How do you replace a radio man like Jeff Kingery, who helped raise a generation of Colorado baseball fans (myself included) with his distinct calls, touching every important event in Rockies history? How do you replace the Voice of the Rockies?
With the Voice of the Nuggets?
Troy Renck took some time off in between negotiating around moguls to report that Jerry Schemmel, the Nuggets chief radio play-by-play man, has interviewed for the job and has emerged as a favorite to replace Jeff Kingery alongside Jack Corrigan. I wonder what his strikeout call would be - "GOT IT!!!!"? Or home run call = "He launches it (from) deep - YESSS!!"? From growing up with Schemm pouring out my radio as a kid, I'm excited about the prospect of a Schemmel crossover. He has already begun his transition.
Last season, he became Colorado State University's football radio play-by-play announcer after the death of Rich Bircumshaw. He also cut his Nuggets load in half for this season, choosing to broadcast only home games so that he could focus on coaching the Metro State baseball team. The man has more years of broadcasting experience than I have years of life, has a voice familiar to the region and even saves infants from plane crashes. What else do you want?
Maybe you want the man who has announced Sky Sox games for two decades. Dan Karcher would be another solid choice.
Among the other nuggets (no pun intended) that Troy Renck offered:
- Renck confirms that there's a catcher carousel of Bengie Molina, Yorvit Torrealba, and Miguel Olivo, with the Mets, Rockies and Giants likely to choose one each. I wager that this would all be decided if only one of those catchers were Latin.
- The Cubs interest in Spilborghs was overstated. I wouldn't count on a trade happening here even if it were Chicago's priority.
- Dan O'Dowd doesn't want to trade Spilborghs, as he feels Ryan can bounce back with a better approach in 2010. In fact, Renck was more specific: The Rockies were disappointed that Spilborghs seemed more interested in hitting for power than for average last season. Come on Ryan. Why change an approach that had your wOBA pushing .400 in 2008?
Two other quick links:
Twitter / Jon Heyman: Mark DeRosa's 2-year, $12mil contract with San Francisco will be announced today. He will be the main starter at third, with Pablo Sandoval shifting to first. This improves their offense a bit, but so did acquiring Ryan Garko.
Consistency Factor 2009 - Beyond the Box Score
Another BtB original stat shows that Ubaldo Jimenez was exceedingly consistent in 2009. The author writes:
If Ubaldo continues this progression of increasing consistency, theoretically eliminating his only major weakness, he will contend for a Cy Young...like soon
Jerry Schemmel photo courtesy of www.colostate.edu