In July, ESPN will be giving us more Colin Cowherd, setting him up in an hour-long weekday show on ESPN2. The specifics on SportsNation were short, so we can only conclude it will be much like Cowherd’s ESPN Radio show, with the host opining and cracking wise on a variety of topics.

So that got me to thinking about what we regularly hear from Cowherd.

He often has a refreshing take on the issues of the day, but I just as often find myself slightly annoyed when listening to him. Why is that? It’s not his arguments, really. Just like with most sports talk hosts, sometimes you agree, sometimes you don’t.

For example, not long ago, he was talking about the economics of baseball and relating the business of running a ballclub to operating a pizza shop. (Because they’re both rolling in dough. Budda-bing. Thank you, I’m here all week. Try the pepperoni.) His point was a lot of the transactions are in cash, and when a business is getting paid in cash, it isn’t necessarily inclined to report each dollar on the ledger. There’s your explanation for why teams don’t want to open their books to the players union, Cowherd said.

Outrageous? He had just accused the people running clubs of being cheats. But Cowherd made the on-target point that it would have been just as outrageous to claim Enron was cooking the books before we all learned about that corporation’s creative accounting. In such a context, it seems perfectly reasonable to question whether major league clubs have stacks of bills stashed away like Tony Soprano did in his backyard bird-feed storage bin.

The fact that I still recall Cowherd’s points weeks later demonstrates how effective and engaging he can be as a host. But why the annoyance?

It’s the delivery. Too many times, he sounds as if he’s lecturing the audience. (You were wondering when I’d get to the point of that picture above, weren’t you?)

Sure, a bit of Limbaugh-esque bravado in presenting his wisdom can be amusing, but just in small doses. Particularly when Cowherd starts in on criticism of his show and instructs us in the principles of producing a fabulous radio program, he crosses the line from a guy who knows a lot to a know-it-all.

Speaking as a know-nothing, I don’t enjoy listening to a know-it-all. Don’t be so smug about how smart you are and how you have risen to a national stage on the wings on your talent. Let me hear what you have to say and decide whether you’re smart.

Geez, I hope that didn’t come off as too much of a lecture.