Merkin has a long Q & A with Brooks Boyer. Here’s what Boyer had to say on this year’s commercials:
I think this year’s commercials, if they go off the way we want them to go off, are a little more grinderish. Because you are going with a tagline of “It’s Black or White,” all based on the honesty of the team and a work ethic, I don’t think they are going to be as funny as they were. I think they are going to be cool, but we have some viral things planned that we think have a chance to be funny and engaging and so truthful.
It’s kind of, “Life isn’t always black and white, but our baseball is.” Playing on something like that is going to make it engaging.
and on the budget/payroll:
… Hopefully, we get a little bit better weather in April and May, and hopefully we have a little bit better team in September than we did last year. That certainly carries a lot of weight. How we budgeted, we feel very confident, as we sit here right now, we feel confident we will be able to support a payroll that’s north of $100 million.
There’s a lot more on the link.