ESPN have announced that John Kruk will be the new Sunday Night Baseball analyst. He will join incumbents Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser for ESPN's weekly signature MLB telecast. Kruk leaves the Baseball Tonight Studio, after Terry Francona, once season removed as Boston Red Sox managers, leaves SNB to take the Cleveland Indians job and two seasons after Bobby Valentine left for the same Boston Red Sox position (which lasted just one season). This will be the fourth time the network have repackaged their on air SNB team, since the original tandem of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan were assigned a third partner in Steve Philips (relieved due to scandal).
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WGN and the Chicago Cubs have announced that Jim Deshaies is the new TV analyst. Deshaise will replace Bob Brenley, who left the Windy City to work on FSN-Arizona's Diamondback coverage, with former ESPN anchor Steve Berthiaume. The former major league starter has been with the Astros FSN regional network since 1997. The analyst position was a hotly contested by several popular former major league players including ESPN's Rick Sutcliffe, FOX's Eric Karros and MLB Network's Dan Plesac. Deshaies will join Len Kasper for Cubs coverage on WGN, WGN American and Comcast Sportsnet Chicago.
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Deadspin have picked up a blind item in Sports Business Journal's article of the FOX going all out in collecting RSN's. It notes that Major League Baseball are encouraging FOX in negotiating to acquiring Mid Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) home of the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals. O's and MASN owner Peter Angelos has exclusive rights to the Nationals telecast in their agreement with MLB to allow the Nats to move into their territory after leaving Montreal. With the Nationals a viable contender, they are looking to increase their TV deal to over $100 million dollars, while Angelos insists on stifling his competition to only $34 million. The dispute has been ongoing and it appears MLB are looking to FOX to resolve this as they are not able to negotiation a truce between the teams. Stay tuned.
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