hey AA, can we get a post on how God awful Mike & Mike is when Eric Kusilius (sp?) is hosting? Dear Lord it's bad.

I actually can't stand Brian Kenny. Even though the questions he asked Kruk were decent questions, he usually seems like he's just trying to pick a fight for the hell of it. No, there's no rule saying he can't question the analysts, and he should be doing that, but why so combative?

"Have YOU ever coached little league!" He always comes off sounding like a ten-year-old.

I could watch Brian Kenny-Center 24 hours a day. Have him host a show with Neyer, Kurkjian, and Ken Tremendous and the world's intelligence problems would be solved.

No other anchor cites OBP and OPS and VORP during highlights. When Adam Dunn hits a homer, Kenny will add something about how his BA is overrated, people should look at his SLG or OBP. In the same situation, every blogger's dream SC anchor Scott Van Pelt deadpans something like "by the way, this guy can hit home runs" which actually means nothing.

Brian Kenny is a jackass. He wouldn't stop arguing with Kurkjian last week when Tim said that Adam Dunn wasn't a great hitter. Last time I checked, great hitters don't bat .230 every year.

Your right anonymous #4, great hitters get on base at over a .380 clip and lead the league in HRs

BA is useless to determine how good a hitter is.

I'm sorry but if you can't hit your weight, you are not a "great" hitter. Hitting normally has something to do with making contact.

First they point out that the league the kid plays in is not affiliated with Little League. Then they proceed to argue where they constantly refer to it as "Little League". And Kenny came off in the end looking like even more of an idiot by asking Kruk if he had ever coached (wait for it) Little League. In an argument, don't ask your opponent a question unless you already know what the answer is.

First anon is right, Eric Kuselias is fucking terrible. He needs to be taken out back like Old Yeller and Jay Mariotti.

Brian Kenny is one of the few sportscenter anchors who can actually think and talk at the same time. When he hosts one of those normally-stupid "6-pack of questions" or "fact or fiction" segments, he will actually listen to the analyst's answers and follow-up with a related question. I hate when I hear something off-the-wall from an analyst and the anchor just moves along to the next topic. Brian Kenny is the best interviewer among the Sportscenter staff...by far!

if you think BA is the way to tell a "great hitter" stop letting your opinion be heard by other people, it's worthless.

Brian Kenny doesn't come off as a guy who thinks his fraternity has moved to Bristol, Connecticut.

As for batting average, it depends on what kind of hitter you are talking about. Think about it: A higher BA is more reflective of a contact hitter (even a free-swinger with a low OB). In some situations, you'd want a guy to put the ball in play and not swing for the fences. In other situations, you'd need a slugger. Not everyone is a Bonds or Pujols, and a lineup almost always has a spot in it for a low-BA/high-SLG hitter, even if it's the 6=spot.

Kuselias is much, much better than Greenberg .... and BA is near worthless to analyze the effectiveness of a hitter

Sorry...but Kenny just forced this one for argument's sake. I didn't buy what he was saying for a minute. This one WAS as bad as ATH.

I agree with some people above that Brian Kenny seems pretty smart, but being combative and confrontational (to the point of basically personally attacking your opponent) is not a civil, intelligent way to debate. Funny how I always seem to disagree with him..

Oh, and w/ regard to the BA comments: batting average tells quite a bit about a player -- but it's just not a complete story. To call it "near worthless" is a little silly.

Sure, I'd rather have a guy with a .390 OBP and a .250 BA than a guy with a .290 BA and a .315 OBP, but the guy with the higher BA is going to, compared to the other guy, drive in more runs with two outs (a stat MLB coaches LOVE -- BTW look at Dunn's RBI totals, career high 106), move more runners from 1st to 3rd, etc.

OPS, VORP, etc. are good metrics for comparing power hitters or for choosing a fantasy team, but for the actual game of baseball, BA does have some real implications.

You validate one nearly worthless stat, BA, with another nearly worthless stat, RBI. Solid.

@ stoney

So you're saying a guy who walks with a man on 3rd is a better player than the guy who singles him in?

I'm not saying "list all MLB players in order of RBI (or BA) and that will be the list of the best players."

I'm saying that most of the common hitting stats tell you something about a player, and that each contributes its own piece of the puzzle that tells you what kind of a hitter you have. A lineup full of Adam Dunns will not win you a division -- you need guys that put the ball in play, move runners, hit SF flies, steal bases, bunt, hustle, etc.

See, I use sabermetrics to help me pick the most productive players for my fantasy team, but I hate it when people think sabermetrics alone can define what constitutes a good baseball player and, in turn, what combination of players makes a good baseball team.

Really??...a team full of Dunns would set all time records for most HR's in a season, most RBI in a season, most Runs in a season (possibly), highest Slugging % in a season, and possibly even highest OBP ... but yeah, that probably wouldn't be good enough to win a division because that team wouldn't "hustle" enough or ahve enough "grit"

im really starting to like brian kenny. i dont getwhy they wont let this kid pitch hes not that good. he only throws 40. my son is 10 playing against 9 and 10 year olds. the same as this kid. and he tries to pitch and he throws about 45 and the batters get hits off of him all the time and sometimes he gets lit up. theres kids in his age that are 9 or 10 and they throw in the upper 50's and no one ever says hes too good. i think this league is just weak

Brian Kenny is smart and should be hosting Baseball Tonight instead of the hacks like Dari Nowkah and the like. That said he does pick fights in these interviews. Look up him throwing water on the Champions League final this May when instead of interviewing Tommy Smyth of a game you could have written a movie about instead interrogates Smyth over the overtime rules and it coming down to a shoot-out. Kenny BTW along with 99.99% of the Sports Center anchors have no idea how to even do highlights for such a sport unless there is a fantasy league with some coin or a sport we Americans are actually good at.