John Smoltz Replaces Tom Verducci, Harold Reynolds as Fox's World Series Analyst

Fox is making changes to its Major League Baseball broadcasting team, with John Smoltz replacing Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci as the lead solo analyst.   

According to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News, Smoltz will work alongside play-by-play commentator Joe Buck in the Fox broadcast booth for the network's World Series coverage. 

Fox has been working with the three-man broadcast booth with Buck, Reynolds and Verducci during the World Series since 2014, the year after Tim McCarver retired, but Martino noted that crew has drawn "mixed reviews."

Reynolds is often a lightning rod for scorn on social media. Chad Finn of the Boston Globe explained why the former MLB second baseman is often used as a Twitter punching bag. 

"He is an affable man but an insufferable analyst, one prone to hyperbole and non sequiturs that stem from an old-school approach thinly veiling a lack of curiosity about baseball’s newer trends," Finn wrote. 

Verducci is a long-time MLB writer and reporter who has done television work for the MLB Network and has done "sideline" work before making the transition to the broadcast booth in 2014. 

Martino's report did note that Reynolds and Verducci are "likely" to have a continued role in Fox's MLB coverage, though an exact role has not been determined. 

Smoltz has steadily grown into one of the best MLB television analysts in the business. He's done work for the MLB Network and been part of the broadcast booth for TBS' Sunday game of the week and postseason coverage for years. 

Adding Smoltz' strong-minded approach and knowledge of the game to the World Series booth should help raise the quality of analysis that, for whatever reason, seemed to be missing with the three-man crew.