Last year, I was in Secaucus, New Jersey to observe MLB Network’s trade deadline coverage. The network went on the air in the morning and didn’t stop shuffling broadcasters in and out for the rest of the day. The coverage was good, the only problem was… maybe one trade got completed the entire day. This is the story of how I ruined the 2013 MLB trade deadline.
2014 is a new year, however, and there are many hoping that this year’s non-waiver trade deadline will be a lot better. Among them, of course, are MLB’s TV partners, two of whom )(MLB Network and ESPN) will spend the afternoon discussing the impending deadline. Fox Sports 1 will keep their coverage locked to primetime, as their nightly show MLB Whiparound has already locked insider JP Morosi in a panic room until Thursday.
MLB Network will, as usual, bring the most coverage to deadline day. They will go live at 11 a.m. ET and won’t stop live programming until the end of the baseball day. Insiders Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal and Joel Sherman will have live cameras positioned inside their “offices” (they don’t necessarily have offices there that they use all the time except for deadline day) and analysts include Peter Gammons, John Hart, Kevin Millar, Dan Plesac, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci. Chris Russo, Richard Justice, Jonathan Mayo, Tracy Ringolsby, Phil Rogers, Bill Shaikin and Bob Nightengale will also contribute.
ESPN will also have a trade deadline show, though only one hour in length. Jon Sciambi will host the special edition of Baseball Tonight, starting on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, with analysts John Kruk and Manny Acta. Insiders include Buster Olney, Tim Kurkjian, Jayson Stark and Keith Law. ESPN will then air two editions of Baseball Tonight (the “seam head” one and the regular one) at its usual time that evening.
The networks will be all over the MLB trade deadline. The question is: will there be much of a trade deadline to report on? Hopefully, my staying away from either network’s studio will keep the action moving this year.
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