Mike and the Mad Dog used to be able to fill their 5.5 hours of sports radio time with engaging interviews, great rumor buzz and intelligent baseball talk. Their style became the benchmark which all other sports talk shows were measured.
Somewhere over the past few years, the show became a transparent, mindless marathon without any end in sight. No longer does Russo's savant-like photographic memory charm his listeners as the Long Island native constantly speaks before thinking. Similarly, Mike Francesa's smooth, debonair oratory can no longer mask his lack of Yankees prospect knowledge.
Francesa believes Joba Chamberlain should not become a starter because he is already "unhittable" in the 8th inning role. Forget the fact that every lights-out closer was at one point in his career a failed starter [see: Rivera, K-Rod, Hoffman, etc.]. Instead of finding out once and for-all whether or not the Yankees have a Justin Verlander on their hands, Mikey thinks he should remain Rivera's heir apparent for the next 2 or 3 years.
The setup man loses his value when the starting pitcher doesn't hand him a lead to work with... hence the value of Chamberlain pitching the first six innings as opposed to the seventh and/or eighth.
As for Russo's opinion on the Chamberlain conundrum, the Mad Dog believes a bad start against Manhattan
while in college proves he is not a dominant starter. Russo then opines Joba never dominated while in the minor leagues. Hm, that's news to every coherent baseball fan. Talk about not doing your homework, Chris. For future reference, here are
Chamberlain's 2007 minor league statistics -
as a starter.
It has become so obvious that the New York radio giants are no longer able to efficiently fill their time slot, that they are now saying things like
this:
