Grading Jason Benetti, Clayton Kershaw and NBC's return to MLB broadcasts

For the first time in what feels like a long time, I managed to make it through a “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast without cringing, rolling my eyes, or replacing the in-game audio with a smooth jazz playlist.

We can collectively thank NBC, which debuted its new “Sunday Night Baseball” package on Peacock with the Mariners’ 8-0 victory over the Guardians on March 29. Peacock will exclusively broadcast most Sunday night games until late May, when they will also air on NBC.

Gone are the days of ESPN rotating analysts and gimmicks trying to make Sunday night games, seemingly all of which featured the Dodgers or a New York team, work and keep viewers interested for reasons beyond the on-field action. NBC has aired three games thus far, and the early results are promising.

As with my review of the Yankees-Giants game on Netflix, I’ve focused on three categories here: performance, presentation, and commentary. I want to stress that these are my personal grades based on my own experience.

Performance: A+

This one is fairly straightforward. Using an Amazon Fire TV/Fire Stick, I watched the two Opening Day games on NBC through YouTube TV, and I caught the Guardians-Mariners game on Peacock. All three broadcasts went off without a hitch.

At no point did I run into any issues involving lag, buffering, or reduced quality on Peacock. Look, I know that sounds like the bare minimum, but I went to a school whose college football games primarily air on ESPN+, where the idea of a first-down line has been a foreign concept for nearly a decade.

Presentation: A-

I’ve always considered NBC to be the best of the main four networks — NBC, Fox, CBS, and ESPN — with NFL rights, so I’m not surprised that the network nailed its MLB presentation. The scorebug was the perfect size, and I didn’t need to squint to read anything. If I were to change anything, I would possibly make the pitcher’s name slightly bigger, but it’s fine as is.

So, why the A- instead of an A or higher? I didn’t like the lack of a pregame show before last Thursday’s Pirates-Mets clash. Considering it was Opening Day and the game featured Paul Skenes and Juan Soto, I expected more. Instead, we went directly from “Live with Kelly and Mark” to Citi Field once the clock hit 1 p.m. ET.

With respect to Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, and everyone watching on a treadmill, they shouldn’t be the direct lead-in to a marquee MLB game. Something, anything, would have been better on Opening Day. To their credit, NBC aired the traditional reading of the Opening Day lineup by Mets radio announcer and emcee Howie Rose.

Thankfully, NBC should be able to avoid this problem when “Sunday Night Baseball” stops being a Peacock exclusive in late May.

Commentary: A

If you had any doubts that NBC would take its MLB coverage seriously, the use of Matt Vasgersian and Jason Benetti should have erased those concerns long before first pitch. Kudos to NBC for playing it safe with those two rather than taking a risk or trying to be innovative.

I was admittedly skeptical about NBC’s idea of using local analysts as color commentators, but I liked the end result. Rather than endure a “back in my day” commentator like Fox’s John Smoltz or the nonstop word salads often featured on ESPN’s MLB broadcasts, NBC opted to have those familiar with the teams join Vasgersian and Benetti in the booth.

Of the three crews, I think I came away most impressed with Neil Walker and Ryan Rowland-Smith, who worked the Pirates-Mets and Guardians-Mariners games, respectively. Those two stood out not only with their analysis, but also with their ability to bring humanity and authenticity to a broadcast.

In other words, Walker and Rowland-Smith felt comfortable in their environment, and not only because they regularly call Pirates and Mariners games. Rowland-Smith, an Australian-born left-hander who pitched for Seattle in the 2000s, especially caught my attention while recalling watching ex-Blue Jays catcher Pat Borders.

I also loved NBC’s decision to forego sideline reporters for field analysis from Adam Ottavino and Clayton Kershaw during the Pirates-Mets and Diamondbacks-Dodgers games. Sideline reporters and the traditional midgame interview are an antiquated part of a broadcast, so it was good to see NBC embrace the future.

Final grade: A

Three games might be a small sample size, but first impressions are lasting. Whereas Netflix had some issues during last week’s Yankees-Giants game, NBC proved that it’s ready to handle a massive MLB workload.

As it stands, my one concern is which color commentators will join Benetti each week. Next week’s “Sunday Night Baseball” clash features the Cardinals and Tigers, and the color commentators had not been announced as of publication.

News broke over the weekend that we won’t see Clayton Kershaw work another MLB game for NBC until August, and while that doesn’t impact the score here, it’s nonetheless disappointing. Kershaw stood out for the right reasons last Thursday night and had a far greater impact than any sideline reporter would.

Regardless, it’s so far, so good for NBC, and that alone should have baseball fans optimistic about what’s to come.

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