Rating MLB play-by-play and color analysts: The AL Central

In AL Central television booths, the true stars are the MLB color analysts.  As a group, they possess two plaques in Cooperstown, an MVP, a World Series MVP, a Cy Young, and a Manager of the Year.

Then of course there’s Rex Hudler, whose credentials include…well, nobody’s really sure what Hudler’s credentials are. But he’s entertaining.

Rating the MLB broadcasters – the AL Central

Play-by-play and color analysts are important because the vast majority of baseball fans enjoy the sport through the eyes and lips of their favorite team’s announcing crew. Although this is particularly true in a Covid-driven era of limited in-stadium attendance, it’s really been substantially so since widespread access to televised games became available anywhere and any time through various media.

But that, in turn, means that a lot of the buzz we draw from a game hinges on the skill, passion, knowledge, and oratorical talents of each team’s MLB telecasters. As in any field, some are better than others.

In the series that enters its third installment here, each team’s primary TV crew is rated based on six criteria that are important to fan enjoyment of a game. The criteria are:

1.       Experience: How deep and constant is the attachment between the announcing crew and the team?

2.       Likeability: Does the announcing crew genuinely come across as people a fan might enjoy spending an afternoon or evening with?

3.       Knowledge: This criterion does not require description.

4.       Humor: Does the announcing crew make an appropriate effort to entertain without being clownish?

5.       Rapport: Do members of the announcing crew seem to get along easily with one another?

6.       Oratory: Do members of the announcing crew evince a comfort level with proper techniques of English language delivery?

Focusing only on TV announcing crews – they’re the ones most readily available on more than a regional basis – the evaluation considers the main play-by-play announcer plus the principal color commentators or, if you prefer, expert analysts.

This analysis specifically does not consider pre-game or post-game personalities, or in-stadium interviewers.

We’re going to approach the task in six parts, one installment for each division. You can find the first two installments, dealing with the AL and NL East, here.

Today’s subject is the AL Central. Announcing teams can receive a max score of five points in each category: with six categories that make 30 points a perfect score.

Chicago White Sox: Jason Benetti, play-by-play; Steve Stone, color

There might be one or two more technically savvy color analysts; Cincinnati’s Chris Welsh comes to mind. Wit being largely a matter of taste, it’s theoretically possible that somebody scores higher than Stone in that category.

But you would be hard-pressed to find anybody who combines all the desirable attributes of an MLB color guy as neatly as does Stone.

He’s been schooled by the best, spending the bulk of his 30-some season career alongside first Harry Caray and then Hawk Harrelson.

For a guy to be tied for that long to those two legends while maintaining his identity and reputation, he must be mighty good. Stone is.

His strengths as an analyst have always been evident: the ability to convey the sometimes subtle in-game strategies in a way that is easy to understand, and to do so with the right touch of wit. He is, in a word, glib.

Benetti is in only his second season as the team’s play-by-play voice. That’s normally not enough time for an announcer to cultivate the audience affinity needed to become his team’s identity. Indeed, Benetti may not have accomplished that yet. But he comes across as at ease with the process.

More to the point, he fits as the perfect complement to Stone, possessing all his partner’s assets of intelligence, oratory, and wit and lacking only the Cy Young Award. They are as close as you get in announcing to a matched set.

Experience: 3

Likeability: 4

Knowledge: 5

Humor: 5

Rapport: 5

Oratory: 5

Total: 27

Cleveland Indians: Matt Underwood, play-by-play; Rick Manning, color

The Indians’ team of Matt Underwood and Rick Manning is solid, professional, and experienced. Its shortcoming is the absence of an easy sense of excitement that would give casual viewers as well as hardcore fans a reason to tune in and stay tuned in.

They are a veteran and seamless pair, having worked together since 2008. Both of course go back farther than that. Underwood has worked in various capacities with the Indians for more than two decades, and Manning is in his 31st season in the color chair following 13 seasons as an MLB outfielder, most of those in Cleveland.

The Indians duo is the epitome of professionalism, sometimes almost to a fault. Their mutual tenure underscores the rapport they have built with one another and also with their viewing audience.

What is missing is any sense of awareness that they are concurrently providing both a report and entertainment. They would rank higher if they more frequently conveyed the sense that they were having a hell of a good time.

Listening to Manning, one gets the feeling that he has that quality in him, and one wishes it would show through more steadily.

Experience: 5

Likeability: 4

Knowledge: 4

Humor: 4

Rapport: 5

Oratory: 4

Total: 25

Minnesota Twins: Dick Bremer, play-by-play; Bert Blyleven, color

Bremer and Blyleven are both legends in the Northland.

Bremer came to the Twins booth to stay in 1987, just in time to talk the team to its first World Series win. A native of the area, his manner is straightforward, reportorial, and insightful. On any Twins-related subject, the chance that Bremer knows precisely what’s going on and why approaches 100 percent.

In fact, that straightforward reportorial manner – reminiscent of another Northland telecasting legend, Ray Scott – may work to the disadvantage of Bremer’s reputation because it is so easy to take him for granted.

Blyleven’s color style emphasizes personality and relationship with MLB fans. A quarter century into his color commentator stint, he probably remains best known for a schtick he rarely performs today: ‘Circle Me, Bert.’

In fact, Blyleven, who is 70, appears to be cutting back on his TV role, some of which is being taken over by Jack Morris, and occasionally by Justin Morneau. The Twins last September announced that Blyleven would be leaving the booth, but to date that has only happened periodically.

Nonetheless, the fluid status of Minnesota’s color position raises questions about the booth’s team chemistry.

Experience: 4

Likeability: 4

Knowledge: 4

Humor: 4

Rapport: 4

Oratory: 4

Total: 24

Kansas City Royals: Ryan Lefebvre, play-by-play; Rex Hudler, color

Lefebvre, son of former MLB player Dick Lefebvre, is a solid play-by-play announcer who could, if needed, function smoothly as a one-man team. Although his on-field career peaked when he was named All-Big Ten at the University of Minnesota, he displays a consistent depth of knowledge of the game’s technicalities likely gleaned both from his own college experience and from watching his dad, who was a superb coach as well as a player.

Too bad Lefebvre is forced to share a booth with Hudler, whose main color analyst credential is that he is sort of a goofball. It’s all about the ratings, baby.

Presumably, that’s OK with Royals fans, who can get the cogent explanations from Lefebvre. From Hudler, they get whatever entertainment derives from listening to a guy get paid to stumble through a succession of loosely organized thoughts expressed in a way that he probably, but not necessarily, understands himself.

Stylistically, Hudler shares a flaw many athletes who try to make the transition to behind a microphone run afoul of: their mouth gets ahead of their brain, creating a message mish-mash.

It’s humorous…if you like demolition derbies. And Hudler gets high marks on the likeability scale. But the telecast is not informative unless Lefebvre himself makes it so.

Experience: 3

Likeability: 5

Knowledge: 3

Humor: 5

Rapport: 4

Oratory: 3

Total: 23