America’s favorite pastime is finally back.
If you felt like you needed therapy to get through the long baseball off-season since the Red Sox clinched the World Series in October, then you are not alone.
In the MLB Network’s new campaign “Not That Kind of Analyst,” baseball stars Mike Trout, Marco Gonzales, Whit Merrifield and Kyle Freeland get the couch treatment from studio show hosts.
“Sometimes I feel left out,” Los Angeles Angels All-Star Trout laments in the video exclusive to TheWrap. “You are not left out, you’re a center fielder,” MLB Network studio analyst Harold Reynolds tells him. Erm, that’s not quite what he meant …
Three-time All-Star Reynolds is joined by Hall of Famer Jim Thome, 2013 World Series champion Ryan Dempster, 12-year MLB veteran Bill Ripken and two-time World Series champion Al Leiter, who all play shrinks in the series of comedy skits.
Of course, in their real jobs, the experts host MLB Network’s signature nightly studio show “MLB Tonight,” breaking down the biggest pitches and home runs from around the league.
Additional spots with Austin Hedges (San Diego Padres), Lorenzo Cain ( Milwaukee Brewers), Rougned Odor (Texas Rangers) and Max Muncy (Los Angeles Dodgers) will debut later this season. They were filmed at Spring Training in Arizona this past month and the production of the campaign was done in-house by MLB Network’s promos team.
MLB Network’s 12 straight hours of live Opening Day coverage begin Thursday at 9 a.m. ET.
Watch the video above.