the approximate rundown for who and what was mentioned during Tuesday nights Fox broadcast of the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game:

Derek Jeter: 100 times (and here they all are).

Gotham: 47 times.

Pepsi, now with real sugar (which, as I see it, is a frightening realization over what we were drinking before): 17 times.

The late Tony Gwynn: Zero.

Bravo, Fox.
 

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I mentioned this in the game thread.  After Jeter's spectacular diving play Reynolds talked about how Jeter wasn't even playing on the OF grass.  He was playing on the dirt.  So the play was even that much more incredible.  I mean seriously, this guy was a ML 2B and this is the shit he says while analyzing a ball hit to SS?
 

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I mentioned this in the game thread.  After Jeter's spectacular diving play Reynolds talked about how Jeter wasn't even playing on the OF grass.  He was playing on the dirt.  So the play was even that much more incredible.  I mean seriously, this guy was a ML 2B and this is the shit he says while analyzing a ball hit to SS?
 
I rewound it--Reynolds also said Jeter was playing in. Which is to say on the close-up replay, he saw Jeter near the grass and concluded it was the infield grass and said he was playing in to underscore Jeter's quick reaction, even though that would mean he was diving the opposite direction of the play he just saw live. Oh, and that he fielded the ball with his back to the infield.
 
It's the weirdest mistake I've ever seen a broadcaster make, and suggests he's just riffing off of the replay and has lost any real connection to the actual game being played. "He's on the dirt near grass--must be infield in!"
 

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The lack of a Tony Gwynn tribute seems to have taken off, but has any player had a tribute at the All Star game after passing away?  I agree with a point I heard.  It would be a good time for MLB to recognize those lost over the last year, but they never have.  Some reactions were pretty over the top considering it's something that's just never done. 
 

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Hendu for Kutch said:
I don't care about MLB not having an official in-game tribute, it was screwed up that Fox never even mentioned the guy once.
 
Did they mention Ted Williams during the telecast the year he died?  Or Mickey Mantle? 
 

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gammoseditor said:
 
Did they mention Ted Williams during the telecast the year he died?  Or Mickey Mantle? 
I'm sure they mentioned Williams because they changed the mvp trophy to name it after him after he'd died (then didn't award it that year because they tied)
 

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gammoseditor said:
 
Did they mention Ted Williams during the telecast the year he died?  Or Mickey Mantle? 
I'm surprised people don't remember the tribute to Ted. They painted his number on the left field grass and had the six Red Sox All-Stars go out and remove the tarp to expose it in a pre game ceremony. And, as has been mentioned, they renamed the MVP trophy after him that year.
 

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Harold Reynolds was unbearable during last night's All Star Game. Everything out of his mouth was absolute garbage and the worst of it is he would not shut up.
 
There was a cool moment last night when the entire AL bench, players and coaches, were huddled in complete awe of Aroldis Chapman and his fastball and instead of letting the moment breathe Harold suffocates it with his OMG U GUYZ LOOK AT THIS LOOK ARE U SEEING WHAT I AM SEEING OMGZ. 
 
How can FOX get it right with Verducci and absolutely fail with Reynolds?
 

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I was forced to watch him call a Sox game recently (forgot which one) in which he was a complete idiot.  The one that really irked me was when Xander dove back a bit on a pitch that was called a strike, and of course he said:  "Xander is one of the biggest divers in baseball'.
 

rembrat

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Detts said:
I was forced to watch him call a Sox game recently (forgot which one) in which he was a complete idiot.  The one that really irked me was when Xander dove back a bit on a pitch that was called a strike, and of course he said:  "Xander is one of the biggest divers in baseball'.
 
Such a huge diver that he's been hit by a pitch for the grand total of 1 times!
 
Even the shit he is suppose to get right, he get's wrong. McCarver for all his faults was a strong analyst who just got old in front of us. HR went straight from A to Z.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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Did anyone catch his jaw-dropping Jackie Robinson rookie age remark?
 
When he said that Jackie Robinson didn't make his major league debut until he was 28 because back then they held rookies back longer because they didn't understand the game as well as the kids today do.
 
I thought I must have heard it wrong because it was just so unbelievably stupid.  But nope, he did indeed say it:
 
http://nextimpulsesports.com/2015/07/14/harold-reynolds-jackie-robinson-all-star-game/