I'm sitting here listing to the Pirates/Yankees matchup on the radio, and there's one overwhelming feeling that has overcome me. That is, that as bad as the Pirates have been for the last umpteen years, the Pirates' play-by-play announcers have got to be some of the worst announcers at the MLB level.

Listening to Greg Brown do play-by-play on the radio is akin to watching a foreign film whose subtitles are verbatim to what your French speaking friend would whisper to you if no subtitles were used. In other words, a non-professional translator who can't describe the action in real time, and then just kind of sums it up after all the action has died down. Not only that, but his voice makes him sound pissed off that he has to take the time to fill you in.

Tim Neverett, on the other hand, has probably the most annoying and pretentious "radio voice" of all time. He sounds like the greatest influence in developing his broadcasting style was Guy Smiley.

Many times during the year I turn to the opponent's broadcast on MLB.tv. The vast majority of the times, these announcers are so much better than what we've been subjected to as Pirate fans. It just kills me that I spend so much time listening to such bad announcers.

So, that's my rant. How about you? Where do think the Pirates announcers rank among MLB broadcasting teams? Who is best in your mind? Whose voice is worse than nails on a chalk board to you? Damn it, it's spring training and the most interesting thing we have to talk about is whether Corey Wimberly or Steve Pearce will be backup infielders! This is the time to dwell on the minutiae of baseball!