Twins breaking out all-analyst TV broadcasts this week against Cubs

You won't be hearing Twins TV play-by-play announcer Cory Provus in the booth for this week's series against the Chicago Cubs, which begins on Tuesday night at Target Field. The Twins are experimenting with an all-analyst, "players only" broadcast on Twins.TV over the three games this week, which promises to be interesting (and perhaps polarizing).

It'll be Glen Perkins, Justin Morneau, and Trevor Plouffe together on the call Tuesday through Thursday. All three have done games as the analyst alongside Provus (and Dick Bremer before him) in recent years, and all three were teammates on the 2010-13 Twins. What exactly it's going to look and sound like is unclear. Will one of the three attempt to call a somewhat traditional play-by-play during the action? Or, like ESPN's ManningCast, will they simply react to plays as they happen?

The idea, which has been done before by teams like the Tigers and Braves, is that having three former players together in the booth will lead to in-depth discussion around the game and its strategy, as well as plenty of entertaining stories from their careers. When Plouffe hinted at this a couple months ago, he said he was excited to try it but also did not shy away from admitting his skepticism around the format. "I don't think it's going to work," he said on SKOR North, citing the importance of play-by-play guys and his dislike of the ManningCast. "I don't like it. But we'll see."

Injured Twins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez will apparently be joining the trio in the broadcast booth for Tuesday's series opener, which means there will be four voices chiming in throughout the contest.

Perkins played for the Twins from 2006-17. Morneau, the 2006 AL MVP, played in Minnesota from 2003-13. Plouffe played for the Twins from 2010-16.

It's unclear if Provus will move back to the radio booth for the week or sit out the action entirely. He'll return to handling his usuall TV play-by-play duties for the Pirates series this weekend.

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