Question about MiLB First Pitch

[Aglets]

This looks pretty affordable.  Only 40 bucks for a full years worth of games.  Does anyone know how it works for O's fans specifically?  Will i suffer from any blackout restrictions since I live in the Baltimore area?

Do all 4 of the Orioles main affiliates participate?

[oriolesacox]

I can’t speak on the blackouts as I live in Ohio but all the Orioles farm teams are represented.  It’s a nice alternative to the big club. 

[Tony-OH]

14 hours ago, Aglets said:

This looks pretty affordable.  Only 40 bucks for a full years worth of games.  Does anyone know how it works for O's fans specifically?  Will i suffer from any blackout restrictions since I live in the Baltimore area?

Do all 4 of the Orioles main affiliates participate?

There are no blackouts and all four affiliates do broadcast home games. However, the Orioles organization affilitaes lag way behind in broadcast experience with only Norfolk having a center field camera to watch the pitcher/batter matchup we are used to seeing in most real broadcasts. The Aberdeen experience is actually the worse I've seen of any team, wit just a camera behind home plate at the press box view. No broadcasters or even crowd ambience.

It's actually quite embarrassing when you watch other organizations have broadcasters, center field cameras and a nice multi-camera approach in Low-A ball and our teams besides Norfolk look very unprofessional. Delmarva dose the second best job with multi-cameras and a radio broadcaster, but Bowie and Aberdeen's experience lag way behind and are kind of an embarrassment. 

With a focus on the minor leagues, I'm disappointed that Mike Elias allows such shoddy broadcasting of his minor league teams and games, but perhaps it's on purpose, who knows? All I know is that I look forward to Bowie and Aberdeen being on the road, because the broadcasts are always better experiences and some of Delmarva's away games are better as well.

[Aglets]

Thanks Tony!  That is exactly the kind of information i was looking for.  I will keep thinking about whether or not i think this will be worth the money to me.  Maybe i should just try it for one month first.

[UMDTerrapins]

If you do get it, one of the very nice features is that you can look at a players' game log, pick a game and click on the box score, and then click on the video archive of the game. It's buggy though....I couldn't use Safari. I had to use Chrome, and when you click on the video link it often goes to a blank page...but if you refresh that page, voila. Along with what Tony said about poor quality of the broadcast, it's a pretty flimsy operation. But I've been so much happier watching MiL games than ML ones, cause you know, we kinda suck. 

note: I'm talking about their web page, not the app

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

With a focus on the minor leagues, I'm disappointed that Mike Elias allows such shoddy broadcasting of his minor league teams and games, but perhaps it's on purpose, who knows? All I know is that I look forward to Bowie and Aberdeen being on the road, because the broadcasts are always better experiences and some of Delmarva's away games are better as well.

I’d be a little surprised if this is within Mike Elias’ sphere of responsibility and authority.   But if he’s aware of it, perhaps he’d speak to whatever department handles that.    

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I’d be a little surprised if this is within Mike Elias’ sphere of responsibility and authority.   But if he’s aware of it, perhaps he’d speak to whatever department handles that.    

He is in charge of baseball operations which means all of this falls under his domain. But, saying that, I plan to do a story on this and will give him the opportunity to discuss along with the minor league affiliate GMs.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Aglets said:

Thanks Tony!  That is exactly the kind of information i was looking for.  I will keep thinking about whether or not i think this will be worth the money to me.  Maybe i should just try it for one month first.

While buggy "video goes out often when trying to skip around", I find it well worth the money and is much less commercial intrusive than the horrible MLBTV that forces you to watch multiple commercials when watching an archived games every time you try to jump to a different inning.

MLBTV is nothing more than a time wasting money grab, but if you use it to just watch live games out of market it's ok. Trying to jump around or watch archived games is awful due to the amount of commercials you have to undergo just to try and see a certain play, hit or pitch.

[UMDTerrapins]

3 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

He is in charge of baseball operations which means all of this falls under his domain. But, saying that, I plan to do a story on this and will give him the opportunity to discuss along with the minor league affiliate GMs.

My biggest gripe is the camera angles. Not just the angles, but that when they do switch to a secondary camera after a ball is put in play, it frequently misses the action. Calling it amateur implies that they're even trying. The quality difference between teams/affiliates is wild. Some organizations do a pretty decent job. My second biggest gripe is the lack of the radar gun on the graphics. The announcers will talk about the most random things, but most rarely call out speeds. Infuriating. 

[Tony-OH]

2 minutes ago, UMDTerrapins said:

My biggest gripe is the camera angles. Not just the angles, but that when they do switch to a secondary camera after a ball is put in play, it frequently misses the action. Calling it amateur implies that they're even trying. The quality difference between teams/affiliates is wild. Some organizations do a pretty decent job. My second biggest gripe is the lack of the radar gun on the graphics. The announcers will talk about the most random things, but most rarely call out speeds. Infuriating. 

Yeah, only the best of the best have those features but it would be amazing if more teams had them. Saying that, i just think a center field camera along with 1st base and 3rd base cameras should be the minimum along with radio announcers. It can't be that expensive to produce a decent quality broadcast since we see many very low level affiliates do an outstanding job.

I can deal with the poor or late direction of which camera to go by the director in the minors because afterall, this is the minors. but a lack of center field camera for the batt/pitcher matchup is embarrassing in this day and age. 

[Frobby]

17 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

He is in charge of baseball operations which means all of this falls under his domain. But, saying that, I plan to do a story on this and will give him the opportunity to discuss along with the minor league affiliate GMs.

Are you sure that TV broadcasting for the minor league affiliates falls under Baseball Operations?    It could, but I’d think that more likely it doesn’t.   I’d expect Elias to be in charge of whether the affiliates have Rapsodo cameras tracking their minor league games, but not how many TV broadcast cameras they use or where they’re placed.   But I could be wrong.  In any event it will be interesting to see what answers you get.   

[Tony-OH]

45 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Are you sure that TV broadcasting for the minor league affiliates falls under Baseball Operations?    It could, but I’d think that more likely it doesn’t.   I’d expect Elias to be in charge of whether the affiliates have Rapsodo cameras tracking their minor league games, but not how many TV broadcast cameras they use or where they’re placed.   But I could be wrong.  In any event it will be interesting to see what answers you get.   

I don't think their broadcasting per se is under his watch, but he certainly should be well aware of the Baltimore Orioles organization baseball product as a whole. 

[NCRaven]

Traditionally, I think that the minor league affiliates were responsible for this type of activity.  All of the affiliates are owned by people other than the Angelos family except the short season Gulf Coast and DSL teams.  None of those teams are responsible for player payroll so I would expect them to be responsible for the gameday experience, including radio and tv broadcasts.

[ndanger21]

17 hours ago, NCRaven said:

Traditionally, I think that the minor league affiliates were responsible for this type of activity.  All of the affiliates are owned by people other than the Angelos family except the short season Gulf Coast and DSL teams.  None of those teams are responsible for player payroll so I would expect them to be responsible for the gameday experience, including radio and tv broadcasts.

 

[MurphDogg]

Might as well save $10.