Kellerman Will "Hopefully Be Back On-Air Soon"

For the first time since unceremoniously leaving his radio show on 1050 ESPN in New York, Max Kellerman commented publicly about the departure. He did so in an interview promoting the upcoming Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight on HBO PPV this coming Saturday former adversary Bob Raissman, whose mustache Kellerman frequently pondered the Freudian implications of.

After discussing his ascent from his cable access show "Max on Boxing" to his current role as primary analyst for the Mayweather vs. Marquez fight, Kellerman expressed regret for how he departed his radio show, saying:

Would I do certain things different? Absolutely. I don't know anybody who has made the optimal choice at every moment in their life. Some things, given the information I had at the time, well, I made what I thought was a good choice. Now, I would be more diplomatic, not so plain-spoken behind the scenes.

Loyal members of the Max Kellerman army wish it had gone down differently as well. After Kellerman left, his slots were filled by the Brandon Tierney Show and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, neither of whom provided the unique perspective on the Yankees and Giants that Max did since his show debuted in August of 2006.

He also made some opaque comments about his eventual return to the radio:

"I love the radio. I loved what I did," Kellerman said. "Now that some time has passed, yes, I was interested in (joining) Mike Francesa and WFAN. What he's done with his show, and his career, is very impressive and I was absolutely interested in that. And I think there was interest there too," Kellerman said. "There are several (radio) things we are looking at. Hopefully I will be back on the air soon."

Interesting that Kellerman talks about his interest in partnering with Francesa, something we speculated about a while back, in the past tense. Interesting also that the interview was published almost exactly six months after he left the show, when his contract was supposedly up. Given that ESPN no longer controls his rights, a return to the air is likely near.

As I said back in February, I think WFAN should slot Kellerman from 10-1, where his old show was on 1050. A pairing with Francesa would be annoying to loyal listeners of each host and they would get better ratings by spreading two big draws out over two time slots. But what do I know? I'd only been listening to Kellerman since the day his show came on the air and represent the most desirable demographic of radio listeners - males 18-34.

Either way, I'm anxiously awaiting Kellerman's return to the airwaves. Sports talk radio has been unlistenable without him. We'll keep you posted on any developments in this area.

The Hughes Wang Dilemma

Over the past couple of years entire forests and billions of bytes have been laid to waste in debating two hot button topics in Yankeedom: the bullpen and how best to utilize the Yankees' young pitching prospects. Thanks to one Joba Chamberlain, the two have often intersected. Today I will willingly add to the tired debate. It's not that I want to keep beating this dead horse, but the Yankees make it impossible for this to go away.

Joba-gate has seemingly reached a turning point, as the combination of Joba's dominating performance Monday combined with the sublimely absurd and maniacal Francesa rant last week seemingly had made the whole debate implode upon itself.

But there is still the Phil Hughes/Chien-Ming Wang situation. On Wednesday, just one day after the team announced there were no plans to make any changes to the rotation, the Yankees made a change to the rotation. Sound familiar? It should. This is the same switch-a-roo the team pulled just two weeks ago when they announced on one day that CMW would make one more rehab start, only to activate him in a panic the very next day.

As a brief aside, the New York Yankees, Brian Cashman, and Joe Girardi are under no moral, ethical, or professional obligation to be forthright or truthful with the media, and by extension, the fanbase. However, the continued pattern of intentionally vague or misleading answers, or in many instances outright untruths, is growing tiresome. Rarely, if ever, is there any competitive advantage to disguising the truth in this way. Rather, it gives the impression that the organization is petty at best or clueless at worst. In either case, the Front Office's credibility is undermined.

So once again, as we said in yesterday's game preview, the move is as follows: Chien-Ming Wang will start this afternoon's game. CC Sabathia gets pushed back from today to tomorrow, and Phil Hughes gets bumped from the rotation for an as-of-yet undetermined role in the bullpen. The question is, what are we to make of all of this?

Jay and I discussed this briefly last night. Here's his take:

Hughes should go to Scranton and stay on a starter's regimen. The amount of innings he throws is more important than the the difference between facing AAA and MLB hitters.

In my opinion, Jay has a solid point there. The most important thing for Phil Hughes this year (and Joba Chamberlain for that matter) is to hit his innings cap. Given their respective injury histories, neither is as far along in innings as the organization would like for them to be. In order for both to make the maximum contribution over the next several years, the organization is going to need to rely upon these guys for 200 IP per season. And the only way to attain that is to ensure that they hit their innings caps this year, and the next and so on.

That said, I don't have a problem with this move right now. My biggest gripe is that it pushes CC back a day; why not keep your ace on schedule? Secondary to that, I continue to be perplexed by the way the Yankees continue to jerk Wang around (innuendo only partially intended). Pete Abe has touched on this repeatedly in the past two weeks, most notably here.

I don't think there's any intent on their part per se, but it is curious that they seemingly don't value him like a pitcher that won had won 46 games from the start of the 2006 season through his foot injury last June. First there was the knee-jerk reactionary activation two weeks ago. The came the news that the organization played a role in botching his rehab. Then yesterday, just a day after essentially stating that he would remain in the pen, came the news that Wang would actually be starting the next day's game. I can only hope that the team was more up front with Wang on Tuesday than they were with the media. Still, Wang had to return to the rotation at some point, and all else considered, I suppose today is as good a time as any to give it a go.

The part I have the least problem with is the Hughes portion of the move. I'm not in any way advocating making Hughes a reliever. There's even less reason to make Hughes a reliever long term than there is to make Joba a reliever. Cashman wouldn't surrender Hughes for Johan Santana, so anyone who thinks for one second that Hughes is the eighth inning answer is off their rocker. Hughes, like Joba, will be given every opportunity to become the front line starter that his potential suggests he can be. But for now, he'll get a chance to contribute out of the pen.

Despite his inconsistencies this year, Hughes has shown that he is an MLB ready pitcher. He is by no means a finished product, but he has spent time at AAA in each of the last three years and has little if anything left to prove there. Any further development can come at the Major League level; the only reason to return him to Scranton would be to ensure a regular workload to reach his innings cap.

While that is a point that should not be underestimated, there is plenty of reason to keep Phil Hughes with the big club for the time being. First and foremost, there is no guarantee, despite being impressive in his last two outings, that Wang will be ready for or capable of full time starting duty just yet. I shudder at the thought of what that would mean for Wang for the rest of 2009, but at the very least, Phil Hughes will still be around as a contingency rather than having to wait the requisite 10 days to return if he were to be optioned out.

Furthermore, as Alfredo Aceves has shown over the past month, there is value in having a relief pitcher that is capable of pitching multiple innings without merely being a mop-up man. For their own reasons, both statheads and old schoolers alike have bemoaned the widespread LaRussa-ization of the modern bullpen: one inning stints, defined roles, etc. With Aceves and Hughes now, the Yankees have the opportunity to deploy a uniquely constructed bullpen as envisioned by Joe at RAB earlier this week.

It's an interesting concept, and one I think could work. Before the 2008 season started, and before injuries and ineffectiveness undermined the pitching staff, I had advocated utilizing Joba Chamberlain in a similar role. Don't mistake me for a Joba to the bullpen guy, that's not the point at all. The issue last year, and again this year, is that the Yankees have two valuable pitchers who have rather low limits on the number of innings they can pitch. The team has the opportunity and the reason to employ an effective, if unconventional, pitching staff as it relates to Joba's and Hughes' innings limits over the remainder of the season.

In the end this will likely be a short term move. An injury or a double header will likely necessitate Hughes being in the rotation again at some point. The return of Brian Bruney and/or Damaso Marte, or the emergence of Mark Melancon will likely land Hughes back in the Scranton rotation at some point. But in the meantime, I'll be very interested to see how this all plays out.

Bruney Unavailable

Via the same friend who texted me from Springsteen last night comes more news about a fat man. This time it's not funny.

Mike Francesa says Brain Bruney had another MRI on his arm today. It was clean, but Bruney will be unavailable tonight, making a thin bullpen thinner.

Bryan Hoch is reporting that Albaladejo has already been optioned out, but that Wang hasn't been officially activated yet. I wouldn't be surprised now if you see more than just Wang added to the roster for tonight. Berroa would be the only other guy they'd drop at this point I'd imagine.

[UPDATE 5:15 P.M. - This has been confirmed by multiple outlets now. This is why he didn't pitch last night. He may be unavailable tomorrow as well]

Kellerman! Simmons! Francesa!

Neil Best of Newsday has been on top of the Kellerman story since it broke (err, I tipped him off about it and was not attributed)

And yesterday afternoon he transcribed a portion of the B.S. Report (at the 45:09 mark) where Simmons addressed the story about Kellerman and the rumors concerning Francesa. (I'm just going to blockquote the whole thing):

Bill Simmons: "Max Kellerman left his ESPN Radio New York show today. Uh, I'm throwing our hat in the ring. Our collective hat."

(Simmons' friend) JackO: "Fantastic. He left it? Why, he just gave it up?"

Simmons: "I don't know. Details have not come out."

JackO: "There was some ugliness?"

Simmons: "Who knows? I had a reader email a month ago and say he was at a restaurant where Max and Mike Francesa were having dinner together."

JackO: "Really? Uh, oh. The new Mad Dog, do you think?"

Simmons: "Mike and the Max Dog?"

JackO: "Mike and Max. It works."

Simmons: "Mike and Max?"

JackO: "Got the alliteration down."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "We'll be back, 'Mike and Max,' after this. 'Mike and The Max,' maybe?"

JackO: "Yeah, but that's his first name, he can't become The Max."

Simmons: "Let's say, hypothetically, Francesa and Kellerman, does that show work, or not?"

JackO: "You know, I've only seen Max Kellerman on TV. I've never listened to his radio show, so I don't know what he's like. It might be a case of too many lead dogs trying to be there, you know."

Simmons: "It's like a Kobe-Shaq."

JackO: "I'm not sure how it would work. One guy's got to be the second banana and know his role."

Simmons: "2003 Kobe and Shaq, not 2000 Kobe and Shaq. It would be interesting. I could see the show being great for like three months and them like fighting to the death."

JackO: "If you've already been the star of your own show it's tough to go back now and be the supporting actor."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "Hey, Max, let me tell you something, you're in the big time now. This is my show. You are a second banana, my friend."

JackO (with a Francesa accent): "You know, you don't bring a knife to a gunfight."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "I'm Jordan, you're Pippen, got it?"

Simmons: "But that would be interesting. Keep an eye on that."

The restaurant story is pretty interesting, but I would be curious to know if it came before or after Kellerman was notified that his air time was being cut back.

A Kellerman/Simmons show would be phenomenal, but obviously that's not going to happen because Kellerman can't go back to ESPN and Simmons can't leave. Even though I imagine he was kidding, I'd probably listen to a Simmons/JackO show. I give it a try at the very least. Too bad it would never happen because 1050 would never bring in such a personality so closely associated with Boston into the New York market, even if Simmons had JackO to balance him out.

More Details On Kellerman's Departure Emerging

(h/t commenter Myth)

The Daily News is starting to fill in some of the blanks on the sudden departure of Max Kellerman from 1050 ESPN Radio (not in order of appearance):

There was major friction over the format of "The Max Kellerman Show." The format was in flux no matter the state of the show's ratings. A partner (Brian Kenny) was added but left. Other parts of Kellerman's studio crew were shuffled or jettisoned. Sources said Kellerman was particularly angered when management dumped his producer Robin Lundberg.

Kellerman had brought Lundberg along with him as an intern at Around the Horn, to a Producer on I, Max on Fox and most recently to be his producer on 1050. Lundberg provided hilarious on-air quips and one-liners, but also seemed quite competent in his role as producer, at least from a listener's perspective.

"Max wasn't happy when the show was cut back (an hour)," [1050 Executive Tim] McCarthy said. "He wanted to do other things and we just obliged him. We could have held him (to the contract) but I've never worked that way. It doesn't make sense to do that. It's not fair to Max, not fair to the other people here, not fair to our listeners."

It's sort of a dick move on Kellerman's part to force his way out, but he had already worked his was up from a two hour to a three hour slot, and saw his on-air time being cut back by the person he was brought into replace.

It was discussed in the comments of the previous post, and by Simon and myself over email, but this is worth bringing forward.

Cowherd's show has no place in New York City.

He is extremely College Football centric, which most New Yorkers (especially people native to the area) have minimal interest in. He knows next to nothing about baseball, which FJM expertly (and hilariously) took him to task for, once upon a time.

The reason Kellerman was popular here was not only because he had a completely unique perspective, it was because that perspective was highly localized. Max literally proclaimed New York City as "the center of the known Universe" and ran his show accordingly. He doted on the Yankees, Giants and Knicks, but also covered the Mets and Jets before looking out to the rest of the sports world. Cowherd isn't going to devote 1/100th of the time Max did to NY teams.

Industry sources said Kellerman's representative has already had a preliminary conversation with the FANdroids, but was told to return when he was not under contract to ESPN-1050.

Now, that's the case. When asked if there was any business going down with Kellerman, WFAN operations chief Mark Chernoff would only say: "We are looking for a partner for Mike. Mike wants a partner. If people are interested in talking to us we are interested in talking to them."

This just doesn't make sense to me. I'm not that excited to hear the two of them together. I don't like Francesa at all, and am not interested in listening to them shout each other down, Francesa with his "sauces" and Kellerman with his analytical perspective. It would take both of them toning down their style, which would make (2+2=3).

Why don't they tell Benigno & Roberts to take a hike, put Kellerman in the 10-1 slot, and steal all of Kellerman's listeners from 1050? I've sort of built my schedule around listening to the radio in the morning and then cranking down on work later in the day. Perhaps some of Kellerman's other loyal listeners have developed similar habits. I'm guessing they would be a whole lot more likely to tune the dial over to WFAN at 10:00AM, than listen to two hours of Brandon Tierney and an hour of Colin Cowherd, as opposed to waiting until 1:00 when Francesa comes on. If Max becomes Francesa's co-host, the worst part of my day is now the worst part of my day again.

Despite the fact that Michael Kay isn't all that well liked around New York City, Yankee fans can still tune in knowing that during the baseball season, he's probably going to be talking about their team. It wouldn't be total a no-brainer to listen to Francesa and Kellerman.

There's also the potential for Francesa to lose listeners because Kellerman tends to rub people, especially older people (who make up much of his listenership), the wrong way. Younger listeners are more likely to get his references to Wu-Tang and the Juggernaut (Bitch) and not necessarily mind his constantly self-congratulatory on-air presence.

WFAN, don't stack your talent to the roof in the one slot you have that's already popular. You must be hurting for the 18-34 year old male demographic in the earlier part of the day, and this is the perfect opportunity to attract some of that in a big way. I'm yours for the taking.

Breaking News: Mike Francesa Sh_t Himself

If you were listening Mike'd Up, you may have noticed that Mike Francesa took an unexpected break. They went to a commercial, and were about to come back from break when there was a pretty long silence. It was probably over a minute long, and only ended when they started replaying an interview with Jerry Reese that had taken place earlier in the show. When it ended, Rich Ackerman came on and said something to the effect of "Mike is feeling under the weather and has gone home. Maybe a touch of the flu".

I think we all know what that means.

/nods at the title

//looks back at you

///smirks

(h/t Cliff, as I do not listen to WFAN, but will gleefully accuse any of their hosts of shitting their pants)

I Stand Corrected

Earlier today, I wrote a post detailing The Sports Guy's on-air complaints about ESPN's policy regarding what radio shows he was allowed to appear on. I was wrong about what he was referring to in his cloaked bitching to ESPN management.


Awful Announcing now has the audio:



I thought ESPN didn't want him to go on with Max Kellerman in favor of Colin Cowherd's National show. He has never been on The Herd, in no small part due to the feud that I brought up in the previous post.

I did some more in-depth research and here is an except from one of Simmons' chats:

Kevin (Chappaqua, NY): Bill, with the Mike and the Maddog show no longer on the airways and the classic radio 1, 2 combo having gone their separate ways, What do you think there interactions will be at their first Super Bowl apart? I'm sure they will be fighting for guests, giving evil snickers and stares across radio row, while Mike sips on his Diet Coke and Dog fidgets uncontrollably in his chair. My questionthough is if you were asked to go on both shows and only had time for one, who you going with?

Bill Simmons: I would go on Mike's show. There's a 85% chance that Dog has never read a single thing I've written. Mike and I have a love-hate relationship (mostly love) but at least he reads me... the last time I was on, they grabbed me on Media Row and I was sick... I want a second chance... sadly it can never happen because I am not allowed to go on non-ESPN shows ... even though the show that goes against Mike's (Michael Kay) has never asked me to come on. Yup, this is my company.

So as commenter JJV first pointed out, the show that he was talking about wanting to appear on was Mike Francesa's (Mike'd Up) and the show that hadn't invited him on was the Michael Kay Show on 1050, which is up against Mike'd Up.

I think my overall point still stands. Simmons is a bit of a drama queen and never misses an opportunity to publicly slam ESPN for any policy that he disagrees with. I find it hard to believe he's really that upset about not being ask to go on Michael Kay's show.

As The Big Lead pointed out, it's not a great match, seeing that Michael Kay is predominantly a Yankees guy and bringing Simmons on wouldn't really appeal to his audience. Has there been a good reason to bring him on? It's not like TSG has been promoting anything recently.

I would tend to think that Simmons is just bitching because he can't go on Francesa's show and is just using the fact that Michael Kay hasn't asked him to come on (without any incentive to do so) as an excuse to whine about ESPN management (again).

I respect what Simmons does, but ESPN pays him close to $1M, and I don't think anyone held a gun to his head when he agreed to the terms of the contract. He has a job that every blogger would trade for in a second, even if you had to take his annoying nasally voice and were consigned to writing 90% of your columns about Boston teams for the rest of your career. I just get the feeling that no matter what happens, he's going to be a malcontent.

Still, I was wrong, and thought the record should be set straight. An anonymous commenter on the last post really summed it up, though:

Anonymous said...
Yeah dont be a dipshit, the show he wants to go on is Mike'd Up on WFAN (Formerly Mike and the Mad Dog)but he is not allowed by ESPN and he is not invited on the ESPN--1050 Michael Kay Show. Dont just spill diarhea [sic] from your mouth.

Buzz Bissinger, is that you? I believe in this case the "diarhea" would have been flowing from the tips of my fingers since these are the interwebnets and I actually had to type all of that up. Also, apostrophes are your friends, don't be afraid to use them. Thanks for your input, though. Feel free to share your sage and flawlessly written insights anytime, whoever the fuck you are.

The Bronx View (Act Now And It's Yours For $0)

Last night I wrote a post ripping ESPN radio for the terrible commercials on their online stream. It made me wonder why I still listen to it at all...

[Infomercial voice]

• Do you find yourself wanting to strangle Colin Cowherd?
• Turned off by Max Kellerman's smarmy assertions?
• Think Cwhis Wusso's a weetawd?
• Not too confident in Mike Francesa's sauces?
• Like the Yankees, but think Michael Kay is a dummy?

We'll then you won't believe what I have in store for you!!1!!1!

[Turns off infomercial voice]


There are good alternatives to ESPN radio (or WFAN) out there, even if they don't stream all day long. The Bronx View podcast gives you about an hour of quality objective Yankee analysis roughly every two weeks during the offseason and once a week or more from April to October. Scott and Ian are two guys who can talk intelligently about all things Yankees without annoying you with the kind of ego it takes to usurp a prime-time sports talk radio slot.

The latest edition includes analysis of what Andy Pettitte means to the rotation, reactions to Joe Torre's new book, projecting the AAA rotation, and a 15 minute segment on Brad Ausmus. (One of those is not true).

The best part?

No commercials!