Is the german ITTV commentator right about Patrick Baum?

[rooklynbounce]

The German commentator (at least he has a german accent) in ITTV really have a strong bias towards Bastian Steger? Today he started an argument with he co-commentator about Baum being a "risky choice".

Yesterday he fought with the swedish guy about Baum not deserving a place in the Olympics.

What do you guys think about this? Should Steger or Baum play the Olympics? Is Rosskopf making the correct decision playing Baum now?

 

[Matt Hetherington]

The German ITTV commentator is Richard Prause, head coach of the Werner Schlager Academy and former German National Coach prior to Rosskopf. In some ways Prause is right about Baum being a risky pick, however Bastian Steger has never been incredible in big tournaments either, so I think Rosskopf's decision is warranted to some degree.

 

[azlan]

My exact sentiments Matt. Baum does not have the consistency (which was why I said he might lose the 3rd singles against Japan), but Steger is not that great either. The Olympics is the biggest sporting event, and Rosskopf has a major conundrum on who to fill the final spot in the German team.

 

[blahness]

Suss is much better than either of them, especially against the Chinese. He nearly won against Zhang Jike in 2010, having won the 1st game and leading 3 points in the 2nd . I can't believe Rosskopf is benching him.

 

[PlasmaLight]

patrick baum is like ma long. he can play very awesome. but in fact if he miss one ball he becomes stiff and cant build up confidence. steger is a fighter, but not that great player i think. steger is playing the olympics. thats a fact. rosskopf did this choice moth ago. the better question is, who will be the third player against chine tmrw

 

[Michal_Z]

Yop that is a really hard one..
I dont really know who would I pick.. but probably it would be Suss..
But I think they have to count on Timo and Dima for making points, I dont believe that any other german player can beat a chinese..

 

[rooklynbounce]

Baum is currently ranked 18 in the world, whereas Steger is ranked 25.

Rosskopf's choice for tomorrow will be interesting for sure.

The really cool thing about this question though was that it seemed that the commentators really disagreed! I haven't heard them disagree on anything except this. I find this consensus thing quite boring actually. Would be fun to hear some more arguments from them.

 

[Vega]

Just a short word about it: Prause is not always the Co-Commentator on the stream, there were some matches where it was one of the two guys the ITTF selected thorugh their contest.. So I don't know which one you mean, but it's for sure that Prause has soo much knowledge and can really great analyse the matches..

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Suss is much better than either of them, especially against the Chinese. He nearly won against Zhang Jike in 2010, having won the 1st game and leading 3 points in the 2nd . I can't believe Rosskopf is benching him.

Suss has been off matchplay longer than Timo, check his World Tour results lately they are shocking, I couldn't disagree more sorry, Suss at this point in time is certainly not better than the other two, not even equal.

 

[rooklynbounce]

Found another one where the commentators disagree. This german guy said now that he was surprised to see Zhang Jike being a "slow starter", while the swedish guy talked a lot about him being known for his slow starts when he commented the loss of the first set of Zhang Jike to Robert Svensson.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Jike has always been a slow starter, look at his 2010 World Cup match against Mizutani, mega slow start

 

[rooklynbounce]

Yeah, I also found the german commentator's comment weird and it seemed uninformed.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

As I said, Richard Prause was the German National Team coach before Rosskopf, he is most certainly not uninformed.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

The thing about Prause is that he is very often subjective in his commentating rather than objective. Prause will look at the German players as when he was originally coaching them, but I don't believe that he could make a better decision than Rossi. Rossi has played with his team and has coached them so he knows his players best compared to Prause. I think that he's makes great choices and is more qualified in making those choices.

 

[rooklynbounce]

But wasn't he uninformed in this respect? He said that he would expect Ma Long or Wang Hao to lose a first set, but not Zhang Jike. Whereas Zhang Jike is known to be a slow starter, hence losing first sets all the time?

I might be wrong, but this is what the other expert said, and this is what I saw in the other games of WTTTC, and this is also what you yourself said. Prause, on the other hand, didn't seem to know or acknowledge this.

I'm sure Prause is extremely competent, but that doesn't mean he's right in everything and that he knows everything.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Well Wang Hao did lose the first set and Zhang Jike didn't he won the first 2 sets, so he was right for 2/3 of course, nobody knows everything or is right all the time

 

[Vega]

I think you're getting something wrong, which games are you exactly talking about? In the semifinals und final it was NOT Prause who was commentating on ITTF and the games before i dont know cause i've not seen them all

 

[rooklynbounce]

Well Wang Hao did lose the first set and Zhang Jike didn't he won the first 2 sets, so he was right for 2/3 of course, nobody knows everything or is right all the time

Zhang Jike lost the first set in the match I'm talking about. The video here is a condensed version. Listen at 00:43-00:45 and you can hear the guy speak, I think its Prause.

Unfortunately, the comment I'm referring to isn't included in the video. Earlier in the game he said he would be "really surprised" to see Zhang Jike lose a first set because "he would not expect a slow start from him" (not exact quote, but more or less), which is the complete opposite of what the other commentator (and you yourself) said regarding Zhang Jike being a slow starter. For instance he lost the first set to Robert Svensson after going down 7-0...

As a matter of fact, Zhang Jike is a slow starter and it's a problem he's been dealing with for a long time, as the other commentator said in the game against Sweden.

This was the game.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

I don't believe that is Prause. It sounds more like the scottish and new commentator from Spain (correct me please I can't remember)? Michael is the other German commentator so I'm not even certain if Prause was commenting at all during the tournament. Just going through the videos on ittv I can't really seem to find his voice.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Prause was commentating on more than one occasion