Red Pinstripes: MLB has an ESPN problem
Or maybe it's just an A-Rod problem. Plus: Athletics on the move? More COVID and Jarred Kelenic
Good morning,
Welcome to the MLB edition of Red Pinstripes. In today’s newsletter, I look at why the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast is so bad and what its problems mean for baseball overall.
I also get into the news that the Athletics might look into relocation, the Yankees’ COVID-19 situation, and more stories from around baseball.
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Sunday Night Baseball is a problem for MLB
ESPN published a big piece Monday about “The State of Baseball.” In it, multiple ESPN writers described issues that MLB needs to address to improve the game. They’re mostly good suggestions, but one huge issue was conveniently ignored: how baseball games are broadcast nationally. And there’s no bigger detriment to the game right now than ESPN’s own Sunday Night Baseball.
Broadcasting baseball nationally is hard. Fans are used to hearing from the same voices every night and the sudden exclusivity of Sunday Night Baseball can be jarring. As SNB play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian said when he became the Angels’ primary play-by-play commentator earlier this year, fans typically know more about the ins and outs of their team than a national broadcaster ever could.
“I kind of missed getting my skin in the game with a team,” Vasgersian told reporters in March. “There's a fine line between a national presentation of a product, when you're doing a game for a fan base that knows more about their teams than you do, and doing a game as a team broadcaster where you are much more intimately informed as to what happened last night, and the night before and the personalities behind the game. I kind of missed that and kind of missed being involved with a team and rooting a little bit. The hope is that you appeal to the fan base as a friendly voice."
The problems with SNB go beyond a simple knowledge deficit. That deficit can be frustrating, but it’s understandable. How Sunday Night Baseball really hurts baseball is a commitment to being wrong, a failure to follow the game on the field, and, more than anything else, Alex Rodriguez.
Rodriguez first gained praise as a broadcaster for his work in the FOX studio during the postseason. His scripted segments breaking down players were well regarded and that regard earned him the Sunday Night Baseball analyst job, first alongside Jessica Mendoza, then by himself.
But Rodriguez is a bad ad-libber. It seems impossible for him to come up with talking points while watching a game and he falls back on scripted segments or cliches that don’t apply to the game anymore. For some reason, one of the most prodigious power hitters of all time is a strenuous advocate of the sacrifice bunt and hitting the other way to beat the shift.
Rodriguez, as I mentioned, also has a massive disconnect between what he wants to say and what’s happening on the field. In one example during last week’s Phillies-Mets game, the Mets were putting runners on base and threatening to tie the game and take the lead, which they eventually did. Instead of keying viewers into a crucial situation -- What’s the pitcher focused on? What’s the strategy for the hitter? What are managers thinking? What’s the count? -- A-Rod was recounting for viewers his pregame batting practice routine.
ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball problems go beyond Rodriguez. Whether it’s because of his deficiencies or their own misguided production goals, too often Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts -- and most ESPN broadcasts in general -- play out like extended editions of Baseball Tonight. It could be an exciting game between divisional rivals, but there are talking points that have to be met, including news from around the league, a check-in on every division’s standings, and Buster Olney’s latest diatribe on how the players union isn’t giving the owners everything they want.
There’s nothing wrong with a national broadcast taking time to check in on the state of the league. It’s good for growing the game. But that broadcast has to have a sense of when the right time to do that is. Too often, these ESPN broadcasts are so committed to these bits that they overlook the action happening on the field.
Die-hard fans, casual viewers, statheads, and everyone in between notices this odd production. It’s jarring. Sometimes you start checking the wires on your TV to make sure you haven’t accidentally changed the audio feed. Other bizarre decisions include in-game interviews of players and managers and strange camera cuts away from the field.
MLB’s broadcast issues go beyond ESPN. Alongside Rodriguez, John Smoltz is one of the two most influential broadcasters in baseball. He calls big games for MLB Network and, of course, the postseason and World Series for FOX. Both of them actively hurt baseball through what they say. Smoltz relishes his role as a curmudgeon in the booth. Nothing the players do today is good enough for him and he’s constantly complaining that hitters aren’t that good anymore, pitchers aren’t that good anymore, and the players are having too much fun. Now, aren’t you excited to watch this game that he seems to hate!
It doesn’t have to be this way. MLB should want its broadcast partners to have people in the booth who seem to actually like baseball. People like Eduardo Perez, Rex Hudler, Mark DeRosa, and Carlos Peña are all ex-players who seem to love talking about the game. And you can get beyond the realm of ex-players too. There are plenty of writers and personalities qualified to talk about baseball and share their enthusiasm for the game.
ESPN doesn’t have to look far to see what its Sunday night broadcasts could look like. It occasionally produces Statcast broadcasts to air on ESPN2 during the traditional SNB broadcast. These broadcasts are much more successful, and it’s not because they focus on stats. I love baseball numbers, but they’re not necessary for a successful broadcast.
Instead, these Statcast shows have a great play-by-play man in Jason Benetti and enthusiastic and knowledgeable analysts in Eduardo Perez and Mike Petriello. They bring planned topics to the games, but they never let those topics get overshadowed by the action on the field. Instead, they often use what they’re doing to enhance what the viewer is seeing. It shouldn’t take much for a more traditional broadcast to do the same thing.
MLB should have a vested interest in making sure that its broadcasts enhance the sport. They should make people excited to watch baseball. And many national broadcasts fail to meet that bar because their mission is confused and their personnel are more concerned with gripes than excitement, as Smoltz and Rodriguez are.
ESPN and Sunday Night Baseball could play a crucial role in growing the game of baseball. But that has to start with getting people to like and pay attention to the actual product on the field.
Will the Oakland exodus continue?
Major League Baseball threatened Oakland Tuesday that it could become the latest sport to leave the city over a fight about stadium funding.
Oakland Athletics to start looking at relocating elsewhere (ESPN)
The statement by MLB that instructs the A’s to begin looking at other cities seems to be just as much about forcing Oakland to act more quickly as it is about the Athletics looking elsewhere. The Athletic reports that Manfred’s pressure was viewed by the team as a “silver bullet” to press the city to complete a deal. The Athletics losing Oakland would be a final blow to a city that lost the NBA’s Warriors to San Francisco and the NFL’s Raiders to Las Vegas.
Here’s the problem: baseball wants too much from cities and is willing to extort them to expand its real estate portfolio. The dream stadium scenario for MLB these days looks like Atlanta: a stadium surrounded by team-owned developments that include hotels and restaurants so that every element of a trip to the ballpark means more money in the team’s coffers.
The Oakland waterfront stadium proposal includes housing and retail, things that wouldn’t have been considered as part of a stadium proposal a decade ago.
Today, it’s not enough that the league has acquired billions of dollars in assistance from cities and states that can hardly afford it. Now the league has become a boutique real estate company with a baseball business on the side. Cobb County’s Battery, part of the Braves suburban stadium complex, has become the gold standard and MLB expects all teams looking for new stadiums to follow suit.
There are understandable issues involved with getting a new stadium in Oakland. The city and its people are more resistant than most to spending precious public funds on a stadium. And even though the stadium in Oakland would be privately financed by the team, it would still require more than $1 billion in infrastructure investments and other costs by the city. Oakland also has its share of litigious environmental groups and their efforts can delay the process of building a stadium.
By the way, is right now really the right time for MLB to press the issue? We’re just starting to dig out of the COVID-19 pandemic, as baseball knows. Oakland has had a lot of things to focus on over the past year, and finding a comfy home for a billionaire owner probably wasn’t at the top of the list.
Baseball teams are also a public trust. And so far, the Athletics and Major League Baseball have shown little willingness to treat teams as anything but a financial asset that can be moved around whenever cities show the slightest resistance to their profiteering goals.
COVID still present in baseball
Two major league teams face COVID situations this week: the San Diego Padres and the New York Yankees. The Padres face a potential outbreak similar to what we’ve seen in other teams this season. Star Fernando Tatís Jr. tested positive and is out while other Padres have been removed for contact tracing.
The Yankees situation is more interesting because of its broader public health implications. Third base coach Phil Nevin and another Yankees coach have tested positive. The catch: both have been fully vaccinated. The Yankees are one of several teams that have reached the 85% threshold that allowed them to relax their COVID protocols.
Vaccines are effective because they limit the viral load. That means that the virus is less communicable and less effective. People who have been vaccinated can still contract the disease, but it’s significantly less likely that they become seriously ill and it appears to be less likely that they can actually retransmit the virus themselves. Nevin is reportedly asymptomatic.
News from around the league
'This is just where I belong': Inside Drew Robinson's return to the field (ESPN)
Over the winter, Jeff Passan shared the story of Giants’ prospect Drew Robinson, who shot himself in the eye during a suicide attempt, lived and is now back with the organization. Here’s the follow-up, including Robinson’s first home run of the season.
Jarred Kelenic is coming up
Kelenic, in case you forgot, is the prospect that now ex-Mariners president Kevin Mather said the team would manipulate his service time to add an extra year of team control. Well, later that spring, the Mariners did keep Kelenic off of the major league roster, saying he needed some time in the minors. Five games were enough, I guess.
Kelenic is one of the top-5 prospects in all of baseball and is a true five-tool player. He should be really good right away. And he’s probably going to be playing with an edge because he’s angry about the whole service time manipulation thing.
Kelenic was also acquired by the Mariners in the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade that looked disastrous at the time and just gets worse and worse.
Right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, two-time All-Star, retires after 13 major league seasons (ESPN)
Zimmermann was a really good starter for the Nationals. Sometimes you wondered how he was that good, but he got the job done. Then he and Max Scherzer were free agents at the same time and switched teams. Zimmermann ran into injuries and failed to live up to the expectations of his big contract with the Tigers. Scherzer continued his evolution into one of the best pitchers in baseball and won a championship.
Should we still care about no-hitters? (ESPN)
The run on no-hitters has a lot of people wondering whether the feat has lost some of its shine.
Baseball and books: Nationals' Josh Bell has two loves (The Undefeated)
Here’s a great story on Josh Bell and his love of books. I was curious, watching the Phillies on MASN this week, what the Josh Bell Book Club was all about. This is the answer.
Giancarlo Stanton off to great start for Yankees (MLB.com)
The great Sarah Langs goes on a deep dive into Giancarlo Stanton’s big start for the Yankees. Turns out, if you’re a guy who can absolutely murder the ball every time you make contact, you’ll do some good things.
How MLB’s Biggest Offseason Moves Are Looking So Far in 2021 (The Ringer)
Who’s winning the offseason so far, and why shouldn’t the Mets be panicking? (Other than their current 7-game winning streak.)