9/3/25 1:10PM Mets @ Tigers

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, holygoat said:

I agree, but it's a double-edged sword

True, and Benitti recognizes that, but his response is if you keep reaching to be better - to avoid being boring and in a rut,  the price is that not everything is going to work all the time. You could say Ernie Harwell is the counter to that arg, but OTOH, times/culture change, and television isn't radio.

[oblong]

 

[papalawrence]

With the broadcast staff changes it seems they're trying to target a younger audience. Us old fogies will stay no matter what.

The last couple times Benetti has been paired with Dirks, it's been a bit less off script. They've likely received some feedback.

[gehringer_2]

1 minute ago, papalawrence said:

With the broadcast staff changes it seems they're trying to target a younger audience. Us old fogies will stay no matter what.

The last couple times Benetti has been paired with Dirks, it's been a bit less off script. They've likely received some feedback.

I'm an old fogy and I'm all in on Benetti. I also like Dirks and to a lesser degree Scales, partly just because they were hitters. In recent years so many MLB analysts have been pitchers and I guess I've watched enough baseball that you can't really tell me anything I haven't already heard about what a pitcher is doing/trying to do. Getting the the perspective of hitters/fielders who have played the game relatively recently is just refreshingly informative to me. Plus TBH, Dirks explains a pitching grip as well as Petry does.

[Tigermojo]

Benetti raised the bar and the rest of the team seems to be improving. Even compared to the start of the season, the broadcast is better. Much improved over last year and previous seasons.

[chasfh]

15 hours ago, papalawrence said:

I'd like to see Bobby Scales do more games with Benetti. Dirks is a better match with Dickerson.

I like Bobby Scales better as a match for Benetti. They’re close enough in age to connect really well and they don’t go overboard with cultural references.

[chasfh]

15 hours ago, CaliforniaDreaming said:

@casimir mentioned weeks ago how Kahnle falls off a cliff after a certain number of innings. I wonder if they purposely gave him "a month off" (which is basically what has happened), to try to reset his stamina and to hopefully get him back pitching well for the very end of the season and the playoffs.

Maybe Kahnle just needed a garbage-time stretch to work things out. Hoping that did the trick here.

[chasfh]

11 hours ago, holygoat said:

I agree, but it's a double-edged sword. Dirks's ability to match Benetti has the downside of sending Jason off script too much for my liking. When they're on, though, they're great.

Also, I think I'm the only one here who doesn't really like Bobby Scales. He talks way too much and way to fast, IMO. It's baseball, Bobby, not hockey. Airtime is less precious because the pace of the game is slower.

Good call on Dirks and Benetti. Jason may be trying to one-up Dirks to maintain his booth alpha status, who knows.

I agree Bobby could trim 5% or 10% off his delivery speed, although i do think he’s better now than when he started. Sometimes when I hear him he reminds me of the one fast-talking DJ at the end of The Sky is Falling on the Songs For the Deaf album by Queens.

[oblong]

The article G2 referenced from the freep talked about how much all of these people get along with each other.  Seidel's articles are fluff but I get the sense there's no animosity at all among them and I think the interchangability is intentional to make things sound fresh.  I like it.  I don't think they're trying to find the right fit but to keep us and them on their toes.  I'm pretty content with whatever combination I find myself watching or listening to.

Although when Dickerson was out the radio guy had me constantly checking my bluetooth connection because there was a lot of moments of silence.  I was outside at a pool party all weekend and I kept wondering if either the speaker died or someone else connected to it.

[gehringer_2]

29 minutes ago, oblong said:

Although when Dickerson was out the radio guy had me constantly checking my bluetooth connection because there was a lot of moments of silence.

If you are going to work old style like Ernie and let the pauses lie, you need good field mic'ing to keep up the ambiance. It's like being on a digital phone system that doesn't inject noise and you're constantly wondering if your call dropped.

[casimir]

On 9/3/2025 at 4:50 PM, CaliforniaDreaming said:

@casimir mentioned weeks ago how Kahnle falls off a cliff after a certain number of innings. I wonder if they purposely gave him "a month off" (which is basically what has happened), to try to reset his stamina and to hopefully get him back pitching well for the very end of the season and the playoffs.

If so, I could be convinced that @casimir caught Scott Harris' attention at a game a while ago and was able to convince him of this plan.

This guy needs banned on the count of he’s quoting me.  Not that it’s nefarious or anything like that.  But I’m a dweeb.  No one should be listening to my typing.  Mods, please, do something to help this cat out.

[casimir]

23 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

This is why Dirks has been a ratings success. He dropped the one liner but then he did follow that up with a solid commentary. Of all the analysts Benetti works with, Dirks is the only one that will try to return the favor of trying to knock Jason off his stride and that creates a little more of a fun dynamic. Not to everyone's taste but it seems to be selling well. When Gibson was good, that is one of the things he would do as well - i.e. be a little more challenging to his partner, though in different ways than Dirks.

The one aspect that I really loved about Gibson was playing the game ahead of the game.  Here’s the situation at hand, here are the options and the pros and cons, make your decision now and not in hindsight.

[casimir]

11 hours ago, chasfh said:

Maybe Kahnle just needed a garbage-time stretch to work things out. Hoping that did the trick here.

That would be grand.

But if you look at Kahnle’s history, he doesn’t throw more than 60 IP in a season.  That’s pretty low.  He hit that threshold early this season.  Was he taxed?

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, casimir said:

That would be grand.

But if you look at Kahnle’s history, he doesn’t throw more than 60 IP in a season.  That’s pretty low.  He hit that threshold early this season.  Was he taxed?

There's been a suggestion that Finnegan has also been taxed, working more innings in a month, for us, than he had in any other month of his big league career.