Prized Cardinals pitching prospect Alex Reyes is set to make his return to MLB after spending more than a full season recovering from Tommy John surgery, but with today's game against the Brewers "being video streamed on Facebook," it raises the question of how many fans "will be watching," according to Dan Caesar of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. For the Brewers-Cardinals game on April 11 that was also streamed on Facebook, viewership "peaked with 78,000 people signed in to the production just before the game ended." The audience was 31,000 "at first pitch and averaged about 58,000 for the fourth through eighth innings." By comparison, local Cardinals RSN FS Midwest's telecasts of weekday afternoon games this season are "averaging about 150,000 viewers in the immediate St. Louis area alone." The move of some MLB games to Facebook has "riled many fans for myriad reasons." Meanwhile, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny "understands MLB's move with the Facebook productions but said that had no impact on Reyes' schedule." Matheny said it "just happened to be on that day" and it "wasn't choreographed that way by any means." Today's contest is "one of the most anticipated Cardinals games of the year." Matheny: "From this perspective it had nothing to do with it." Caesar notes it is "unknown if any more Cards games this season will end up on Facebook" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 5/30).
THROWING A CHANGE UP: Broadcaster Rich Waltz, who has called multiple MLB Facebook games this year, said of the outlet, "One cool thing is there are no commercials. It's hard in terms of there is no break, but the content you get in those breaks is terrific, and you don't get it on normal telecast. It's long-form interviews with managers, long-form interviews with players. You get that whole break to do whatever you want. You have all kinds of stuff -- polls. You can get interactive with fans. It's a regular telecast, it's not like you're in a studio. ... The biggest challenge is for the older generation trying to figure out how to stream the picture up on your television set" ("High Heat," MLBN, 5/29).
