Rangers Announcers

The Twins won the first two games of the series with Texas, meaning it has obviously been enjoyable to watch. But even more than that, I've really liked listening to the Ranger announcers. I don't know what it is about them, but they just seem very relaxed and comfortable, and are relatively funny. I also find them to be very fair, with just enough bias to remind you that are announcing for the Texas Rangers.

Additionally, while they're no Bill James, they seem to do a little better job ignoring useless stats like wins. They also quoted on base percentage over the beloved batting average more often than you'd expect from an announcer. And there were a lot of interesting things they said that I didn't think were true; but the ones I could look up easily I did, and they were all correct. For instance, one of them commented that the Mariners have 3 of the top 5 or 6 pitchers in the AL as judged by ERA, or at least would if Erik Bedard had enough innings to qualify. Turns out, if Bedard qualified, Felix Hernandez, Bedard, and Jarrod Washburn would rank 2nd, 4th, and 6th respectively.

All of that almost went down the drain when I heard this at one point in yesterday's game: "Nick Punto has become a very popular player in Minnesota". It only made me like them more, though, when I heard them conclude the sentence: "Nick Punto has become a very popular player in Minnesota, certainly with his manager Ron Gardenhire," they finished with a chuckle.

And, of course, they described him as a "scrappy middle infielder," followed by a digression on how the Twins like his hustle, but don't want him to be reckless. Translation: stop sliding head first into first base!