Cactus League Game 13 – Mariners at Brewers
The Brewers face both the A’s and M’s today, but it’s clear which team they see as the bigger threat. Milwaukee ace Zach Greinke starts today against the M’s, while someone named Michael Fiers faces the Athletics. As flattering as that is, today’s game is still somewhat disappointing as it marks the last game before Root sports gets some TV cameras down to Arizona and starts televising these things.
It seems like everyone in the M’s press corps wrote about Erasmo Ramirez over the past day or two, and he’ll get the start on Thursday in a televised game against the Giants.
Speaking of TV, the M’s unveiled the 2012 ads that you’ll see over and over on M’s broadcasts. For those that love these things, do you love this year’s crop more than last year’s, or more than whatever sort of baseline you apply in these situations? Is there a replacement-level ad (OK, there probably is, that crappy one with Pokey Reese in the faux-infomercial year)? An average ad?
(Forgot the link to the ads…sorry, here they are.)
Today’s line-up:
1: Ackley (2b)
2: Wells (RF)
3: Carp (LF)
4: Smoak (1b)
5: Montero (C)
6: Peguero (DH)
7: Seager (3b)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Kawasaki (SS)
SP: Hector Noesi
Go M’s
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My take?
A Seattle Welcome
Montero can catch a fish, but baseballs tend to be smaller than marketplace fish since few people sell minnows or tetras for food. Any attempt to throw a geoduck would have undoubtedly been censored.
Impressions
New York accents are pretty much unintelligible, but Scottish accents are so subtle that even the slightest trace can be picked up by anyone.
Mickey Loves You
Dustin Ackley doesn’t understand references to movies. Or perhaps you are getting older and the youth of today just don’t understand.
Nobody’s Perfect
If King’s Court fills up with ventriloquist’s dummies this season, I will be on the other side of the stadium.
Timber
Some of you may have winced at the idea of Smoak punching a tree, what with the hand issues he had last season, but I know from my reporting experience that the true enemy of the baseball player is the drinking fountain.
Grade: Eh. There were a few moments but nothing seemed inspired exactly.
Just saw the commercials, I didn’t find them very funny. More interested in the games than the commercials though 😉
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is the first game with Ackley, Carp, Smoak, and Montero, all in the same line-up. Looking forward to it. Looking more forward to the games tomorrow and Thursday though!
I liked the one with Wedge and Felix, mainly because Wedge does that deadpan very well. The one with Brendan Ryan and Ichiro was okay. The others were pretty bad.
Looking at the BA’s at Game Day, it’s nice to see such high numbers. What the hell. It’s nice to dream.
Ohhh….. there goes Montero~s k-free spring. Dump him.
If you ask me (and you did, kind of), this year’s commercials just don’t have the zing they usually do. I thought “Impressions” and “Nobody’s Perfect” were cute or smirk-worthy. The others just didn’t speak to me, or were too groan-worthy.
They usually set a high bar with a couple of commercials each year; but I’ll be OK with 2012 if the games turn out to be more exciting than the ads (as opposed to the last couple of years).
Nice! Love pick-offs like that
Well, I suppose Sims’ lack of attention to the field at the moment, may have made it sound more exciting than it really was.
Today, we learn that there’s a difference between Hector Noesi pitching and Zack Greinke pitching.
Haha, well, at least Greinke is finished for the afternoon.
I suppose so, but Noesi hasn’t been bad. He just challenged local boy Travis Ishikawa, and frankly, that’s probably what I would’ve done too.
*Breaking* – Yu Darvish can’t find the plate today, with 4 walks in 2 IP against the Indians. Given up a run on 3 hits and 4 walks. Yeesh.
And then Greinke’s replacement induces a quick DP. Damn.
Good to hear Darvish stunk it up. Would be good to see them sweatin’ in Texas a little early.
I don’t know what’s worse… listening to commercials during the breaks, or this music.
Condor, keep it up!
Saunders scores the tying run on a sac fly.
I know that some failed prospect lights it up in spring every year (this year’s story is Brandon Wood), but man it’d be nice if Condor puts it together this year.
Yeah, it would certainly make Guti’s continued health problems less of an issue.
I still hold onto a daydream where Saunders figures it out at the plate, and we have another outstanding outfield with Guti in center and Saunders in left. And if Ichiro puts it back together… 😉
(of course Saunders just lost a ball in the sun, as I was typing that…)
Annnnd now Saunders loses a ball in the sun. Eh, it’ll keep him humble.
Sure, everyone’s quick to blame the sun. I blame the glasses.
Darvish’s final line in Goodyear was 3 IP, 2R, 3H, 4BB, 3K.
Seems to be a fair number of doubles… C’mon, Jesus!
BTW seeing that in print, it just looks weird.
THREE strikeouts for Montero today… maybe Wedge told him to be more like Peguero.
Peguero with a walk, Montero with 3 k’s…. the water must be spiked.
Seager!
BTW Keith Law seems fairly high on Seager’s younger brother.
There goes my Gameday connection…
Mine too. Can’t wait for the game tomorrow.
Maybe it’s the snow, that’s now coming down faster than hail.
I’d love to hear the Mariners change their theme music, to the song used during the tricycle race in Revenge of the Nerds.
Wish we had Pitch F/X data to see where these pitches are located.
Bases loaded, but then we bring up Peguero and Liddi.
Damn. I was starting to believe we would see Peguero walk for the second time in the game.
Liddi!
Nice! Liddi comes through
Alex Liddi!
Took 3 straight balls, then a strike, then a line-drive single. His eye seems better. Here’s hoping he becomes an under-the-radar prospect this year… people are going to be focused on Francisco Martinez and on Catricala but Liddi, repeating the PCL, could put up huge numbers.
If Figgins wasn’t around, I wonder if Liddi would have a shot at making the team? Though it’s hard to tell just listening to the games, it sounds like he’s tightened his swing.
Condor!!
Saunders! The Condor strikes again!!
Imagine if Saunders, Liddi, and Moore, all turn it around and become solid major leaguers. What a story that would be!
Ackley! The rout is on.
I get a little less excited when Ackley comes through because I basically expect him to do so. 😀
With Condor or Liddi, it’s still a surprise.
“Though it’s hard to tell just listening to the games, it sounds like he’s tightened his swing.”
And it also sounds like he’s opened a few eyes with improved pitch recognition. I mean, his swing was long before, but it didn’t really matter as much as he wasn’t getting beat by good fastballs – he just couldn’t read change-ups and sliders. If he gets a bit better at that, then he might have a shot.
As to whether he’d have a chance absent Figgins, I still doubt it a bit. Seager’s ahead and Catricala may have passed him. Hence the move to 1B.
Oh yeah, left out Peguero. He’s looked better too, but I’d still like to see the k’s cut down.
I know it’s spring training, but it sure is nice to see some actual offense out of these guys on a regular basis! Here’s hoping this continues into the regular season.
Yeah, I figured Seager will make it regardless, along with Kawasaki. But the Catricala argument’s a good one. I’d like to see Vinnie play at least a little AAA to work on the glove, but man… really fun to watch (hear) him bat.
I suppose the timeline for Guti will dictate things. Fun game today. Great to see the late hits!
Good call on the Pokey Reese ad. I still remember that one as all-time bad. The whole series was bad, but the ending of that one with Pokey was cringe-worthy.
The M’s using the same basic template for commercials dating back to the era when we knew all the players by first name and loved them because they’d accomplished something simply reminds me of what we had and don’t have anymore. They should simply change the entire way they market the team.
Edgar “the Clapper” for the Safeco lights is an all-time fave of mine. And “Griffey Everywhere” was fun…
Every year there are funny ones, and bad ones… I’m liking the Wedge/Felix one (Felix’s “ahhhhh” after the water drink is pretty funny)… And the DiNiro/Ichiro impersonations one is funny…
I certainly don’t care one way or the other enough to critique them. To me they just mean “It’s BASEBALL time”– so to me, they’re ALL good in that light.
Play ball.
For the last few years, my favorite Mariners commercials are the ones that feature players who’ve been traded or sent down.
On a related note – I noticed Figgins was one of the players featured in the “Impressions” commercial.
I say just take the ads for what they are. They’re intentionally corny and employ baseball players as actors. What are we expecting?
Aside from those horrible infomercial spots from a few years back, I generally find enough amusement in these things to still look forward to them each spring.
The only one I really didn’t like this year was Ackley’s. But Ackley is so awesome, it’ll probably grow on me.