Wednesday Mariner update
PI: M’s beat the Cubs. Sexson wants to hit well. M’s going to make first cuts on Tuesday.
TNT: Wladimir Balentien and his strikeouts. Includes some comments from the team’s new hitting coach, Pentland:
“I’m not as worried about strikeouts as some people. A lot of young Latin players know they have to hit just to get a shot at playing professionally, so they don’t take a lot of pitches,†Mariners batting coach Jeff Pentland said.
“There are a lot of factors in striking out in the minors – including young umpires. If you’re a young hitter working on discipline and you take a pitch off the plate and it’s called strike one, that doesn’t help.
“You put too much focus on the strikeout, you make it harder for a young hitter because now he’s getting away from his natural skills. You have to let experience come, and you work on their timing, their swing, their pitch recognition.â€Â
The TNT also put up a story about this one Mariner outfielder from Australia yesterday after the day-in-news post which is, uh, worth reading. Cough.
Times: If you’ve been dying for a Dave Burba story, well, you’re now sated.
Update: aaand we get the first sighting of the team commercials. I think the Ichiro one’s clearly pick of the litter.
Hey, does anyone know what Foppert’s pitch count was yesterday?
That should be first cuts *Wednesday*
List is up now at the PI – goodbye Heaverlo.
10 players were reassigned, including Cortez, Blackley, and Jimenez to Tacoma; Bazardo, Carvajal, Balentien, and Navarro to SA; and Gulin, Dominique, and Lampe to minor league camp.
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Does Dave refer to Rick as “Red” in the “What’d they say?” ad?
It’s awful hard to tell, isn’t it…
I’m really glad they did better than last year’s ads. I mean, that “Mariners’ Shopping Network?” I was starting to think they were running out of ideas over at Copacino+Fujikado.
Far from the classic years of ads, but a massive improvement over last year’s suckfest.
I think the Moyer and missing K’s ones are great, the Richie and Ichiro ones are very good, the Beltre one is a nice idea that doesn’t quite come off (although the ending revives it a bit) and the What’d They Say one is weak at best (and it sounds like he says Rick, but the sound gets cut off a bit too abruptly – bad editing).
At least all of the players featured figure to actually make the team out of spring this year…
Good to see that Sexson has settled into the Bret Boone pompous ass role in the commercials.
#9: He serves that role in the locker room as well.
Missing K’s made me chuckle. I can’t wait to see Felix pitch.
Huge improvement over what we’ve been getting. Good job this year.
Haven’t they done that with Ichiro before? It seems familiar. The Moyer and King segments were my favs.
While Ichiro’s ad is quite stylish (I like how they dropped the tag line at the end and just stuck with the I-CHI-RO! chant), Moyer’s is easily my favourite.
The look on Moyer’s face when he pauses the video and turns to the editing guy is just priceless.
My vote is for the missing K’s….thats an instant classic… I loved the Moyer add too but the train in the background of the last few secods of Ichiro’s made me homesick…
We should also point out that they’ve gone away with ads showing more than one player: having to pull a whole ad out of rotation because one guy in it got tossed overboard was a little too fragile. Essentially, we’re down to:
– Ichiro the untradeable
– Beltre the untradeable
– Sexson the possibly tradeable but not likely
– King Felix the untradeable
– Moyer the untradeable
…and one ad that features a bunch of players
The Ichiro is actually a little goosepimply-inducing — not something I’ve ever associated with Mariners ads. The rest are at least mildly humorous, which is what we’re used to (except for last year, where the only humor was supplied unintentionally by Boone’s performance in the ads constrasting with his performance at the plate). After the complete and utter washout that was last year’s ads (other than the single brief shining moment when Ichiro said “Dude”) anything would be an improvement. And these are. They’re certainly not among the greats, but they’ll do (seems like there should be a few more of them — perhaps there will be more as the season goes on). We at least get to see the King pump his fist after a strikeout (an image that soon should be as iconic as Ichiro measuring the pitcher with his bat) and we get to hear Jo speak in a “game” situation… and for some reason there’s something inherently funny about pitchers ordering food at the drivethrough (it would be funnier if they had three relievers crammed in the back, but I’m not at all surprised that Joel called “Shotgun”). This got me looking forward to opening day, so I guess they did their job.
WRT what Dave says through the glove — it’s pretty obvious the audio was added later, so they may well have picked the wrong line (don’t know how that wouldn’t get picked up, but who knows). In other words, it may not be one of his senior moments. Then again, it does add a little appropriately avuncular charm.
DMZ, that’s a good point. They were down to what, two ads by the end of last year? The gloves-in-the-face ad can be reshot with other players as the season goes on, and presuming they don’t drop Washburn (and they’re not going to drop Jo) the setup stays intact, so even if they have to replace segments because a player is no longer with the team the ad can go on.
I’d still like to see Buhner and Edgar pop up for a cameo just for old time’s sake. The ghosts of Safeco…. are angry! Can’t anybody get a hit out of this dump?
16 – well, that’s also what they did when going back to adding players to the season tickets. For the 6 tickets per sheet, we get the untradeable Adrian, the option-year Eddie, the untradeable Ichiro, the untradeable Jamie Moyer, the untradeable Richie, and the face-and-scalp-of-the-organization Raul. But at least they’re an improvement over the generic Safeco Field ones from last year.
I can’t watch the commercials until I get home from work. Arrrrrgh.
Y’all are right… a massive improvement over last year, and really pretty darn delightful. It was nice to hear more of Dave in them. Makes it feel like actually watching a game.
What, however, is wrong with all of you that you don’t have a giant ad-crush on “Big Richie”?!
Possibly not enough time spent listening to old cowboy ballads. I love it.
Every morning at the mine you could see him arrive
He stood six-foot-six and weighed two-forty-five
Kinda broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip
Everybody knew you didn’t give no lip to Big John
Nobody seemed to know where John called home
He just drifted into town and stayed all alone
He didn’t say much, kinda quiet and shy
If ya spoke at all, ya just said hi to Big John
Somebody said he came from New Orleans
Where he got in a fight o’er a cajun queen
And a crashin’ blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Lousianna fella to the promised land, Big John
Then came the day at the bottom of the mine
When a timber cracked and men started cryin’
Miners were prayin’ and hearts beat fast
And everybody thought they’d breathed their last, ‘cept John
Through the dust and the smoke of this man-made hell
Walked a giant of a man that the miners knew well
Grabbed the saggin’ timber and gave out with a groan
And like a giant oak tree, just stood there alone, Big John
And with all of his strength he gave a mighty shove
Then a miner yelled out, there’s a light up above
And twenty men scrambled from a would-be grave
now there’s only one left down there to save, Big John
With jacks and timbers they started back down
Then came that rumble way down in the ground
As smoke and gas belched outta the mine
Everybody knew it was the end of the line for Big John
Now, they never re-opened that worthless pit
They just placed a marble stand in front of it
These few words are written on that stand:
At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man. Big John
Ah, kinda like Sean Astin in 24, then…
At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man. Big John
You know in the original version of the song it’s “lies a hell of a man?” Jimmy Dean had to change it because radio wouldn’t play a song with a dirty word like “hell” in it.
This was 1961.
I didn’t realize Jeff Heaverlo had gotten his outright release, and not just a minor-league-camp reassignment.
I suspect there’s no major league time in his future, and it’s no great loss … but on the other hand, it’s a bit sad to see someone who was pitching the best baseball of his long and rollercoaster career in the second half of last season get set back further, so close to the land of milk and honey.
Sort of like Ken Cloude, who almost but not quite made the M’s Opening Day roster in 2003 … and then vanished, never to be heard from again.
#23: “The hell of a man” version can be found in the Johnny Cash boxed set.
#17 I agree, it’s weird how that little Ichiro bit all of a sudden sends shivers up the spine. Can’t wait to hear it live.
I actually think the “big, big man” version sounds better. I like the great pause Jimmy works into the line.
Except Ken Cloude pitched in 71 major league games with the M’s in 97-98-99.
Trivia answer: Jeff Heaverlo’s dad was once traded for Vida Blue.
The Ichiro add really did send shivers up my spine. I was expecting a humorous commercial, and instead saw something emotionally touching.
Overall, not a bad crop of adds this year. All the iterations of Beltre at 3rd reminds me of “Homer at the Bat” when Lenny, Carl, and Charlie are all envisioning Homer’s fabled secret weapon. (if you haven’t seen that episode, do it. It’s a classic piece of baseball history. “Mattingly, I told you to get rid of those sideburns!”)
29 Its so weird to watch that episode now- since so many of the players are either retired (Wade Boggs), coaching (Mattingly, Soscia), or at the end of the careers (Clemens, Griffey). It all seemed so new, just yesterday…
I’m not as worried about strikeouts as some people.
That made me smile. A lot. One of the most positive things I’ve heard from a hitting coach in a while. I hope Mr. Pentland follows through on that.
If anyone out there on a Mac is watching the World Baseball Classic (which is actually pretty cool, even though I was originally a sceptic) – do you have any idea how to make it play in RealPlayer rather than WindowsMedia? The latter only gives you the 2×2 inch box, which is hard on the ol’ peepers.
32 – No idea but in Windows Media Player you can zoom the picture bigger. It’s in one of the menus. My guess is that it might be set to 50% now.
That article on Balentien mentions that he will be 23 in two years. I recall reading on a future 40 that he is almost certainly older than he claims. I suppose relying on the fact checker of the daily is a little foolish. Does anyone have any more recent info or opinion on his true age?
Havent posted in a while… just wanted to say that it was nice to see some parts of Seattle in the King Felix commercial. I expecially liked when they showed the Neptune Theatre in the U-District since I see it everyday.
Welcome back Mr Thompsen. Mr Corcoran and you have been abscent fur some time. Of course he has suffered. He did get accepted to USP so he will be a Rainers regular unless someone drives him to Seattle.
#18– Bone reminds me– apparently he was in Peoria the last week, working with the young outfielders again this season…
Ok, now that we have the Richie thing out of the way, who’s next for the “ballad of” treatment? We got rid of Franklin, so there’s no chance for “The Devil Went Down To Oklahoma” but…Eddie as Billy Jack? Mr Everett as Bad, Bad Leroy Brown?
One disturbing possibility is that our hated, hated “rivals” (the Padres) will use the Beltre ad for motivation before games. Just when you thought this rivalry couldn’t get any more bitter!
I want to say “The Legend of Big Richie” was the best, but I think it’s due to my man-crush on Big Sexy. I’ll have to go with “Tribute” because Jamie Moyer is old tee hee.
The Legend of Big Richie is so damn cool. I hope they use it as his at-bat song sometime during the year. That’s hands-down my favorite of the commercials.
Arnold also talked to Snelling
#5–online, Dave says ‘Rick’
#14– it’s not the editor, it’s that fabulous Mariner PR guy– you know, the one who introduced us to Lenny the Latte?
For comparison, check out the Minnesota Twins ads
In particular, check out “Cooler” featuring Ron Gardenhire. That would have been even better with Lou in his heyday.
And the Mauer and Hunter (would translate well to Richie) ones are pretty cool…
it’s been entertaining over the last few years to watch other teams follow in the M’s/Copacino footsteps… Oakland has done well most years since their first attempt around ’99 with a “they’re young but they can play” theme…
Is there a mirror up yet with non-streaming media versions of these up yet? I’m deployed overseas right now, and my local firewall won’t allow connections to streaming media.