Braves News: Atlanta Braves name Kevin Kraus as new PA announcer

When popular Atlanta Braves announcer Casey Motter passed away last summer, it was a punch in the gut. Motter had been with the team since 2007 and his voice became synonymous with the game day experience at Truist Park. The Braves decided to make the process of replacing Casey an open audition and contest where they got over 500 auditions and fans quickly started picking their favorites.

The field was narrowed down to three finalists and, frankly, all of them would be great in the position.

However, in the end, there could only be one new announcer and the Braves announced today that Kevin Kraus was going to be the new PA announcer for the Atlanta Braves. The announcement video was really well done with some help from Spencer Strider trolling the new guy.

Again, all three candidates had great voices and would be great game day announcers, but there is the curious matter of the public vote that the Braves had where fans could lend their support to their favorite of the three finalists. As you can see, Kraus did not win the fan vote as Larry Gardner was the overwhelming favorite in the poll.

At the end of the day, it is probably best for the team to be comfortable with whoever they pick over anything else, but why even hold a vote if that is the case. All that means is that there could be some amount of resentment towards the team's choice if, for no other reason, being that it feels like the team was acting in a bit of bad faith. That isn't fair to Larry, Kevin, or anyone involved really.

That is a relatively minor quibble, though. While Larry may have been the fans' choice, all three finalists were great and we are certain Kevin is going to do a great job. He has some big shoes to fill, but we look forward to him on the mic at Truist Park.