I was just reading Mark Newman’s article on MLB.com about the upcoming ALDS and the announcers who’ll be covering it. I found myself saying out loud, “Why do these games have to be on TBS?”

Never mind that I dread having to sit through promos for comedy shows I wouldn’t watch in a million years. What bothers me is that the playoffs are baseball’s premier sporting events and TBS hasn’t exactly established itself as a premier sports network. Their cameras are rarely in the right place at the right time and their announcers always sound as if they’ve parachuted in from another galaxy. Having them cover a game is like letting the Food Network do it.

Handling the play-by-play for the Yankees’ series will be Chip Caray.

He seems like a nice enough guy, and he certainly comes from an impressive lineage of broadcasters. But when Derek Jeter steps to the plate, do I really want to hear the story of the scouts who spotted him as a skinny kid and said, “He’s gonna be a star someday?” Or how Mark Teixeira signed with the Yanks because he idolized Mattingly as a boy? How Mo is a future HOF-er despite only throwing one pitch during his entire career? Oh, and how the Yankees have the highest payroll in the history of life? Don’t Yankee fans already know all of that?

Their color analyst will be Ron Darling, the voice of the Mets on SNY.

He’s a smart guy, having gone to Yale, and knows his baseball, having been an elite pitcher. He also knows New York, so we won’t be subjected to: “Golly, this is a big city.” I can live with him, as opposed to Buck Martinez.

If there’s a more irritating voice on television or radio, I haven’t heard it.

(Warning: Do not listen to the entire video or your ears will explode.)

Buck sounds like he’s wearing one of these, doesn’t he?

I realize that no broadcaster alive has the magic of Vin Scully. I also understand that TBS is reaching out to a national audience. Would I have preferred that the MLB Network take over the games and put Bob Costas behind the mic? Sure. But since it’ll be TBS or nothing, I’m hoping that they’ll do their homework this year, give us truly in-depth coverage that tells us stuff we didn’t know before, and avoid the following:

1) “Very Funny” promos that aren’t.

2) A zillion close-ups of Dr. and Mrs. Jeter, any Steinbrenner and Kate Hudson.

3) A discussion of whether or not Joe Girardi will be fired if the Yankees don’t win the World Series.

4) The Joba Rules.

5) The sentence: “Sabathia is a horse.”

I can’t ask for more than that.