2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 5

286. Derek Dietrich

56. Troy Tulowitzki

55. Alex Gordon

292. Kyle Seager

222. Homer Bailey

235. Steven Wright

100. Hunter Strickland

2. Dellin Betances

300. Jharel Cotton (RC)

G121. Jordan Lyles

TL95. Zach Davies - Team Leader (MIL ERA)

This is a pretty solid pack player-wise, with the Davies insert and Lyles parallel the “lesser” names. I should probably note that the entire checklist was randomized as well as the pack collation. I’m sure with actual, physical cards, the collation and checklists are affected by the printing setup. I’m just kinda winging it here. If the base cards look a little paltry, I try to make up for it with the parallel and insert. In this case, since the base here is filled with stars and semi-stars, I figured it was a decent place to unload an underwhelming insert. (No offense, Zach Davies fans.)

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 4

94. Adam Duvall

158. Aaron Altherr

233. Ken Giles

146. Freddy Galvis

73. Ryan Buchter

74. Erasmo Ramirez

172. Mike Zunino

288. Corey Dickerson

270. Dansby Swanson (RC)

G33. Justin Grimm

K1. Max Scherzer - Kings

The Swanson rookie card is probably the noteworthy pull here. If he pans out like he’s hyped to, I think it has potential to become “iconic.” The Scherzer here introduces the Kings insert set. It features the 20-best strikeout pitchers of 2016. I went for a “regal” pattern to match the name of the set and decided to make it a K-shaped die-cut so it’d be a bit more unique. The only cut-out is on the right side, though, to reduce the likelihood of corner dings.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 3

217. Kevin Pillar

283. Adrian Gonzalez

195. Michael Tonkin

267. Max Kepler

78. Yangervis Solarte

254. Randall Delgado

75. Martin Perez

159. Ryan Flaherty

93. Jose Leclerc (RC)

20. Collin McHugh (Gold Parallel)

ART1. Gary Sanchez - All Rookie Team

The All Rookie Team insert set features 2007′s top-performing rookies at every position. Here’s the full checklist:

ART1. Gary Sanchez - C

ART2. Tommy Joseph - 1B
ART3. Ryan Schimpf - 2B
ART4. Ryon Healy - 3B
ART5. Corey Seager - SS
ART6. Trea Turner - OF
ART7. Tyler Naquin - OF
ART8. Nomar Mazara - OF
ART9. Steven Matz - LHP
ART10. Michael Fulmer - RHP
ART11. Seung Hwan Oh - RP

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 2

79. Clayton Kershaw

240. Ryan Schimpf

204. Tony Watson

190. Miguel Gonzalez

193. Adam Conley

264. Jhonny Peralta

40. Taylor Jungmann

261. Cheslor Cuthbert

50. Edwin Diaz (RC)

212. Jason Kipnis (Gold Parallel)

OTR12. Aaron Sanchez - On the Rise

Another pack, another new insert. On the Rise features 25 players that made big strides in 2016. I wanted the background to look kind of stock market-y without being too hacky. The big subtle brackets pointing forward and up adds some depth without being too on-the-nose. As you’ll see in other OTR cards, the colors fade from one to the other in tandem with the team colors. A little gold foil for the “ON THE RISE” text sets it off a bit.

A few notes on these particular base cards: when the Padres regressed away from last year’s navy and gold color scheme, I had to switch out yellow for a dull gray. The Padres, man. And with so many pitcher cards, the action shots can only vary so much. The checklist is actually half pitcher/half position players so other packs should be less pitcher-centric.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 1

165. Noah Syndergaard

82. Drew Pomeranz

131. Jake McGee

170. Alec Asher

35. Nate Karns

63. Rob Zastryzny (RC)

149. Logan Forsythe

188. Matt Wisler

295. Delino DeShields

57. Odubel Herrera (Gold Parallel)

TL20. Evan Longoria - Team Leader (TBR Hits)

Since this is the first look at the base design, I’ll dissect it a little bit. As usual, each card is borderless with full-bleed photos and team-color design elements. The team logos are placed in a baseball diamond-like square and player names are in bold, white lettering for readability. Having the color fade behind the last name helps keep things from getting too boxy or claustrophobic. Along the right, next to the logo diamond is the player position as well as a repeating 2017 pattern fading towards the edges to help balance things out. 

There are a couple of elements that come and go depending on who’s card it is. For players that made the 2016 All-Star squads, they get an extra fade of color above the solid bar with their respective league honor listed. Pomeranz’s may look weird because he made the NL squad before being traded to the Red Sox. And for guys that made their MLB debut after the July 1, 2016 deadline, the RC logo makes an appearance (Zastryzny up there.) There’s at least one RC on average per pack.

Additionally, each pack contains a Gold Parallel card as well as an insert. You can see on the Odubel that the solid color portions of the regular base design get a gold foil stamping, along with the player name and position. The Pack 1 insert is a rather expansive insert set featuring the team leaders of each club in four different stat categories (2 pitching, 2 hitting.) So that 120 cards. Needless to say, these will be the most-featured insert of the box. Design-wise, I structured it so the bold type works kinda like a drop-down menu or something. The three categories not featured are screened back as to not impose too much on the player image. Since this is the “Hits” card, the HITS type and Longoria’s total are solid white along with his name, team, and the card title. You’ll see how the other stat cards look in subsequent packs.

New Year, New Design On Deck

Belated Happy New Year to you all. Though you may not have noticed, I have started unveiling the 2017 Spirit card designs. In previous years, I've done as little as showing a handful of base cards to making one for EVERY card in series 1 before finally settling on doing one card for every team the last two years. I've decided to change it up again this year, releasing a smattering of base cards in a box break format. So 11 cards per pack, featuring nine base cards, one gold parallel and an insert in every pack.

The idea mostly came as a way to lighten the design workload on me throughout the season. If you've been following me here for a few years or so, you've probably noticed how the posts come a lot more frequently as the season starts and then dwindles down to cyber whispers as the months roll along. With the box break format, I've been doing a lot more designing in this dead period between the postseason and spring training. Having most of the Spirit inserts already taken care of, this will free me up to spread the love more evenly across the Clubhouse, Pennant and Deluxe releases.

The other big change is that I've been posting these "box break" packs on Tumblr instead of here on Blogger. Over the years, I've noticed myself being less excited when it comes to "writing" the posts vs. designing the cards and showing them to the world. Tumblr is a more visual place whereas Blogger really caters to the written word. So far, I've really enjoyed the ease of posting the packs there. What I haven't enjoyed is the fact that there's absolutely zero collecting presence on Tumblr. Not only are all of you not on there, but nobody else seems to be either. So, short of some spontaneous mass migration, I'm basically posting into the abyss on Tumblr.

I'm wrestling with what I should do going forward. Just plug along on Tumblr, tweeting out links to my new posts? Double my work and post on Tumblr and Blogger? Use Tumblr as a catalog then do "digest" posts here? There's no perfect solution. I enjoy getting actual feedback here on Blogger (versus zero on Tumblr), but my excitement about putting together posts here is dwarfed by the ease of posting on Tumblr. I guess I'll keep moving along for a bit longer before I go about changing course.