Who is our best PBP announcer?

[Frobby]

And for bonus points, do you prefer our current best PBP announcer to the pre-2020 announcers?

I realize that some people’s answers might vary depending on whether we are talking about TV or radio, but I decided not to specify that in the poll.  

[interloper]

It's not even remotely close. 

[spleen1015]

This is a close one for me. I went KB, but I like Brett Hollander, too. I mispoke in another thread a few days go when I said I thought Arnold was good. I meant Hollander.

[Roy Firestone]

Its not even a close race...KB is Secretariat...the others are horses in the 7th race in the middle of the pack on a Wednesday at some random race track..sorry, theyre all nice people ...Kevin is elite...and will get even better...he has network play by play skills and could do it well for many sports...

[Frobby]

For TV, my ranking would be Brown, Arnold, Hollander, Newman, Garceau.  For radio, I would promote Garceau to 4th and demote Newman to 5th.  The reason for the flip is that contemporaneous description of what’s occurring on the field is not nearly as important on TV as it is on radio, and Melanie is very poor at that.  My problem with Garceau is that he doesn’t convey that the game is interesting.  Melanie is a little better at that IMO.

Either way, Kevin Brown is easily at the top of the list.  Personally, I rank him a little above Gary Thorne.  He has all of Thorne’s good traits, but he doesn’t constantly misidentify pitches or mispronounce people’s names.   Those foibles didn’t bother me much with Gary, but they’re enough reason for me to prefer Kevin.  

On radio, I probably would still rank Joe Angel slightly above Kevin, but only by a hair. And Kevin doesn’t do much radio these days.  
 

[Too Tall]

This is like the question where there are two possible answers Yes or Yes. K B assuming he comes back. But as much as he will be missed, I hope for his sake (not ours) he can walk away from his contract with the idiots that run MASN. He deserves so much better. We deserve better than MASN but................ My pre 2020 goes all the way back to 1954. I like K B but he's not close to John Miller or Chuck Thompson - yet.

[Aristotelian]

Definitely Brown from the current group, but I don't like him as much as Gary Thorne. John Miller is the all time great. 

[btownoriole]

Kevin Brown and it’s not close.  Geoff Arnold is fine and I don’t mind Hollander on radio.  Garceau and Newman should only do pre- and post-.

Pre-2020 Thorne was great but I’d still take Brown over him.  Hunter was awful - just really insulting to my intelligence.

Of course if we really go back, Jon Miller and Chuck Thompson are hall-of-famers.

[Frobby]

34 minutes ago, Too Tall said:

This is like the question where there are two possible answers Yes or Yes. K B assuming he comes back. But as much as he will be missed, I hope for his sake (not ours) he can walk away from his contract with the idiots that run MASN. He deserves so much better. We deserve better than MASN but................ My pre 2020 goes all the way back to 1954. I like K B but he's not close to John Miller or Chuck Thompson - yet.

Yeah, I was only talking about the immediately preceding group of announcers, not the guys another generation back or further.  Jon Miller is my all time favorite.   We’ve been pretty fortunate over the years.   I just hope that run isn’t coming to an end because good talent won’t want to work here.  

[Moose Milligan]

I went Hollander.  I think what happened to KB these last few weeks was very wrong.  But I'm not missing him.

[Jim'sKid26]

1 hour ago, Roy Firestone said:

Its not even a close race...KB is Secretariat...the others are horses in the 7th race in the middle of the pack on a Wednesday at some random race track..sorry, theyre all nice people ...Kevin is elite...and will get even better...he has network play by play skills and could do it well for many sports...

What Roy said...^^^^

However, Jon Miller is the standard against all other O's PBP announcers are compared. 

Oh, and Vin Scully is the GOAT. He is the voice of my childhood. "The eastern most in quality and the western most in flavor."

[Otter]

I'm surprised this is even a question.  Even before the suspension, I was always so impressed with Brown.  Such a great broadcasting voice, smooth, articulate, but doesn't take himself too seriously like many other broadcasters.  He also seems to have a great rapport with Palmer and McDonald.  He's much better than Thorne.  Thorne had a great voice and was articulate, but he made too many mistakes and didn't seem to pay attention sometimes.  I think Brown will have a long and great broadcasting career...albeit probably somewhere else...

[CaptainRedbeard]

Kevin Brown is a lot better than Gary Thorne in a lot of ways - much more knowledgeable overall, up to date with current trends in the game (and well versed in analytics topics) and makes far fewer mistakes identifying players, pitches etc. But Thorne is an amazing PBP in every other way and is really elevated by being paired with a good knowledgeable color commentator. For instance, Thorne and Palmer together were amazing and had a tremendous dynamic.

Final answer - Brown has a slight edge over Thorne without other context, but Thorne and Palmer was the best booth. And even though I’ve quickly grown to like Brown a lot, I have more fondness for Thorne from the years we had him.

Even if they bring in somebody else when Brown inevitably leaves there will be a big drop off. And it will only be magnified by Palmer retiring, which is bound to be soon. He is similarly way above the other color options. 

[FlipTheBird]

2 minutes ago, CaptainRedbeard said:

Kevin Brown is a lot better than Gary Thorne in a lot of ways - much more knowledgeable overall, up to date with current trends in the game (and well versed in analytics topics) and makes far fewer mistakes identifying players, pitches etc. But Thorne is an amazing PBP in every other way and is really elevated by being paired with a good knowledgeable color commentator. For instance, Thorne and Palmer together were amazing and had a tremendous dynamic.

Final answer - Brown has a slight edge over Thorne without other context, but Thorne and Palmer was the best booth. And even though I’ve quickly grown to like Brown a lot, I have more fondness for Thorne from the years we had him.

Even if they bring in somebody else when Brown inevitably leaves there will be a big drop off. And it will only be magnified by Palmer retiring, which is bound to be soon. He is similarly way above the other color options. 

Jim Palmer is of course excellent, but I think Ben McDonald has rapidly grown into a fantastic color guy in his own right.

Now if we wind up stuck with someone like Brad Brach taking a front seat in a color role because of his connections...it's a very, very severe downgrade.

[Sports Guy]

The better question is this imo:

Is the lead voice of the 2024 Os currently employed by the Os/MASN?