Tom Candiotti may not be the best colour (for the Americans among us: color) man around but at least he doesn't treat the viewer like an idiot, which is what Cerutti does day in and day out.

Candiotti spoke a lot but said virtually nothing. You could write down a bunch of the standard lines colour commentators use, stick them in a hat, have someone pull them out one at a time and read them, and they'd be about as insightful as Candiotti.

Is it just me, or does Carlos seem invigorated this year? That was a pretty nice bomb...he even did the little Hinskesque fist pump rounding first.

How could a playoff caliber team have Chris Gomez in the lineup, let alone batting second. Strange lineup the Twins are putting out there today.

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How many more games will it take Jays fans to jump off the Hinske bandwagon? It's happening already in the newsgroups.

MP

And the brooms come out. 8-1.

Quick hijack.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/scoreboards/box_Asally.shtml

Scroll down to the Charleston game from yesterday. I had to do a double take on Vince Perkins pitching line. Quite impressive.

Coach: Last night I was too distracted to really listen to Tom Candiotti, but what I did hear was disappointing. I'd be interested to find out what others thought; it's a lot harder to be a good analyst when your play-by-play man can't tell a successful bunt from a foul ball. I really miss Dan Shulman.

I miss Shulman too. I wasn't as thrilled about Buck the analyst as many were so I frequently felt as thought Shulman did himself a disservice by continually deferring to Buck for judgements and opinions. Shulman knew plenty about baseball and I wish he had had the self-confidence or arrogance or whatever to assert himself more than he did. I rarely catch him on ESPN so I'd be curious to see if he's changed.

As for Candiotti, I agree that he doesn't add much but having read his columns on ESPN, my expectations weren't exactly high. At least on the upside, he's not as annoying and as condescending as Cerutti. He's also a little slower to reach into the old sack o' cliches. Maybe he just can't grab them as esily with that crazy knuckleballer's grip.

As for Rob Faulds, he I simply cannot fathom. He clearly knows little about baseball and doesn't have an especially soothing voice to listen to. Is this the best SportsNet could scare up? Wouldn't any of their stable of young desk jockeys have jumped at the chance to have had that job? Why exactly was Faulds chosen? What does he bring to the table, besides a seemingly difficult time of concentrating on a game for the whole 9 innings?

"How many more games will it take Jays fans to jump off the Hinske bandwagon? It's happening already in the newsgroups."

M.P.,I've been away from internet access for a couple days, to whom are you speaking of? And, are you saying you believe Hinske's over hyped? Just curious.

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No, I'm saying a disproportionately large proportion of Toronto sports fans are fickle. Particularly those who also cheer for the Leafs. :)

MP

Wow, nice catch, DS. Perkins doesn't even need fielders! No hits, 12 K (and 4 BB) in 5.1 IP; presumably he was on a pitch count, and you have to go deep into counts to get a line like that.

Chuck, I'm with you on Faulds. He outdid himself today with inane remarks and blatant miscalls. Last night he was totally flummoxed on that rarest of plays, a foul ball, just because Huckaby made a play on it. "The umpire has called time," said Rob, his voice indicating he had no clue why. Stay tuned for the chat transcript, as Craig and I had plenty to say about his incompetence. Meanwhile, Aaron kept us posted on how the Twins' broadcast team filled the time in a lost cause. Apparently, Bert Blyleven's getting a tattoo if Dick Bremer shaves his head, and they interviewed the mascot. Twins reliever Juan Rincon was sensational today, or it could have been much worse.

Cory Lidle either tired or lost interest in the seventh, but he was very, very good through six, and that washed-up old man behind the plate -- the one hitting .364 and slugging .455 -- called a superb game. That's two more wins against the Central champs than the Jays managed all last year, if you're counting.

Those who doubt Hinske's talent don't even deserve a response. In case you've forgotten already, Eric had weeks last year just like this one, going 1-for-19 from June 12-20, and weeks when he hit 4 HR and batted over .500 -- he isn't a consistent OBP machine like Cat or Stewart, he's streaky. When Eric's hot, he's the best-hitting 3B in baseball. Average it all out, and he's right up there with Chavez, Rolen and Glaus. In fact, he was better than any of them in RARP last year. Go ahead and write him off, but don't expect any respect from me for your "insight".

The same fair-weather, fickle "fans" will have dismissed Mark Hendrickson by now, based on his 37.80 ERA in not quite two innings of work, but again, they show selective amnesia. Last August 6, the giant lefty -- "Lurch" is the best nickname suggested by BB readers so far -- had a similar nightmare in his big-league debut, getting just one out and allowing five earnies -- that's a 135.00 ERA if your slide rule isn't handy. It took him just 36 more innings to get that to a spiffy 2.45, and it was 0.91 in September, when opponents raked him at a .163 clip. So don't be surprised when he beats Derek Lowe on Tuesday; Mark's a big-leaguer (in two sports) who's proven he can shake it off and make adjustments.

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I agree with your take on Hinske. He'll be fine.

One problem is that people tend to ignore sample size and context. I think Hendrickson will end up being a decent pitcher, but keep in mind his 3-0 record includes a win against Tampa, and 2 late-season wins against the Orioles who by the end of the year were on par with the '62 Mets. He could have gotten a fourth win against the Bo Sox in his only other start of the year, had the Jays been able to score against Casey Fossum.

Hendrickson isn't nearly as good as he looked late last year, and Hinske is a heck of a lot better than he looks right now.

I had my doubts about Hendrickson coming into the season. IIRC, his success was primarily against Oriole and Devil Ray teams that were awful at the end of the year, and his BA on balls in play was extremely low (indicating luck). Plus he only made 4 starts. It's worth it to throw him in the rotation to see if it works out, but I don't have any high hopes.

It's funny how baseball works. 3 home games, 3 loses. 3 road games, 3 wins. Overall, a satisfactory start.

To show you just how fickle some Jays fans can be, someone on the team's official site suggested that both Hinske and Delgado be cut because of their performances in the first four \spring training\ games.

On Rob Faulds (or Rob Faults, as I'm fond of calling him these days), I assume Sportsnet went with him because he was a "proven veteran." According to his bio, he did some radio games for the Expos in the 1980's. It's hard to imagine how Sportsnet could make such a terrible choice for a play-by-play caller, especially with the network now owned by Rogers. With TV games being the best way to promote the team (far better than any advertising campaign), you'd think the team's management would want quality people on the air.

Another Faulds blunder last night was his inability to realize that Hinske had been ejected. Let's see, Hinske throws his bat, the umpire pointed his finger at Hinske, Hinske started shouting something, then went back to the dugout and through the tunnel, Tosca came out to argue, and then Bordick came in defensively for the bottom of the inning. How could Faulds possibly not know Hinske was ejected?

Cory Lidle either tired or lost interest in the seventh, but he was very, very good through six, and that washed-up old man behind the plate -- the one hitting .364 and slugging .455 -- called a superb game.

I don't recall having seen much, if any, of Lidle, prior to this season. I wasn't aware that he threw as hard as he did -- I didn't figure him for hitting 90 so consistently -- but beyond that, he's definitely a pitcher. The way he took advantage of the extra-wide strike zone today and moved the ball in and out smacked of Greg Maddux (pre-2003 edition). Gotta love his 14/1 K/BB ratio in his 2 starts.

And Myers certainly deserves his share of the credit for setting up the Twin hitters so well with a pretty clear game plan. I know a catcher's influence is difficult to gauge, but it sure seemed like he was in control back there and had an idea of how to attack the Twin hitters.

Ain't life just rosey when you win!

I like hearing good announcing as much as the next baseball fan but unfortunately we have to make do with what we are given. Let's be thankful the CBC didn't pick up any games or we would have to be subjected to Brian Williams.

My favorite Brian Williams call:
'...and that ball is hit deep...deep...and caught in shallow centre field'

Faulds biggest screw up last night was when the Twins tried to turn a DP. They got the lead runner but Guzmans throw pulled Minkzkzkxy (can't spell that one) off the bag. Fauld's talked at length about Guzman getting an error on the play when, if you know baseball, you know you don't assume the DP. If the fielder(s) get one out, and the batter stays at first, there is no error. A half inning later he gave a short comment where he said it was a fielder's choice.

Networks always pick a "voice" for the commentary position and generally an ex-player for the colour. Faulds is a "voice". Most Canadian networks have hockey experts on staff. Baseball guys are hard to find. Other than Dan Shulman who is a good Canadian play-by-play commentator? Tom Cheek and Dave Van Horne are american. Brian Williams and Rod Black are generalists, and not good. There are no sources of Canadian baseball broadcasting talent. Has anyone heard the play by play voice of the Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton or Calgary minor league baseball teams when they were all in existence. Who would you like to see try it? Have you seen anyone on TSN or Sportsnet who could do the job?

Ryan Pakin (sp?) from headline sports is excellent. He was the host of diamond surfing. He is the first guy who comes to mind. And he seems to know baseball.

Any others?

Mike Wilner on The Fan is a Canadian and did some play-by-play during the spring. Despite his experience being limited in that role (he worked for a couple years in the New York-Penn league), he was much better than either Rob Faulds or Rod Black.

Jamie Campbell is another possibility. He filled in for Faulds once last year and wasn't horrible. His delivery was his main problem, and that would probably improve over time.

If there are no suitable Canadians, there are certainly many Americans who would jump at the opportunity to call the Jays on TV.

J.P., I know you're reading this; forget about acquiring more young pitching -- GET US A DECENT PLAY-BY-PLAY GUY!!! :-)

Well hey, we've got a pretty eclectic mix of folks right here in the Box... lawyers, IT specialists, engineers, economists... don't know of any doctors or women, but we've got most of the major categories covered. My point is, there must be someone amongst us with at least a little broadcasting talent - Let's nominate them for the job.

Oh, heck, let's have all of the Zombie-Like Cult do the broadcasting job! We've gotta be better, individually and collectively, than Faulds/Candiotti or Faulds/Cerutti. (I think Candiotti is better than Cerutti, but that's damning with faint praise.)

It doesn't really bother me that Hinske is in a slump - he'll snap out of it. He hit a ball hard in his first at-bat, but it went right to the first baseman. Besides, they're scoring eight runs a game without him. I'm a bit more worried about Phelps - he's chasing a lot of pitches. Some of this just might be due to unfamiliarity with them.

Lidle looked sharp before tiring a bit in the seventh.

I really enjoy watching the O-Dog play defense. Nice barehanded pivot on a DP, and he went well to his left to field a ball in the ninth. I guess this is a good team now :-).

That would be the Coach, a longtime broadcaster and race-caller.

I did a little radio in college -- WBGU 88.1 FM, the 3.14159-watt voice of Bowling Green State University. I wasn't around long enough to break into the long line of people waiting to call hockey -- we were perrenial American college Division I contenders back then, familiar names like Ken Morrow, Gary Galley, Mike Liut -- but I was stuck doing humor commentary. Stuck in the Paul Harvey role at age 19. Ugh. Then I deejayed a bunch of junior high and high school dances after college to earn a few bucks.

So that's my resume for Broadcaster By Da Box. My particular strength would be the ability to cover pitching changes by introducing the new single from Bananarama and filling late-inning blowouts with a three-play from Foreigner. I also know a variety of alternate shout-between-the-refrain lyrics for "Mony, Mony" which are actually appropriate to junior high gymnasiums.

I think Wilner is being groomed as an eventual replacement for Tom or Jerry once they move on to other things. He does a couple of innings each radio broadcast now. I would very much like for him to be the full-time play-by-play guy on television as he has fairly good knowledge of both baseball and the current gameplan of the Jays' organization in general. Without Dan Schulman around I don't think it's a stretch at all to say he's the most knowledgable baseball guy Toronto currently has.

When the mic is on, you have to be yourself, only "bigger" -- inflections must be exaggerated, or it sounds like a monotone. You need to breathe like a singer -- from the diaphragm -- or it sounds hollow. In addition, the producer and director are in your head, which can be very distracting. That's what a guy like Faulds has: experience at being on the air, and the ability to listen to instructions while simultaneously coming up with commentary. The intros, the throws to commercials and the promos are all part of the job description, from his employer's point of view. Also, the ZLC is a minority of his audience; the typical viewer doesn't realize he knows nothing about baseball. Wilner does, but he needs more innings before he's a pro broadcaster. The perfect combination of the two? Dan Shulman. I like Jon Miller a shade better, because he's funnier, but that's not to everyone's taste.

The first couple of nights I called the races, I had no style of my own; my influences (most notably Daryl Wells and Earl Lennox) were great, but I shuddered at my poor imitation when I heard the replays. Then a horseman friend, with the best constructive criticism I've ever received, suggested, "imagine I'm in the paddock and can't see the race, and just tell me what the #@^! is going on!" Immediately, I had my style; talking just to my knowledgeable pal, instead of "all you people in the stands", made a tremendous difference. Each listener got the sense of intimacy that was missing in my early efforts, and my descriptions (especially the verbs) were automatically more colourful. Even after thousands of races, the first time I did a live call on TSN, I was nervous waiting for John Wells to throw it upstairs, and didn't relax until the race was over; my call wasn't terrible, but it lacked spontaneity.

Announcing is a lot like hitting a baseball -- seems a lot easier from your armchair than it really is. Try calling a game off the TV monitor into a tape recorder sometime; you'll be shocked when you hear yourself, and it's many times more difficult when the red light is on.

Oops, forgot -- wanted to remind R Billie that there's another excellent local baseball broadcaster with plenty of radio experience, and he's ready for prime time right now. Scott Ferguson jumped to the short-lived Team on CHUM, which in hindsight was a bad career move, but he did a great job on the FAN and was equally comfortable in his occasional TV work on The Score. Ferguson has a better voice than the still-developing Wilner, and is just as knowledgeable. He could do play-by-play or colour better than the incumbents.

We can only hope MLB lowers its asking price for Canadian rights to its Sunday night/Wednesday afternoon/Diamond Surfing/playoffs package, and some network picks it up, or it's gonna be a long season for us coach potatoes. Maybe the Rogers-owned Sportsnet will come to our rescue after the hockey playoffs.