Rating the TV booths: The AL West
Oakland Athletics: Glen Kuiper, play-by-play; Ray Fosse, Dallas Braden, color.
Kuiper took over MLB play-by-play duties in 2005 when long-time announcer Bill King died. Replacing a legend is never easy, and King was very much a legend in Oakland.
Yet Kuiper, with a smooth, informed delivery and easy-going manner, has endeared himself both to Bay Area fans and also – this is the big tribute – to mere casual fans who lack a rooting interest in the A’s themselves.
Fosse, a former catcher most famous for being run over by Pete Rose in the 1970 All Star Game, is the principal game analyst. He’s had that role for three decades now.
There is more than a bit of goofball in Braden, now in his third season as an analyst after wrapping up a pitching career that included a perfect game. But don’t be fooled by the long hair, scruffy beard and sometimes off-the-wall personality; Braden’s contributions demonstrate that he knows precisely what he’s doing.
That makes him the perfect complement to Fosse’s more straightforward approach, and also fits in superbly with Kuiper’s easy-going telecast manner.
In short, the Athletics’ booth hits all the points: It is clever, harmonious, articulate, breezy and superbly informed.
Experience: 5
Likeability: 5
Knowledge: 5
Humor: 5
Rapport: 5
Oratory: 5
Total: 30
Seattle Mariners: Dave Sims, play-by-play; Mike Blowers, color analyst
With good reason, Sims has won wide respect within the play-by-play industry. He is frequently called on for network-level assignments in MLB, basketball and football, and his media chops are sufficiently respected to have co-operated a media advisory group for college athletic programs.
He is also seen from time to time on MLB Network, where he slides easily into a variety of duties that do not need to be team-related. Need a temp host for the morning show? Dave Sims can smartly herd the cats that would befuddle many experienced announcers in such a fill-in scenario. In fact, he has done so.
Blowers enjoyed an 11-season major league career with the Yankees, Mariners, Dodgers and A’s before retiring in 1999 and launching his media career. He has been the principal color analyst in Seattle since 2007.
In those duties, Blowers is competent, lacking only the joint flare or humor of Fosse and Braden, and perhaps the same level of exceptional chemistry with Sims that Fosse and Braden share with Kuiper. Again, this is no knock on Blowers or Sims; there’s nothing wrong with average chemistry.
Indeed, the difference between the Oakland and Seattle color teams might best be described this way: Blowers has spent 17 years learning how to be a good analyst. Fosse and particularly Braden give every indication of having come by that skill naturally.
Experience: 4
Likeability: 4
Knowledge: 5
Humor: 4
Rapport: 4
Oratory: 4
Total: 25
Los Angeles Angels, Matt Vasgersian, play-by-play; Mark Gubicza, color
When the exceptional Victor Rojas left the Angels booth this past January to spend more time with his family, Angels telecasts lost a lot in the category of familiarity.
The Angels quickly moved to replace Rojas with Matt Vasgersian, widely recognized as a popular figure on MLB, Fox and ESPN telecasts.
With respect to ability, Vasgersian has nothing to prove. There is also little doubt about his credentials in working a team booth: he’s done the exact same thing in both Milwaukee and San Diego.
But there remains the question of identity with the team itself in the eyes of its fans. That might take a bit of time for Vasgersian, especially given his previous identifications with two other big league teams.
His naturally likeable personality should work to his advantage in that respect over time, but that process will require more than the one month Vasgersian has had to date. How precisely does a former Padres and Brewers voice with strong national credentials persuade Angels fans that he has suddenly become one of them?
Gubicza has no such problem. Although spending all but one of his 14 major league seasons on the mound in Kansas City, Gubicza is in his 15th season doing color for the Angels. His perception is hard-wired in.
That perception is of a solid, knowledgeable, articulate performer who deals in the factual. Shortcomings? Gubicza is not generally recognized as a humorist, and all of the chemistry that separates good telecast teams from bad ones will have to develop between Gubicza and Vasgersian over time.
Given Vasgersian’s obvious talent, one is tempted to want to wait for a year or two to see whether this team’s rating rises. In the interim, he will be supplemented by fill-in Daron Sutton, a proven play-by-play talent in his own right who will do Angels games on dates when Vasgersian’s network assignments conflict.
At this early date, though, the expected rookie gaps remain.
Experience: 3
Likeability: 5
Knowledge: 5
Humor: 3
Rapport: 3
Oratory: 4
Total: 23
Houston Astros: Todd Kalas, play-by-play; Geoff Blum, color.
The AL West is predominantly a play-by-play guys’ division, and nowhere is that more so than in the Astros’ booth.
Kalas may only be in his fourth season behind the Astros’ microphone, but he is the son of Hall of Famer Harry Kalas and works very much in his father’s informed, professional style. Prior to being handed the keys to the play-by-play duties, he had worked for a decade in various aspects of the on-camera operation, allowing him plenty of time to cement his identity within the Astros fabric.
He’s also a Houston native.
Blum was a major league infielder for 14 seasons prior to retiring in 2012, He began TV work with the team’s crew in 2015 and joined the booth full-time in 2019.
Like Blowers in Seattle, Blum’s analysis deserves the label of ‘serviceable,’ but is not in any aspect remarkable. He is articulate at the fundamental level that ought to be – but is not – required of all color analysts. But it will be a rare moment when Blum delivers any insight that causes a listener to remark, “wow, I never thought of that.”
That in turn places the burden for the telecast’s success or failure largely on Kalas. The result is a competent, but only occasionally insightful, booth.
Experience: 3
Likeability: 3
Knowledge: 4
Humor: 3
Rapport: 4
Oratory: 4
Total: 21
Texas Rangers: Dave Raymond, play-by-play; Tom Grieve, C.J. Nitkowski, color
It isn’t so much that the Rangers telecast booth is particularly weak. It’s not. It is, however, ordinary, and in the AL West that’s enough to put it behind its competition.
Grieve, a north Texas legend, is the dominant force. An original Ranger and one of their first stars, he retired in 1979 and soon found himself in the team’s front office. That included a decade as the team’s general manager.
He moved from that position into the color chair in 1995, and has remained ever since.
The problem is that Grieve’s work as an MLB analyst largely mirrors his on-field and front-office experience, which has more than a modest relationship to the Peter Principle. During his time as GM, the Rangers finished 50 games under .500 and did not win a division title.
When Grieve speaks, one gets the sense that he has repeating something for the 50th time…and realizes it. One wonders whether he is or soon will be past his prime.
Raymond is in his fifth season doing Rangers games. He’s totally competent at that assignment. Nitkowski, who can and sometimes does fill either the play-by-play or color roles, is fully competent in both aspects.
For the present, Nitkowski sits too much in Grieve’s shadow, minimizing the obvious wit, quickness of thought and clarity that shine through on his MLB Network show.
Next. Rating the broadcasters of the NL West. dark
In short, the Rangers most competent telecast personality occupies the booth’s least important position.
Experience: 3
Likeability: 3
Knowledge: 3
Humor: 3
Rapport: 4
Oratory: 4
Total: 20