Atlanta Braves Still Rebuilding … in the Broadcast Booth

The Atlanta Braves are still apparently in rebuild mode… sort of. The Braves, along with Fox Sports, announced a shake up in the broadcast teams.

In an article published from the AJC (Atlanta Journal Constitution) the Atlanta Braves made an announcement today that, depending on your own personal views, angered or pleased you.

The article announced that Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast televised games will have a new face attached to broadcasts for the 2019 season.

Jeff Francouer will be taking on a more prominent role in the TV booth. Joe Simpson will be reduced to 20 or 30 games on the TV side, while he will increase his presence on the radio side.

Say it Ain’t So, Joe

This news comes as a surprise, really, to all. While the vast majority felt Mr. Simpson had some faux pas’ this past season, specifically the Los Angeles Dodger fiasco, the taken-out-of-context comments made toward Washington Nationals rookie Juan Soto, amid myriad other instances, left many fans growing tired of his antics.

That conception was quickly dismissed, though, as Fox Sports South/Southeast GM Jeff Genther and Braves CEO Derek Schiller adamantly denied that notion.

Simpson, at times, also had a very pedantic and cynical tone  – more times than not, in fact.  When faced with the concept of advanced metrics (such as having to talk about them) or other things that have changed in the game, he was sometimes quick to dismiss them and admonish the concept.

Some fans were growing tired of the same old rigamarole. His insight to the game may have appealed to some, but for others, this news is a most welcomed change.

It might be welcomed as well from the Atlanta Braves front office, particularly given their own deep dive into the well of analytics – and thus perhaps it was the nudging of the Braves that fostered this change.

Simpson himself, though, in the article, expressed that he actually did recommend perhaps cutting back a bit. However, he was even surprised a bit when he found out just how many games he was being cut down to. Simpson is expected to work around 100 games on radio, with an additional 20-30 on TV in 2019.

“I had proposed cutting back, but my proposal was a lot different than theirs,” Simpson said. “I was suggesting maybe cutting back to like 120 TV games, hoping to fill in the rest with some radio. But they’ve cut me back to 20 or 30 TV games with the rest being radio, so that came as a surprise.” – Joe Simpson via the AJC

Frency at the Mic

The benefactor, Jeff Francouer, (and honestly, this should be the bigger take-away here) will see a drastic increase to his TV presence for Braves games in 2019. Frenchy saw an increased role on the radio side this past season as well as a handful of TV broadcasts.

The sentiment appeared to be very positive on Francouer during his radio and TV time this year. He was received well by the fans.

I personally thought he was a breath of fresh air.

Francouer deserves this and I’m glad the Braves have him in the booth. As well as Frenchy getting an increased role, Braves and National Baseball Hall of Famer, Tom Glavine, will see his time in the booth increase as well. Francouer will get about 105 games this year.

Video Killed the Radio Stars

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Of course, with the shuffling in the TV booth, the effects have altered the radio crew a bit. We’ll still get Jim Powell and Don Sutton. However, sadly, we’ll get less of Sutton, more of Simpson, and then Powell and Ben Ingram will all split time. That’s a lot to go around.

Honestly, if I had my preference, we’d get a rotation like we saw in the old days, where the TV crew would switch to radio halfway through the game, and vise versa for the radio crew. But with talents like Skip, Ernie, and Pete, it would have been an injustice and travesty to not hear and see them on a nightly basis on TBS.

All in all, I believe these changes are going to be good. I think Francouer will be just fine and do a very fine job in the TV booth. I think Joe will have a fun time on radio, but it will be interesting to see how the radio rotation works itself out.

Either way, it will be fun hearing them call the moonshots from Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Josh Donaldson, the slick defense of Freddie Freeman and Ender Inciarte, and comment on the cerebral fortitude of the Manager of the Year, Brian Snitker.