Chris Russo makes a living being loud on the radio. On Tuesday, he ranted and raved like a lunatic about “overpaid” MLB players saying they wanted to play.
Yes, that was the gist of his argument. Players getting paid a lot of money shouldn’t tweet that they want to play, they should instead perform (by playing better at a sport that is currently not playing games).
Here’s the clip, which was tweeted from Russo’s own account, as if it was some kind of incredible burn on “overpaid” players like Bryce Harper (35.1 career fWAR, nearly $87 million in career earnings), Manny Machado (33.2 career fWAR, $78 million in career earnings), and most weirdly, Kyle Freeland (6.3 career fWAR, $3.99 million in career earnings).
I'm not interested in hearing from @MLB Players tweeting that they are ready to go, especially the ones that have under-performed their contracts! pic.twitter.com/c7reQNxRqV
— Chris Mad Dog Russo (@MadDogUnleashed) June 16, 2020
As is par for the course for Russo, this doesn’t make any sense at all. He’s upset about Harper and Machado tweeting they want to play because they got huge contracts, haven’t won a World Series, and underperformed relative to their contracts in 2019 (16th and 30th among NL position players in fWAR last year). He’d be okay with Mike Trout tweeting (which he did yesterday morning) because he’s the best player in baseball or Anthony Rizzo tweeting (29.2 career fWAR, $55 million in career earnings) because he won the 2016 World Series with the Cubs.
So are the only players allowed to talk about “serious issues”…the great ones? Or the champions? Or the guys not making a lot of money?
Because someone like Max Scherzer tweeted, and he’s great, a champion, and highly paid.
Rob Manfred and the owners are walking back on their word…AGAIN. The fans do not deserve this. So I’ll say it one more time, tell us when and where.
— Max Scherzer (@Max_Scherzer) June 16, 2020
Someone like Christian Yelich tweeted a direct shot at Russo, and he’s both great and highly paid, but not a champion.
https://twitter.com/ChristianYelich/status/1273313329478422528
Alex Bregman tweeted, and he’s great, a champion, and just started getting highly paid.
Tell us when and where!! https://t.co/PVa6avO0b7
— Alex Bregman (@ABREG_1) June 16, 2020
Hell, the guy Bregman quote tweeted there, Mitch Garver, isn’t highly paid, isn’t a champion, and has had one good year in his career.
So Chris, who’s allowed to tweet? That question still hasn’t adequately answered.
However, I know who shouldn’t be tweeting: the guy who has a show on MLB Network. The guy who started getting paid $3 million a year by SiriusXM (one of MLB’s many media partners, which is owned by the same conglomerate that owns an MLB team) 12 years ago, and has done nothing but scream very loudly to make his points since then. The guy who is so obviously carrying water for ownership that he’s not even bothering to hide his disdain for players that dare make money on the free agent market.
That’s the guy who shouldn’t tweet. Or go on a national radio show and scream like an idiot, but hey, that’s just my opinion.
