ESPN's Baseball Today podcast ending next week

jack presley

Sad to hear that ESPN's Baseball Today podcast is ending next week. Ok, it's getting replaced with a 'Baseball Tonight' podcast to be hosted by Buster Olney but that will come out in the evening time in the States will probably be in the middle of the night our time, well after I've gone to bed anyway.

The current one is great as it came out around 5-6pm our time which made it perfect to listen to on the way home from work. It gave a nice recap of the previous night's games and previewed that game's days and had some gret interviews. I'll miss it for sure.

Benimar

Thats a pity. I really got into it last year and was looking forward to it returning on a daily basis.

Always found it interesting and a bit surprised its being replaced.

boccy23

Very dissapointed as well. Thing I liked was that it was so non-ESPN like. They had opinions which countered popular opinion. This new one sounds more like a cut and paste of Baseball Tonight. Will wait and see but think it will be very "corporate".

piperious

I'm wondering what happened, as I understand this podcast was one of ESPN's most popular? We're they unable to secure a season sponsor?

BigBadRob83

Going to miss Keith Law's rants.

8-10

Just listening to the last episode. Aww.

jack presley

I haven't listened yet but I see the new 'Baseball Tonight' podcast is up on Itunes. Hopefully this is the way it'll be every day and we get it around 7pm. That won't be as bad as I originally had feared.

Benimar

Just listened to the 1st episode there and I have to say I'm disappointed.

It seemed to ramble quite a bit and is full of the cliches that Baseball Today thankfully avoided (good clubhouse guy, plays the game the right way etc). Makes me worry that this is going to be to Baseball what Sky Sports News is to football, all tired cliches and no real substance.

Also, what was the point in the Deion Sanders story??

I won't completely write it off after one episode but I think Olney needs a co-host to stop him rambling.

Benimar

3 episodes in and I've given up.

So far, we have had stories about Deion Sanders, Mark Buerhles dog, Strasburgs food poisoning and John Kruks fear of bridges :rolleyes:

If anyone has and suggestions for a good baseball podcast to listen to, can you pass it along.

jack presley

Benimar wrote: »

3 episodes in and I've given up.

So far, we have had stories about Deion Sanders, Mark Buerhles dog, Strasburgs food poisoning and John Kruks fear of bridges :rolleyes:

If anyone has and suggestions for a good baseball podcast to listen to, can you pass it along.

I think it's alright and probably still trying to find its feet. I miss Eric and Mark to be honest and the best thing was it was different to the TV show whereas now it's the same people showing up on both.

To be fair, when I first started listening to the Baseball Today podcast it was Peter Pascarelli on his own and while I grew to like his style, it was tough listening to at the start. So hopefully this one will grow on me too.

Benimar

I might dip in and out of it to see does it pick up, but at the moment its not for me.

Maybe it's the 'numbers nerd' in me but I'm looking for a bit more than comments like 'the Yankees will find a way to make it work', which was John Kruks response to how they will make up for the 100HRs they lost in the offseason.

8-10

I'm not impressed with the first week of this, but that's what it is, the first week. Once spring training games start I'll give it another go to see how the coverage is, and then when the season starts I'll probably try it out too. Honestly a daily podcast is probably a bit premature right now. If it was twice a week right now and building up to daily for season start it might work better. Just a really tough time to start a new daily podcast.

Jury's out for me. But can I ask about alternatives? Is there anything else you guys listen to right now? I'm willing to give anything a go, it's just hard to get a handle on which pods are good and which suck!

Thanks!

smackbunnybaby

8-10 wrote: »

I'm not impressed with the first week of this, but that's what it is, the first week. Once spring training games start I'll give it another go to see how the coverage is, and then when the season starts I'll probably try it out too. Honestly a daily podcast is probably a bit premature right now. If it was twice a week right now and building up to daily for season start it might work better. Just a really tough time to start a new daily podcast.

Jury's out for me. But can I ask about alternatives? Is there anything else you guys listen to right now? I'm willing to give anything a go, it's just hard to get a handle on which pods are good and which suck!

Thanks!

alternatives...I just decided to check out the baseball america one, http://tunein.com/topic/?TopicId=44667425

I'd say it's good as baseball america is quite good anyway.

also, while we dont have the Up and In ones with Goldstein and Parks we still have the other Baseball Prospectus ones.

Benimar

There are a few more mentioned here, both in the main article and the comments section.

I haven't listened to many of them as yet, so can't comment either way, but they may be worth checking out.

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/41619906/

boccy23

Not sure what to make of this yet. I do like Buster and like his insight. It's valuable on the basis of his relationships with baseball people.

But I don't like the interviews. There are very corporate. Everyone is great. The SS for whatever team has a chance to be #1 at his position, their SP is an Ace etc. etc.

What I liked the most about the Baseball Today (and going back to Peter Pasquerrli's time) was that it seemed off the reservation. It was done by ESPN but didn't seem to be over edited like Baseball Tonight, Mike&Mike and other shows. They taled up and down players, called a spade a spade and gave me a better insight into how the game works as a business and how it is played.

Peter, Eric & Keith did their best to dissuade standard RBI, value of relievers, "Doing thinsg the right way" sort of main stream drivel that gets trotted out everywhere else. As it stands, this seems to be what Buster and his crew are giving us.

As someone said, I will wait for regular season play to begin before casting a final opinion and maybe unsubscribing. But it doen't look promising so far.

Also, with Ross Tucker leaving Football Today, ESPN seem to be changing the flavour of their podcasts in a major way. At the moment, I am worried that it will not be what it once was, that it will become too main stream.

jack presley

boccy23 wrote: »

Not sure what to make of this yet. I do like Buster and like his insight. It's valuable on the basis of his relationships with baseball people.

But I don't like the interviews. There are very corporate. Everyone is great. The SS for whatever team has a chance to be #1 at his position, their SP is an Ace etc. etc.

What I liked the most about the Baseball Today (and going back to Peter Pasquerrli's time) was that it seemed off the reservation. It was done by ESPN but didn't seem to be over edited like Baseball Tonight, Mike&Mike and other shows. They taled up and down players, called a spade a spade and gave me a better insight into how the game works as a business and how it is played.

Peter, Eric & Keith did their best to dissuade standard RBI, value of relievers, "Doing thinsg the right way" sort of main stream drivel that gets trotted out everywhere else. As it stands, this seems to be what Buster and his crew are giving us.

As someone said, I will wait for regular season play to begin before casting a final opinion and maybe unsubscribing. But it doen't look promising so far.

Also, with Ross Tucker leaving Football Today, ESPN seem to be changing the flavour of their podcasts in a major way. At the moment, I am worried that it will not be what it once was, that it will become too main stream.

You hit the nail on the head there. To me, it's too much like the TV show as it's the same voices you hear all over ESPN whereas as you say, Eric Karabel and Peter Pascarelli were the nerds that the cool kids wouldn't talk to. And as a result they said what they wanted to say, even if it went against ESPN policy etc. (remember what happened to Peter!).

8-10

jack presley wrote: »

And as a result they said what they wanted to say, even if it went against ESPN policy etc. (remember what happened to Peter!).

No?

Benimar

8-10 wrote: »

No?

A bit of background here..

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/02/25/unwritten-espn-rule-thou-shalt-not-take-shots-at-bud-selig/

BigBadRob83

Benimar wrote: »

A bit of background here..

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/02/25/unwritten-espn-rule-thou-shalt-not-take-shots-at-bud-selig/

Never knew that, have only been listening since Karabell was there. Haven't downloaded once since Buster took over. Heard him interviewed on there plenty of times and not what I'm interested in at all, if wanted that would just watch Baseball Tonight on ESPN.

I thought podcasts were supposed to be where you could do things differently.

Will miss Karabell and Law, just need to find somewhere else to get the kind of honest and entertaining opinions they gave.

jack presley

The new podcast is getting destroyed on the American Itunes comments page. Hopefully the ESPN suits will read them and bring back Eric/Mark/Keith although considering their Ipad app for the Magazine has been getting slated for years and they've done nothing about that, I doubt they'll do anything.

mikemac1

I liked Buster Olney on Baseball Today so give the new podcast a chance.

Soft, safe and cliche filled media stories.

Where are the rants and stats and trivia that Baseball Today had?
Like Keith Law ripping the Orioles all season long and never gave them an ounce of love. He didn't hold back anyway

The new podcast has zero strong opinions, bland I believe is the word here

Benimar

Has anyone checked out the other podcasts mentioned earlier in the thread? If so, any strong recommendations?

Benimar

The Baseball Show with Rany and Joe is coming back for the new season. The 1st episode should be on iTunes by tomorrow.

I downloaded an episode from last season and it seems quite good. Not as analytical as Baseball Today but far, far superior to Baseball Tonight.

jack presley

Benimar wrote: »

The Baseball Show with Rany and Joe is coming back for the new season. The 1st episode should be on iTunes by tomorrow.

I downloaded an episode from last season and it seems quite good. Not as analytical as Baseball Today but far, far superior to Baseball Tonight.

Thanks for that link. I'll give that one a go and the Baseball America one.

Another bad thing I'm noticing on the Buster Olney podcast is how much they focus on the big teams. I know the old podcast used to get accused of an 'east coast bias' but in reality that was never the case and small teams got as much coverage as the big teams. On this new podcast however, i don't think I've even heard them mention teams like the A's, Pirates, Royals etc. How many times are going to hear reports from Braves camp? I know it's all change now and it;s all about ratings but I didn't think it would be this bad.

BigBadRob83

Thanks Benimar, will give it a try.

First Baseball Today, then Off The Ball. No more, please...

jack presley

jack presley wrote: »

How many times are going to hear reports from Braves camp?

I wrote that yesterday and today, Buster finishes off todays podcast by saying "...and tomorrow I'll be reporting from Braves camp"

Benimar

jack presley wrote: »

I wrote that yesterday and today, Buster finishes off todays podcast by saying "...and tomorrow I'll be reporting from Braves camp"

I'm going to out on a limb here and suggest it won't be Busters last report from Braves camp this side of April 1.

jack presley

For anyone missing Keith Law, a new podcast has appeared in itunes

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=9043211

mikemac1

That Keith Law podcast is very good.

Interesting interview with the Astros GM and then a discussion about Mariano Rivera

boccy23

mikemac1 wrote: »

That Keith Law podcast is very good.

Interesting interview with the Astros GM and then a discussion about Mariano Rivera

Agreed. Liked it a lot as well. Might make up for some of the shortcomings of Baseball Tonight.
I see Eric is doing Fridays on the Fantasy Focus podcast as well.

jack presley

I know it's only for one week while Buster Olney's on holidays but it's good to have Eric Karabel and David Schonefield back on the podcast. Hopefully they'll bring back Mark Simon some stage this week too.