Former Fox MLB color commentator Tim McCarver "has been hired to serve as the analyst" for 30 Cardinals games this season on FS Midwest, according to Dan Caesar of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. The "long-anticipated deal has been confirmed" by the RSN, where he will work with play-by-play announcer Dan McLaughlin. The addition of McCarver "comes at the time Cards radio broadcaster Mike Shannon is cutting his schedule, missing approximately 50 road contests as he reduces his workload at age 74." McCarver, 72, is "set to do 18 road and 12 home games this season." His "first assignment" is the Cardinals' May 2 away game against the Cubs. McCarver said of his replacements in the Fox booth, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci, "I think they'll do just fine. No. 1, they're working with the best in the business in Joe [Buck]. They'll be better broadcasters (because of him), I guarantee it. They'll be better with Joe than anybody else" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 3/7).
THE REPLACEMENTS: In Boston, Chad Finn writes Fox "made a less-than-inspired choice to replace McCarver, and it’s disappointing given the prominence of the position." Verducci is "fine, a superb writer," and will be a "suitable information guy." But Reynolds "willfully disregards the statistical advances in baseball to traffic in hagiography, myth-making, and archaic thinking." He will "not criticize management, and he’ll over-praise certain players so much that you may start recalling McCarver's particular adorations as restrained and subtle." Fox, which "prides itself on being the fun and innovative foil to ESPN, missed a golden chance to be the latter here" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/7).
