Baseball Tonight's analyst pool keeps growing, but, with that, it's getting much worse in terms of quality. Along with its decreasing quality in analysts, the quality of its segments is declining as well.
"Chatter Up" is probably the one I dislike the most, and it's all about execution. In theory, the concept is great, but they simply don't choose any intelligent comments. They pick from the bottom of the barrel in terms of what fans submit.
It seems to be a theme, though. If you need any further proof, look no further than the humorous sports blog Deadspin and its daily post on what the ESPN featured comment of the day is. They pick the most generic, radical, and fan-driven thing someone submits. If you can write a complete sentence, and it ends in "YANKEES RULE!!!" chances are they will put it up.
The days of "Touch 'Em All" and "Web Gems" are also gone, as both have become centered on the most popular players and teams. Last week, Ryan Doumit's two home-run performance was not only left out of the highlights, but it was suspiciously absent from the "Touch 'Em All" segment of the show.
However, I must commend them on the year-old segment "That's Nasty." It's the pitcher's equivalent to "Web Gems," and it has become very enjoyable.
I usually am very mum on bashing a network like ESPN; I believe that fans and bloggers alike do it enough. Their quality of work is going down, and I'm not sure what is pushing them in the direction in which they keep on going.
It's one of the few shows I like, but after seeing their "Music Contest" last night, different bands played the infamous "Take me out to the ballgame," I simply cannot put up with it any more.
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