2018 Clubhouse: Arizona Diamondbacks

Kicking off my 2018 Clubhouse posts with the D-Backs here. A couple notes about the set on this initial post. The checklist is 150 cards, comprised of 5 players per team. The card numbers run alphabetically, first by team location and then player last name. That means Arizona is up first, cards #1-#5 and the Washington Nationals will be #146-#150.

Another note on the checklist is that I put it together early in the season. Since I limited it to 5 players per team, there will be some notable guys missing, most disappointingly guys like Acuña and Soto and Gleyber who weren't called up before my artificial deadline. There will also be some guys that are no longer with the teams featured here thanks to mid-season trades. These are both realities that Topps faces on a yearly basis so hopefully it's not too big of an issue. And without further adieu, here are some cards.

#1. Paul Goldschmidt

#2. Zack Greinke

#3. Jake Lamb

#4. A.J. Pollock

#5. Robbie Ray

Traditionally, the Clubhouse line has been the "value" release, similar to Collector's Choice back in the day or what Opening Day could be if Topps would put a little more effort into it. That continues this year with full, white borders and bright team colors being prominently featured. The design is "modern"-ish without being tech-y like we see with a lot of card designs today. The primary team color is used in a hardwood texture along the top and right border and then fades into the photo at the bottom underneath the player and team names. I'm not usually a big fan of fades like that but I deemed it necessary to accommodate for autograph cards (see below). The secondary color runs in a bar along the left border and houses the player position running sideways. I kept the positions more generic (pitcher instead of starting pitcher or relief pitcher, etc.) since there seems to be more versatility on display throughout the league these days. 

If I were to do the checklist today, Jake Lamb and Robbie Ray would be replaced by David Peralta and Patrick Corbin.

Of the 5 players featured per team, 2 of them have autograph cards in the set. I doubt this is logistically possible for actually card manufacturers but luckily I'm a fake one and I can do what I want. I tried to make at least one of the 2 a bona fide star, or at least someone each team's fanbase would be totally stoked to pull. For the Diamondbacks, Goldschmidt here is the obvious get so I went with him. The consolation auto is Robbie Ray, to give you a taste of the auto checklist. 

I'm also doing a parallel for each team for display purposes. For the actual checklist, each of the 150 cards will have one of 8 parallels, each numbered to a different quantity. You'll have to wait and see what the other 7 are when their time comes. Here's the black parallel, numbered out of 100.

One down, 29 to go.