Interesting listen. I agree with your characterization that he prepares and is smart, but he also comes across as an enormous douchebag. He's got his supporters who swear that he's a "good guy" off air, but the conceit, vanity, and cockiness is hard to ignore.
He states that they do a lot of research to prep for the shows to come up with interesting takes, but he comes across as if he knows the sports he talks about. It is clear they know virtually nothing about basketball, their "nerds are ruining baseball" take betrays their lack of willingness to embrace and integrate analytics into their baseball discussion, and they rely on Bedard, Perillo et al for their football analysis. Hockey is the sport he's most knowledgeable about, but they spent the least amount of time on the Bruins, and he famously recounts the story of how he was kicked off the beat at the Herald for namecalling Jeremy Jacobs. Research to him sounds like "what is going to piss off our average listener". That's all fine and good, but representing it as sports "knowledge" is a little rich.