Just as the White Sox have pulled themselves out of the cellar in a grueling fashion, their broadcast is no longer in last place, but plenty of work remains.
The White Sox finished 27th out of 30 booths in Awful Announcing's annual MLB broadcasting survey published this week, which marks improvement from 2024, when the Sox finished dead last in John Schriffen's debut season. Their score rose from 1.15 to 1.82, which is still a "D" according to the system, but like a lot of other things with the White Sox, "not failing" constitutes improvement.
A poll conducted by Awful Announcing feels like it's leading the witness by default, and Schriffen's rookie season provided plenty of fodder for the site with bold, poor choices. However, aside from Schriffen's blithe-sounding dismissal of Pitching Ninja's influence back in April -- which he said was intended to reflect his personal withdrawal from Twitter, not a knock on Rob Friedman's work -- he's kept a much lower profile this year. The introduction of a number of new voices, be it Brooke Fletcher, Connor McKnight or Dan Plesac, has helped to address the information deficit from last year, when it became apparent that NBC Sports Chicago took Jason Benetti's preparation for granted and assumed three hours could fill itself.
The present mix doesn't yet feel like a longterm solution, though, and for multiple reasons. Schriffen's still not all that conversant in baseball, but it's more that his standoffish approach to local media means that the voice of the White Sox is not deployed as an outward-facing representative of the team, at least outside of tailgates.
But the analyst seat also feels like it's in flux. Steve Stone is working fewer games, and he's 78, so he's earned that right. The concern is that he also sounds less invested in the games he calls. Perhaps it's the natural toll of what looks like a third consecutive 100-loss season, but as we learned about Stone when the White Sox went from Hawk Harrelson to Benetti, he needs a foil, somebody who respects his knowledge but also can challenge it, in order to roust him out of autopilot. He leveled up when Benetti brought his own proficiency to the booth, especially when they dropped the "old school vs. new school" artifice and became more about "two people talking ball." And Stone was forced to exert more effort last season when Schriffen offloaded all of analysis onto his partner, but as Schriffen has gained confidence in his delivering his own assessments between pitches and batters, Stone has receded.
You can hear flickers of the old inspiration when McKnight peppers his play-by-play cameos with his own research and reading, but that relationship needs reps. Likewise, you can sense when something strikes Gordon Beckham and he wants to lend some genuine ex-player gravitas to a moment, but he needs a partner who can help him find the words. There are pieces to a better broadcast here, but they're not in any set order.
Speaking of a better broadcast, Benetti's Detroit booth ranked No. 8 in the poll, although with an unusual amount of disagreement. With the team settling on Andy Dirks as the primarily analyst, Benetti has a partner that will go with him everywhere, and as we saw with the White Sox, that's not everybody's cup of tea.
The overall response here saw the Tigers move even higher in the Top 10. However, that came with some intense polarization. They received the fourth-most As (620 of 1,362), but also the fourth-most Fs (230).
That polarization was reflected in the comments as well, especially when it came to the discussion of the broadcast’s increased tangents away from the field in the Benetti era. That included “Not sure when a baseball broadcast became a standup comedy act, but that’s what we have every night,” “Wish more people would see through the Benetti schtick,” “Too many jokes, not enough baseball,” and “Ugh, I wish they would just talk about the game.” But there was a huge amount of praise for Benetti and this approach too, such as “Benetti is one of the top PxP commentators in the sport,” “Benetti is a treasure,” and “Jason and Andy are the ultimate duo, providing humor and insight to each broadcast.”
Spare Parts
On ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, the commissioner reiterated a desire to expand to 32 teams for the purposes of radical geographical realignment that ditches the American League/National League split for something closer to Western and Eastern conferences. This discussion feels like putting the cart before the horse, not just because multiple MLB teams need to resolve their stadium situations, not just because the league is years away from settling on expansion markets, but also because ...
... the idea of designing leagues around TV broadcasts is pointless when distribution is more fragmented than ever. Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports says that MLB.tv is being sold to ESPN (OK...), Netflix will get the Home Run Derby(?), and playoff games might be on Peacock(??), which almost makes me glad the White Sox won't be in the postseason out of principle.
The tectonic plates underneath Tommy Pham shifted again.
Victor Robles has been rehabbing from a shoulder injury with Triple-A Tacoma, but the Pacific Coast League hasn't been particularly accommodating, as he was hit by pitches five times in a series against Las Vegas.
Victor Robles throws his bat at the pitcher after being hit by five pitches, a breakdown pic.twitter.com/idVUeRZAD9
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) August 18, 2025
