by Coppermine » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:20 am
I think Joe is fine in his role, and that is as the color guy for Sunday Night Baseball. He's been at it for 15 years and clearly eats, sleeps and drinks baseball. That doesn't mean his insight is always valuable. There is some bias with him and I think that he criticizes umpires more than he should. He has a pompous attitude that suggests "Well, if I had my way, things would be different... and by different, better."
When they consult him on Baseball Tonight, I immediately get irritated. I don't think he fits the role of analyst; he's not the same kind of guru that Peter Gammons is. Morgan is great at stating the obvious, and his in-game discussions with John Miller are often far easier to digest than, say, Phil Rizzuto's game commentary. But leave him out of Baseball Tonight.
I also don't know how I feel about Baseball Tonights phone conversations with players. Last weekend they spoke to two players; David Wright and Carlos Lee. Wright did ok, but he's a young guy and it was clear that he's not offering any kind of profound analysis of his or his teams performance. It was the whole "We do what Willie says." If they're so concerned about how the Mets are playing, they should probably just talk to Willie. Carlos Lee on the other hand was not really cut out for talking to anyone. They were asking him questions that he did even understand and he had Karl repeat a few things.
I guess that's a work in progress.