This week’s candidate is Scott Garceau, freshly-minted afternoon drive radio guy, former voice of the Ravens, and former sportscaster for WMAR (channel 2).

Garceau is a longtime veteran of the Baltimore sports media scene who was on the air for a whopping 36 years at WMAR before ending his nightly sportscasts in July of last year.

These days he can be heard weekdays on 105.7 “The Fan”, where he helps reign in previous BSMAR poll candidate Anita Marks.

Garceau is a fascinating guy to me because he’s such a throwback. His style is dramatically different from what you’d expect for afternoon drive sports talk in 2009, given his propensity for reasoned analysis and a generally cool demeanor. You can probably guess how I’ll cast my vote, but does his style work for you?

Vote below and then please elaborate in the comments — everyone is encouraged to provide a reason for their choice. Poll stays open for a week, and the usual rules apply. Keep it clean and cool and don’t say anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable saying to Scott if you ran into him at a bar.

You can also check out the Sports Media Approval Ratings archives for past results and discussion.

This week we turn our attention to none other than pitcher-turned-broadcaster Dave Johnson.

Despite being part of the mythical “Why Not?” season, Johnson never found much success on the hill (22-25 with a 5.11 ERA for his career). So, after retiring from baseball following the 1993 season (spent with Detroit), the Baltimore native moved on to other pursuits.

One of them — Dave Johnson’s Baseball Academy — is very cool but doesn’t concern us here. The other — color analyst for MASN and for the 105.7 pre- and post-game shows — is very, very cool and does concern us here.

Johnson brings something unique to the booth, with his bulldog mentality and willingness to call things exactly as he sees them. With that, however, comes a tendency to get a little bit emotional at times and maybe wear his heart on his sleeve a little too much. He’s definitely not polished out there — he’s Dave, take it or leave it.

Which will it be?

With that we move across the Sun newsroom (figuratively) to a man who, as far as I know, is not leaving anytime soon: Peter Schmuck.

Schmuck has been with the local paper since 1990, and in that time he has been named Maryland Sportswriter of the Year four times. He can also be heard periodically on WBAL, doing both sports and (now and then) current events.

According to Wikipedia, he’s been president of the Baseball Writers Association of America since 2005. I find that strange and hard to believe, but apparently it’s true.

All the awards and recognition in the world won’t get you very far, however, if the Loss Column community doesn’t have your back.

So, what do we say?

With all of the talk in yesterday’s Open Thread about Roch Kubatko potentially leaving the Sun (a rumor he partially shot down today), it’s only a natural for him to be the subject of this week’s BSMAR poll.

Kubatko, as you know, is a renaissance man of sorts in terms of Orioles coverage. He’s been a reporter at the Sun for quite some time, at least since the late nineties, but his profile has been raised significantly over the past few years on account of his blog, Roch Around the Clock. He’s also done regular guest appearances on Anita Marks‘ radio show and on MASN.

For the most part, he’s as good as there is when it comes to inside info on the O’s. I can’t imagine anyone would argue with that.

Of course, he has taken his share of arrows. He tends to the clunky now and then with his writing style, and his propensity for cracking questionable jokes can get downright cringe-worthy at times. And some people, well, just don’t like him for whatever reason.

The only vote that matters, though, is this one.

That’ll have to wait, though, as this week we turn our attention to that stalwart of the Orioles TV broadcast booth, Mr. Jim Hunter.

Hunter has been working with the O’s in some capacity since 1997. Presently, his main gig is working the MASN studio with Rick Dempsey, though he also handles game duties on occasion. It seems to me that he works every Sunday, but I’m not sure if that’s a matter of official policy. Either way, it might or might not have something to do with the Curse.

Hunter’s got a lot of experience behind him, including CBS Radio “Game of the Week” and Winter Olympics duties. But I’ve gotten the sense that he’s also a source of some strong opinions out there in Birdland.

So, now’s your chance to be heard. Cast a vote then explain why in the comments. Usual rules apply, of course.