Though broadcast entertainment politics usually fall far outside of the MLBTR purview, the current conversations surrounding ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” program could have minor implications for a few front offices around baseball. As explained by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, two analysts involved with that ESPN broadcast team–namely, Jessica Mendoza and David Ross–faced some conflict of interest issues this season due to their ties to MLB front offices (link). Mendoza, who is an adviser to Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen, and Ross, who works with the Cubs, were barred from entering the Dodgers clubhouse during media availability before games in 2019. It is unclear if other clubs also denied the two clubhouse access.
ESPN is currently considering changes to its Sunday night booth, per Marchand. Though Alex Rodriguez is expected back, Mendoza and play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian are projected to have around a “70%” of returning to the weekly national broadcast for 2020. Whether or not Mendoza’s ties to the Mets are the cause of her current up-in-the-air status with the network is not clear, but it will be worth monitoring if she and Ross will be able to return to the program in a similar toe-the-line situation next year–or if the two will be forced to choose between their on-air or front office gigs.
More items of note from around baseball…
- Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun took a statistically inclined look at the 2019 season of Orioles Rule V pick Richie Martin (link). As you might expect for a Rule V pick, Martin’s full-season slash line was pretty unsightly at .208/.260/.322, but Meoli points to a few positives in his month-over-month progress. In particular, Martin cut his strikeout rate by nearly 14% from the first to the second half; the infielder also showed less of a reliance on pulling the ball following the All-Star break. Hitting coach Don Long and assistant hitting coach Howie Clark took pains to simplify Martin’s swing over the course of the year, which will, hopefully, lead to Martin finally capturing the potential that Oakland saw in him when it selected him 20th overall in the 2015 amateur draft.
- Bradley Zimmer of the Indians was politely asked by management to pursue at-bats in winter ball this offseason, but, after grinding through a five-and-a-half month rehab process tied to shoulder surgery, the outfielder wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea. While the club was concerned that Zimmer, 26, had missed about a season-and-a-half due to various injuries, Zimmer felt an offseason spent at home would serve him better in preparation for 2020. This organization-player dialectic is profiled in a piece from Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com, who concludes that Zimmer will open next season in the minors in search of those lost at-bats (link). It’s an interesting look at the ways in which clubs and players often have to work together to manage and alter expectations due to injury, with the management of mental health and personal/family considerations also playing a factor. Then again, is it possible Zimmer is simply banking on forcing his way into the Cleveland lineup with a hot spring? Though it seems a lifetime ago that Zimmer burst onto the scene with a 1.6 fWAR output in just 332 plate appearances back in 2017, it stands to reason that a strong showing in March might spur the club to shuffle him into the deck above in-house options like Greg Allen or Jake Bauers.
If there were issues prior to today, why is this being discussed now? And why weren’t they asked to decide when there was a conflict of interest? It sounds like ESPN is trying to use an excuse to fire Mendoza without backlash.
I hope so. She is awful. If ESPN was smart, they’d can the whole booth and bring in people that understand the game (not Mendoza), isn’t annoying with useless facts that have nothing to do with what’s going on the field to try to gain false hope that people forget about his last (A-Roid), and someone who doesn’t make ears bleed (Vasgersian).
Yeah, we all have to cater to what Jkock wants. The world revolves around him.
Well thumps, I think most people want then removed as they have been rated as the worst booth in any professional sport by most outlets. Online complaints about them are high. But yes, cater me trolly07.
I agree with jooch. I mute the sound on sunday night baseball.
I agree with JKoch
The world does not revolve around him but be is right on in this case
She is a Gold Medalist in Softball. I think she understands the game.
Ha! Big difference between softball and major league baseball.
@ Doug….Not really—there are plenty of people on here that comment that understand the game. Baseball is baseball—the rules and concept are the same whether you are 10 or playing in the majors. I’m sure you are commenting here because you have some understanding of the game.
I had the misfortune of watching the opening night broadcast of the Phillies at Atlanta in 2013 (I was in a hospital waiting room waiting for a friend who was having a procedure and was grateful that the TV wasn’t tuned to some crap on TLC), and I was appalled at how little the Phillies’ color commentators seemed to understand about the game of baseball and contribute to the broadcast. There are far worse color commentators that A-Rod and Mendoza.
Not baseball. As someone who has coached and umpired both sports at a high school and college level, there are serious differences. To think there are not is naive.
Thats like saying rugby is the same as football
Having coached Softball for 30 years, there is not a huge difference other than girls are better hitters.
Yeah, whatever you say…lol.
So because she can play softball that means she understands professional baseball? Or because she has a gold medal in softball that impresses you? And it means she understands baseball?
Well if you watch the telecasts she obviously has no clue about baseball. She is terrible.
Melvin you forgot the words “front” and “foot” to put between “better” and “hitters”.
Melvin, shows how little you must understand.
Take a softball hitter, give her a maple bat, verlander on the mound throwing, and a mlb baseball and see where that batting average sits.
Somehow I doubt that soft ball player will be a better hitter.
But then again, I miss where 30 years coaching softball has anything to do with baseball experience qualifying a comparison really…
Mendoza is unlistenable, she starts to make a point, loses track halfway through, laughs in the middle of it and then stammers through the rest of it. She seems to be trying too hard to make a point. It’s not even so much that what she has to say isn’t relevant, it’s more than she can’t say what she’s trying to say in a way that’s clear. There’s no coherent thought.
I’m not sure I understand the problem. I watch broadcasters all the time who are employed by specific teams and are clearly “homers.” What, exactly, is the conflict of interest posed by Mendoza’s ties to the Mets or Ross’ connection to the Cubs? In any case, the broadcast team in question needs to be reconstituted. Alex Rodriquez adds nothing; he is the master of the cliche and the obvious. Ross has trouble deciding what his role is—pundit, punster, or analyst. Mendoza is better than either of them. As far as play-by-play goes, the test of a good announcer is to close your eyes and listen to his description of the action—does the broadcaster make it clear who is doing what, where, and when? Clarity and succinctness are crucial. Patented calls, comedy shticks, and glib conversation are not important to the fan who wants to know what’s happening on the field.
They work for other organizations and could report back if they were asked to look for certain things, or inadvertently report something about another team to their team without malicious intent.
I believe play by play is far different for the radio than it is for television. For radio imo you need to be on time accurate to help create an image for the listener where as to a tv play by play you dont need to quote exactly as to what is being played out in front of you because the audience can see it unfold in front of them.
Mendoza is indeed better than both Ross and Rodriguez. I am willing to hypothesize, however, that a major part of the broadcast’s problem, and ARod’s problem in particular, is that the producers/network decided to adopt a telecast that is more “The ARod Show” than “Baseball.” I cannot imagine a viewer that cares, or should care, about any aspect of ARod’s private life. Yet the ESPN honchos apparently believe that relentless, to use your words, “comedy shticks and glib conversation” focused exclusively upon ARod – inning after inning, game after game – makes for compelling television. It does not. And in that environment it is difficult to fairly evaluate any of them, including Vasgersian. ARod, Ross, and Mendoza are certainly knowledgeable. Perhaps if the producers chose to create a broadcast that featured, first and foremost, the ACTUAL GAME, the broadcast team would be more successful. Is that really too much to ask?
Mendoza needs to stop trying to sound cool. She comes off as fake. A-Rod has been fake his entire career and has had more practice at it. No question Mendoza knows baseball. She hasn’t progressed as a broadcaster because ESPN is trying to be chic.
Mendozza is awful. I mean she is just bad.
Get rid of the whole crew. Bring back Joe Morgan and John Miller.
Couldn’t take anymore of Morgan & Miller.
You can’t be serious….. they were literally the worst broadcast team ever. Never anything worthwhile to say, mispronouncing players names, and Joe is an absolute asshat.
Not to mention that Morgan was racist against white players and if the team was a rival of the Reds, he would say every negative thing he could think of and more.
They were bad, but the worst ever has got to be Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Actually joe buck and anyone is the worst period.
Agreed!!!!
Miller and Morgan in a heartbeat. Kruk and Schilling telling baseball stories was great. Unfortunately none are coming back.
oh, thank goodness A-Rod has the best chance of coming back.
Vasgersian is just horrible. He belongs hosting a game show or a cable reality show or some other nonsense because the guy does not know baseball. A Rod is an idiot. Mendoza is invisible most of the time and not really beneficial when she does speak.
The biggest problem for all ESPN announcers is that they think they are the reason people are watching. I am not watching for Jessica Mendoza’s human interest story or to watch A Rod interview someone while walking the field or to see some Jennifer Lopez sighting. I am watching THE GAME. The best announcers are the ones that realize the game is THE reason they are there.
You really don’t find ARod’s interview interesting about how baseball players prepare or how they train?
Personally, I find Matt, ARod, Big Hurt and Pete Rose the most knowledgeable in the game.
I was really impressed with Arod’s contributions as an announcer. I always thought he was sort of above it but he comes off humble and a student of the game. He’s definitely going to have his own show one day.
Keep Matt and AROD,Buster Only and add a former Manager. Also add a day game back and Doubleheader on Wednesday Nights.
What’s ironic about your second point, is that if a broadcast team is phenomenal and especially if the teams playing are poor, they may be the reason people watch the broadcasts. Mets are a perfect example of that.
I disagree. Although I do think a good broadcast team can make a game much more enjoyable, I will never watch a game because of them. Think of it this way, which are you more likely to watch a silent three hour baseball game or three hours of the Mets (or some other) broadcast team riffing with no game? While I may watch the broadcast team just out of curiosity, I would watch the silent baseball game 162 times a year.
The Mets broadcast with Keith Hernandez working is very entertaining. They’re more entertaining than the product on the field lately. I don’t feel that I’m alone on that opinion. That broadcast team is that good.
I can second that. Although in recent years, I think they have made Hernandez scale down his womanizing and other shenanigans. It was always in good fun. It’s too bad we can’t have nice things in a 24/7 PC world. The combination of Gary, Ron, and Keith do mix very well.
@MetsManMetsFan86;
I do the opposite. I’m an old guy, but got sick of Gary Cohen, Darling and Hernandez maybe 6 weeks into the season. They sprout the same senile stuff about “when I played” that it became unbearable. It’s not about them – it’s about the game. None of them is terribly well spoken, nor are almost any of their stories interesting….but that doesn’t stop them from telling them over and over.
Instead I listen to the ‘Audio Overlay’ on MLB.TV. Howie Rose has been around as long as Cohen. He concentrates on the game, and does well sharing Met history and tidbits of players, managers, and coaches. He broke in young partner Wayne Randazzo this year, and it was nice to hear a well read younger person on the broadcasts, that brought a different perspective.
Did the same with the Yankees. John Sterling is easily the best play-by-play person in NYC baseball, and he’s brought Suzyn Waldman along very well over the years. Then again, the Yankees seem to have 32 TV announcers and 2-3 more that run around with a microphone and interrupt the game with human interest stories that are not interesting.
Speaking of which – the TBS telecasts this post-season have been awful. They’re so busy with their storylines that they miss minor things that might interest a viewer/listener – such as telling us that a pinch hitter is batting before the first pitch and not 3 pitches in, or that a player has been inserted into the field which we find out when a ball is hit to them.
When Altuve hit the game-winning HR in Game 2 of Astros-Yankees, they were talking about a replay or something and the announcer didn’t notice what had happened until he looked up due to the crowd making noise, saying something to effect of – whoops, that looks like it’s a Home Run!
Any sort of what used to be Journalism in America started dying in the early 90’s, and if the reader/viewer isn’t prepared and knowledgeable about the subject matter when following anything, they can come out sprouting stuff they truly believe…..that bears no resemblance to what happened.
Amen. Well said. That’s why Jon Miller was, and continues to be, great. These three try to be like original Sportscenter anchors who all thought they needed some catchphrase or a funny line all the time. Just call the damned game. Speaking of Giants broadcasters, the future of Sunday Night Baseball is Dave Fleming. Book it.
Hawt!
One quite just never understand why breaking what is not broken. Bring back Morgan and Miller, right now!
Agreed! They think they have to fill every second with noise. Some of it may be three in the booth. But I would start fresh. Tired of muting the TV on Sunday night!
… “have to fill every second with noise” – exactly. Beyond annoying. Let the game breath.
Every second with noise is not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the best baseball announcers of all time were radio guys that rarely ever had dead air. The big problem is that the noise they make has little to do with the game. Goofballs joking with each other or telling stories about themselves or talking about baseball things that have nothing to do with what is currently happening in the game. There is PLENTY of information about each and every player that space can be filled with actual relevant information about the game.
Get ARod and his obnoxious comments out of there too. The entire crew is annoying. You wouldn’t know there was a game going on with their constant banter and self-indulgent nonsense.
It really is god awful.
Big Papi is a total airhead. Absolutely nothing to say—about anything.
Keep Matty, the only worthwhile announcer of the bunch, and dump ARod and JMend. They bring Matty down.
I think viewers forget that once announcers get to the national level they have to water down their delivery. Matt V was hilarious in SD and I love what he does on MLBN for the most part, especially Hot Stove. I can tell he’s hand tied and leashed on the national broadcasts which is frustrating when you know how entertaining he can be.
A Rod is fine. Jessica Mendoza’s unnecessary/unrelated/unintelligent comments are often followed by 5-10 seconds of dead silence in which no one says anything because you can’t effectively respond to stupidity on air and not get fired/in trouble with the FCC, unless she was flirting with A-Rod *cringes*
Isn’t that why John Smoltz went back to MLB Network was because he couldn’t stand her?
Vasgersian is a joke. “mY SoUrCeS sAy” *insert flat lie he made up off of the top of his head*
Also the Indians could have used Dallas Keuchel, but it’s more important to hang on to that draft pick so that they can get some bum who turns into the next Bradley Zimmer
Brilliant!
Almost overlooked this – Jessica Mendoza is a special advisor to Brodie Van Wagenen? No wonder the Mets suck. The Yankees have Andy Pettitte, Hideki Matsui, and others. The Sox have Bill James. The Mets have… her?
Dylan: you use a lot of unnecessary commas.
I only tune in for Jessica’s breasts.
The Sunday Night booth is awful. ARod should have nothing to do with MLB, Mendoza never stops talking, and Vasgersian is mediocre at best.
I must be the only one who actually likes this crew pretty well. Maybe’ it’s just nostalgia of Matty V calling games on MLB The Show back in the day.
Bradley Zimmer for Albert Almora straight up.
I wish ESPN would stop doing baseball all together. They’re horrible at it. No matter what bozo is in the booth.
ESPN is the reason why I turned off my cable.
I’m normally a big Matt Vasgersian fan, but not so much since he joined ESPN. They’ve neutered him. It’s like watching Sam Kinison do knock-knock jokes. Just a waste of his talent.
Agree completely. Matt often has some interesting comments; might be miscast as a play by play guy.
A-Rod’s a complete waste of time, with his constant drivel which he never seems to tire of, Ross seems more uncomfortable than anything else. Jess? Nice breasts. Maybe SHE’LL be the next Mets manager.
“Mendoza and play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian are projected to have around a “70%” of returning to the weekly national broadcast for 2020”
A 70% what exactly? A 70% unlikelihood of returning? So only 30% chance of returning? Or a 70% chance of returning? Include all the words in the article…
All down hill for ESPN since they fired Curt Schilling. Schilling and Kruk were the best.
I could only imagine the debauchery that went on with those two working together. I’m sure there are some former baseball tonight interns that could give us some more insight about this. Did they come on after Harold Reynolds was ditched by the mother-ship for trying to get some honey where he made his money?
Schilling and Kruk? OMG, you like those meatballs? Terrible.
Schilling and Kruk were outstanding. They put Hawk Harrelson and Steve Stone-Harrelson to shame.
The only way the ESPN broadcasts could be any worse is if they had Joe Buck doing the play-by-play. But unfortunately, he’s with the network that has exclusive rights to the World Series (FOX).
Two words… Jason Benetti. Best play-by-play announcer in baseball. And I’m not saying that because I’m a Sox fan. The guy is just good. I like Steve Stone as a color guy, but his obvious on-air love affair with Benetti makes me uncomfortable. lol
I got spoiled. Listening to Scully for 50 odd years. I turn off the sound to all football and baseball games as i like to listen to old Stones and Doors instead. These ‘pundits’ do not know as much to improve my viewing. Most the time they interrupt!
Small sample size issues aside, it is worth noting that Martin slashed 379/400/655 in September. He did not look overmatched like he did in April and May. He was an above average defender with plus defender potential. He’s got speed, going 10/11 in steal attempts. He will probably start next season in AAA, but that also depends on whether or not Villar stays with the O’s or the team finds a taker for his arbitration salary.
CLE needs to play Zimmer in the OF corners and not CF. Some guys just break down in CF from having to cover more ground. Maybe they could acquire Bradley from BOS..