Len And JD Get Excellent Marks In Announcer Rankings

You are likely familiar with a website called "Awful Announcing." That's not all they do, of course, and recently the site polled its readers to determine who were the best (and worst) TV announcing teams in Major League Baseball.

Here's some good news for Cubs fans, and for those of us who like the announcing team of Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies, now in its second season (Kasper is in his 10th year -- hard to believe he's been here more than half as long as Harry Caray was).

The Awful Announcing rankings have Len and JD fifth, behind the Mets' team, the Baltimore Orioles' announcers, Vin Scully & Co. with the Dodgers, and their top-ranked San Francisco Giants team of Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper.

Remember that these rankings are done by reader vote, not the opinions of the site administrators, and so I'd put a fairly high stock in them. These are opinions of people who actually watch the games, and with more TV games available nationally by various means, this is likely a good cross-section of baseball fans. Here's what was written about Len and JD; the first is the analysis of the vote by the site editors, followed by some reader comments:

Analysis: The Cubs had the fewest first place votes of the top five teams in the rankings. Kasper is another guy that seems to be on his way up, getting numerous above average marks from our readers. The Cubs broadcast booth also got plaudits for being very sabermetric friendly.  

Reader Comments: 

"I love how Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies mix Humor in with their PBP and Color Commentator duties." -CUbsfan  

"Kaspar is really understated and knowledgeable, while DeShaies has a sly wittiness that comes in handy when the Cubs are down 14-2 and are on their seventh pitcher of the day." -berndon4

"Len Kasper is a gem, a hell of a broadcaster." -The Stork

I agree with all of that. I realize that some of you don't care for JD; I like him, because his dry sense of humor matches mine. As was the case for Len and Bob Brenly, it will likely take a couple of years before Len and JD really get into a rhythm. It would help if they had a better team to call games for, too, although the real test of a broadcast team is to keep the audience interested when the games are bad, as noted by "berndon4" above. But overall, I really enjoy listening to them, and having met Len on a number of occasions, I can tell you he's a really good guy, too.

Note that this ranking was just for TV broadcast crews, not radio announcing teams.

Lastly, I don't think you'll have to make too many guesses to learn who finished last in the rankings.