In the top of the first, J.D. Martinez grounded out second-to-first. The first baseman had ranged to his right in an attempt to field the ball, so the second baseman had to wait a slight amount of time for his teammate to scamper back to the bag before he threw the ball. This fairly normal turn of events was deemed "strange" by Jerry Remy, who as a second baseman must have been in that exact same circumstance many times in his career.
Dave O'Brien said "Cuthbert [was] able to get back to the bag". Maybe five seconds later, Remy says the pitcher covered the bag and took the throw. Now that was strange, since Glenn Sparkman backed off when Cuthbert made his move to the base. So it's clear Remy is not watching the play closely and not listening to his booth partner at all
Three hours later, in the bottom of the ninth, NESN was unable to show the final out. Ryan Brasier struck out Kelvin Gutierrez, who was thrown out at first by catcher Christian Vázquez. Viewers were instead shown a semi-closeup of Brasier. If you were paying close attention, unlike NESN's producer, you might have seen an out-of-focus white blur zip across the screen in the background. That was Vázquez's throw to first.
A bang-up job from start to finish for NESN - with plenty of embarrassing moments in between.
In the bottom of the first, O'Brien called Whit Merrifield "the Royals' best player for the last couple of years". I heard that and immediately assumed (since it was OB making a pronouncement) that it was nonsense. Less than two minutes at Baseball Reference (which I understand is also available to TV broadcasters) confirmed my suspicions: OB was talking bullshit.
Merrifield was, pretty much by default, the "best" everyday player on a horrible Royals team last year (kind of how every team has at least one "All-Star", no matter what). He's far from a bad player, but he is absolutely not "the Royals' best player for the last couple of years". I mean, Merrifield was seventh on the Royals in OBP in 2016! Is it too much of Red Sox fans to ask that we have an announcer who prepares for games? Or one that isn't so convinced of his infallibility that he can admit he's wrong occasionally, such as when his statements can be easily refuted within one batter's time at the plate?2019 Hunter Dozier - .314/.398/.589 - .987 OPS (on IL) Whit Merrifield - .298/.352/.502 - .854 OPS 2018 Ryan O'Hearn - .262/.353/.597 - .950 OPS (44 games) Jorge Soler - .265/.354/.466 - .820 OPS (61 games) Whit Merrifield - .304/.367/.438 - .806 OPS Adalberto Mondesi - .276/.306/.498 - .804 OPS (75 games) 2017 Eric Hosmer - .318/.385/.498 - .882 OPS Mike Moustakas - .272/.314/.521 - .835 OPS Lorenzo Cain - .300/.363/.440 - .803 OPS Salvador Perez - .268/.297/.495 - .792 OPS Whit Merrifield - .288/.324/.460 - .784 OPS 2016 Drew Butera - .285/.328/.480 - .808 OPS (55 games) Kendrys Morales - .263/.327/.468 - .795 OPS Eric Hosmer - .266/.328/.433 - .761 OPS Lorenzo Cain - .287/.339/.408 - .747 OPS Paulo Orlando - .302/.329/.405 - .734 OPS Cheslor Cuthbert - .274/.318/.413 - .731 OPS Jarrod Dyson - .278/.340/.388 - .728 OPS Salvador Perez - .247/.288/.438 - .725 OPS Whit Merrifield - .293/.323/.392 - .716 OPS (81 games)
(This was, of course, the same Royals team about which O'Brien last season proclaimed had "never lost more than 100 games in a season". ... Right, Dave, except for 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006.)
After Cuthbert homered in the second inning, O'Brien said, "Kansas City strikes quickly". Cuthbert (batting #6 in KC's lineup) struck with one out in the bottom of the second - a full 36 minutes after the first pitch. Can that truly be termed "quickly"? Maybe OB meant it like "quickly 0-2"? Now, a bloop and a blast from the first two batters in the top of the first, that's striking quickly.
O'Brien also called Martinez's triple in the sixth "gone". Because it's always essential that the announcer make the call before the umpire.
NESN's poll question was: "Would you select a catcher with the first overall pick in the draft? In the sixth inning, we learned 64% of voters said "No". But: Isn't context everything here? What other players might be worthy of the #1 pick in this mythical draft? Is the team with the #1 pick in desperate need of a catcher? Does the team already have two amazing catching prospects in the high minors? Was there a catcher who hit .875 with 65 home runs or were the nation's available catchers merely good-to-pretty-good? NESN's question is like asking: "Would you date a girl from Kansas City?" ... Well, it depends on the girl.
It is also unsurprising that NESN posts spam (here and here and here and here) to its own Twitter account. Those are four examples posted within a 90-minute span.
Still a hit afaic.
ReplyDelete