The Arizona Diamondbacks announcing situation has received a lot of attention from us at AA this season, and finally, we have a conclusion to everything. Arizona's new TV duo replacing the dismissed Daron Sutton and Mark Grace will be ESPN anchor Steve Berthiaume, and former Cubs color commentator and Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly.

It was announced yesterday that Brenly would be leaving WGN after eight years in the booth with the Cubs, and all evidence immediately pointed at him going to Arizona, where he won the World Series as Diamondbacks manager in 2001 and owns a residence. As for Berthiaume, the frequent Baseball Tonight anchor will be taking a huge step in his career by moving to a play by play role, which he's done in limited instances for ESPN this year to varying degrees of success.

For the Diamondbacks, you have to call their hires a pair of moves that will make heads turn at the very least. These aren't radio guys transitioning to the TV booth, but instead a national anchor and an announcer for one of the most popular franchises in baseball heading out to the desert to take on new ventures with Arizona. Regardless of how you feel about either Berthiaume or Brenly, you need to admit that the Diamondbacks are at least going all-in with their new TV commentators and are making a huge splash in the field.

ESPN won't necessarily miss Berthiaume all that much in their revolving door of anchors and studio hosts. Berthiaume wasn't even the lead anchor on Baseball Tonight, a job possessed by long-time ESPN staffer Karl Ravech. I'm curious as to whether or not ESPN will go after a "name" commentator to replace Berthiaume after losing Brian Kenny to MLB Network last year. The best possible in-house replacement for Berthiaume in my mind is Jon Sciambi, who hosts Baseball Tonight on occasion but mainly focuses on play by play for radio for ESPN.

The Cubs replacement for Brenly will have large shoes to fill, and I wouldn't be surprised if they kept things in-house and went with a former Cub player like Kerry Wood (who has said he's not keen on the position) or Todd Hollandsworth. I don't think the Cubs will hire a big name to replace Brenly alongside Len Kasper, but you never really know with commentary positions.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

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