Twenty-three years after he last played for the team, the Philadelphia Phillies have hired John Kruk to be on their broadcast team.
After 10 seasons as a major league player and 13 more as a baseball analyst with ESPN, John Kruk will join the Philadelphia Phillies’ television crew on CSNPhilly for the 2017 season. During his time with ESPN, Kruk was part of the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast and regularly on Baseball Tonight. In 2016, he was mainly used as a studio analyst. He was also part of ESPN’s Little League World Series coverage. Kruk and ESPN parted ways amicably at the end of last season.
The Philadelphia television broadcast team did not rate well last season among FanGraphs readers. There were 32 crews ranked because the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox had distinct crews for their home and away games. The Phillies ranked 31st of the 32 broadcast teams. The one team they beat was the Chicago White Sox away pair of Hawk Harrelson and Steve Stone, so that is not exactly a sparkling accomplishment. As one reader wrote about Harrelson: “Hawk’s general interest in baseball waxes and wanes significantly at the game-to-game level, and whatever folksy charms he had have long since ossified into pull-string cliché.”
The Phillies crew that finished second-to-last featured Tom McCarthy and Ben Davis or Matt Stairs. One reader said of McCarthy: “McCarthy routinely sounds more excited hawking WB Mason products than when the Phillies do something. Of course, the last couple of seasons, the Phillies are roughly as exciting as office supplies.” Another reader enjoyed Mike Schmidt on weekends.
Kruk is replacing Matt Stairs, who is now the Phillies hitting coach. McCarthy will again be the play-by-play man and Ben Davis and Mike Schmidt return as color commentators. Gregg Murphy is the sideline reporter. Kruk’s first broadcast will be on Saturday, February 25. In a statement, he said, “I am looking forward to working with Tom, Mike, Ben, and Gregg. Although I have played with three organizations, the Phillies are family. I am excited to get started with this new chapter in my life.”
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In a baseball world in which teams are increasingly using advanced statistical analysis, John Kruk is decidedly old school. He’s the guy sitting in the bar making comments about the game who has no use for WAR or FIP or UZR. He has a good sense of humor, but you won’t be hearing about Statcast, exit velocity, or launch angle from him.
As a player, Kruk was part of the “No Fear” Phillies crew that lost the 1993 World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays. They were a motley collection of ballplayers. With their early-90s mullets, scraggly facial hair and dirt-stained uniforms, they looked more like a biker gang than a professional baseball team.
That colorful Phillies team included Lenny Dykstra, Darren Daulton, Pete Incaviglia, Curt Schilling, and Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams. Their offense led the league in runs scored, on-base percentage and was second in slugging percentage. They were such a big story on their run to the World Series that Saturday Night Live spoofed the team, with Chris Farley naturally playing John Kruk. They had similar physiques. David Letterman took an interest in Kruk and invited him on the show. Kruk arrived looking like a semi-truck driver.
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The Phillies finished 71-91 last season and aren’t projected to be much better this year. They have made some good moves to improve their minor league system, though. In fact, their farm system was ranked #1 in baseball by Call to the Pen’s Benjamin Chase. Hopefully, John Kruk can make the broadcast more interesting in what is likely to be a tough year in the win-loss column.