Awful Announcing: The MLB Local TV Announcer Rankings

[Auggie]

awfulannouncing.com / 4-28-14

Over the last two weeks, we polled the Awful Announcing readers on their opinions of each local broadcast team around the majors. The polls were broken down division by division to gain the perspective of both fans and rivals for each broadcast team.

The votes are in, and we weighted your grades on a four point scale for each broadcast crew and sorted them to determine who your favorite and least favorite broadcast teams were. Each “A” vote received 4 points, 3 points for a “B” vote, down to 0 points for an “F” vote. The total points scored were divided by the total number of votes to calculate what amounts to a GPA for each broadcast booth.

THE WORST: #30, Chicago White Sox – 1.37
-Hawk Harrelson (play by play)
-Steve Stone (analyst, play by play – select)
-Aaron Rowand (analyst -select)
-Mike Huff (analyst – select)
-Tom Paciorek (analyst – select)

Most popular grade: F (46% of voters)

Analysis: No crew received more total F’s or a higher percentage of F’s than the White Sox crew. Essentially, people either despised Hawk (for obvious reasons) or tolerated him for the sheer humor of it all, while there was a soft spot for analyst Steve Stone.

THE BEST: #1) San Francisco Giants – 3.46
-Duane Kuiper (play by play)
-Jon Miller (play by play)
-Dave Flemming (play by play)
-Mike Krukow (analyst)

Most popular grade: A (74% of voters)

Analysis: The Giants had more A grades than any other team in the league, and that total surpassed the total amount of votes that seven teams had. Kuiper and Krukow topped our reader rankings, and there wasn’t much negativity at all towards them. The Giants have a real depth chart of great announcers across television and radio. Perhaps a surprise #1 choice, but one that is certainly worthy of the top spot.

LINK: http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/your-mlb-local-tv-announcer-rankings.html

[KamaAina]

1. Someone beat out Sterling?

"It is high! It is far! It is... caught behind third."

[Upton]

2. I voted in that poll..

Giants announcers are the best..

[Auggie]

3. I've never heard a team provide insight as deep as Kuiper and Krukow do

[ProfessorGAC]

4. For Chicago . . .

. . .i agree on Harrelson but disagree on Stone. Stone is great, but he and Harrelson don't get along and the tension is obvious on the broadcasts.

Hareelson is horrible.

[Gemini Cat]

7. I actually like both.

[El Supremo]

8. Me too.

Even though I don't like the White Sox.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Wow! We Really Disagree On Hawk

I can't stand him. I guess there are more of you than me, or he wouldn't still be on the air.

[GoCubsGo]

11. I'm not a big Sox fan, but I'm glad Stoney was able to stay in town.

He and Chip Caray were great together when they were with the Cubs. I hope the Sox will eventually find the right guy to work with him.

[Brother Buzz]

5. These days, it takes four Giants announcers to do what...

the dynamic tag team of Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons did sitting in the shade

[Upton]

6. Use your head..

Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons were only on radio. Nowadays with all the games televised too, of course they need more announcers..

[TZ]

10. Not surprised Washington is near bottom

Bob Carpenter is kinda bland. FP Santangelo, while I can tolerate him can be annoying and is very much a homer. I've met the man in person though and he's nice to the fans so that's a plus. But I can see how many would find him annoying. But he's 1000 times better than that meathead Dibble