Busby out, Raymond in as Rangers play-by-play voice

Steve Busby, the Texas Rangers’ television play-by-play voice since replacing Dave Barnett in mid-2013, will not be returning to the booth in 2017, according to Barry Horn.

Dave Raymond, who had a swing role in 2016, doing some television and some radio, “is expected to become the primary television play-by-play” guy, according to Horn, teaming with long-time analyst Tom Grieve.

It will be interesting to see how the Raymond/Grieve pairing works. The Rangers’ television broadcast has suffered from issues since Josh Lewin was let go by Nolan Ryan at the end of the 2010 season. The Busby/Grieve pairing over the last three-plus years has been less-than-ideal, in my view, with Busby showing a tendency towards general cantankerousness of late, while Grieve oftentimes seems somewhat bored with the goings-on. In addition, neither gave the impression they particularly enjoyed working with Raymond, when he was in the booth with them. I will be curious to see if the chemistry between Grieve and Raymond improves this year.

I did like Raymond’s work on radio and television, and I think having him on the booth should be an improvement.