2018 Clubhouse: San Francisco Giants

116. Brandon Belt

117. Madison Bumgarner

118. Evan Longoria

119. Andrew McCutchen

120. Buster Posey

Hey look, an orange & black team posting on Halloween. Nice how that worked out. With the new guys, this was an easy lineup to fill. You could probably swap Brandons and plug Crawford in for Belt but they're pretty much even I think. And since Belt is my favorite player, that gave him the edge.

I don't know how long this Topps/Bumgarner rift is gonna go on but any chance I have to do something Topps CAN'T, I'm gonna take it. Belt would be the other auto guy here.

Since he didn't have an auto, I thought I'd show the best Buster card of the set, his 1/1 wood parallel.

2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 15

211. Matt Carpenter

78. Brandon Drury

72. Mark Melancon

296. Noah Syndergaard

186. Evan Longoria

162. Andrelton Simmons

157. Andrew McCutchen

14. Travis d’Arnaud

89. Alcides Escobar

FF10. Raisel Iglesias - Future Favorites

Not a lot to say about this pack. We're getting closer to the end here, folks.

2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 11

202. Giancarlo Stanton

257. Adrian Gonzalez

221. Mike Trout

259. Archie Bradley

287. Ender Inciarte

238. Nomar Mazara

152. Paul Goldschmidt

262. Jaime Garcia

263. Adam Duvall

TI27. Evan Longoria - The Incumbents

This is a pretty solid pack as far as base cards go with three legitimate MVP candidates. Lots of red and blue, too.

2017 SPIRT BOX BREAK - PACK 9

124. Alex Cobb

223. Adam Liberatore

202. Keone Kela

18. Ryan Madson

122. Carlos Carrasco

117. Aaron Nola

298. Marco Estrada

143. Evan Longoria

249. Roman Quinn (RC)

G11. Joey Wendle (RC)

HW4. Ben Zobrist -Hardware

Wow, that's a lot of pitchers to start out a pack. New insert design here springs from the “Hardware.” moment from last postseason’s TV coverage. With a good image of Zobrist and the WSMVP trophy, seemed like a no-brainer. Presumably, the rest of the set would feature the other award winner handling their trophies. Since those shots are probably less exciting, I tried to give it an etched metal look. In person, these would probably be chrome-ish, hence the slight rainbow coloring.

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.

2014 Spirit Base Series 1: 81-90

#81 - Darin Ruf
There weren't a lot of options for good Ruf shots so I settled on this rough one.

#82 - Andrew McCutchen
Cutch is so lanky and lean a lot of his action shots have his limbs hanging off the edges or leave way too much negative space. This pose makes him look pretty bad ass, which is suitable for the reigning NL MVP.

#83 - Michael Wacha
This is a nice action portrait from the mound. I like that the Musial patch is plainly visible as well.

#84 - Cameron Maybin
Maybin spent a lot of time on the DL last season so there weren't a ton of images to choose from. That's why his neck looks absent here.

#85 - Sergio Romo
Romo's one of those guys that I bet fans of every other team hate. He's so demonstrative on the mound I can understand it. That said, I love the dude.

#86 - Abraham Almonte
I can't say I know much about Almonte but I'm digging the Mariners' teal alternate jerseys.

#87 - Evan Longoria
Longoria has to be one of the most photogenic ballplayers active.

#88 - Nick Tepesch
With that pitchface, Tepesch's nickname could totally be The Beast.

#89 - Anthony Gose
If a baseball is anywhere close to the glove, I feel compelled to keep it in the frame.

#90 - Ross Detwiler
It's always crossed my mind to start a PC of guys named Ross since it's not a super common name. Right now I can't think of any other than Detwiler and Ohlendorf and those two guys don't have a ton a new cards coming out. So maybe it wouldn't be too hard to get started.