2018 Clubhouse: San Diego Padres

111. Brad Hand

112. Eric Hosmer

113. Manuel Margot

114. Wil Myers

115. Hunter Renfroe

That Margot card is probably my favorite of the whole set. Obviously Brad Hand isn't on the squad anymore. Freddy Galvis probably played his way onto next year's set.

Renfroe and Margot are the signers. The Renfroe pick ended up being a decent one. Man, it must be hard for Padres collectors.

Myers ended up being more of an IF/OF guy, playing more games at third than any other position.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 22

23. Kelvin Herrera

296. Zach Duke

129. Nomar Mazara

199. Tanner Roark

62. Danny Farquhar

182. Matt Shoemaker

15. Eric Hosmer

4. David Phelps

206. Tyler Austin (RC)

G229. Christian Friedrich

ART11. Sueng-hwan Oh - All-Rookie Team

Looks like another Missouri-centric pack. If that Mazara photo looks familiar, you may have seen it elsewhere on cardboard. It seems to happen a few times every year where Topps and I independently select the same photo. I try to avoid using ones I know they've used but these cards were designed before theirs saw the light of day.

2015 Spirit Home Grown

With all the player movement this season, I thought a good insert concept would be to focus on some guys who have risen all the way to the majors with the same team that drafted and developed them. Some people refer to them as "home grown" so that's the name I picked. 50 cards here featuring such players that have at least 5 MLB seasons in the ledger.

Playing off the "grown" part of the title, the design features a grassy background image fading into a subtle paper texture. The title is in an ornate typeface that looks similar to an immaculately tended hedge garden. There are also some green-ish vine-line flourishes adorning the edges of the card. A player cutout overlaps all the elements before softly fading to make room for the the text at the bottom. The cardboard here is uncoated in keeping with the earthy, organic feel of the concept. It also makes a great contrast for the foil-stamped player name and Spirit logo.

The motif carries over to the backs with the grass fade reversed to top-to-bottom. A small player portrait rest in the middle along the top, flanked by the "Home Grown" text and the team logo below. A brief write-up closes things out.

With the checklist here numbering 50, you'd get some of the less-marquee names like Perkins and Gardner here along with heavy hitters like McCutchen and Kershaw and Trout, so something for everyone.

2014 Spirit Base Series 1:71-80

# 71 - Brad Peacock
Peacock's pitch face really limited my photo options here. Luckily, his face contorts back to normal on his follow-through.

#72 - Eric Hosmer
The first appearance of the Royals' baby blue jerseys.

#73 - C.J. Wilson
What are the odds his foot would bend up just enough to leave me space for the Spirit logo?

#74 - Hyun-Jin Ryu
I'll refrain from making the easy joke about cake in the dugout.

#75 - Christian Yelich
DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO HIS EYES.

#76 - Jonathan Lucroy
Maybe it's the Brewers connection but this card looks very Molitorian.

#77 - Brian Dozier
Dozier had a great 2013 season and a lot of people probably don't know much about him. I wanted to use a nice up-close photo so everyone could get to know him.

#78 - Ruben Tejada
Just a cool shot of a nice defensive play. And he's looking straight at the camera to boot.

#79 - Eduardo Nunez
The Yankees' blue is basically black in real life but I have to go in and add some color to these images. Can you tell I spruced up the helmet and undershirt?

#80 - Jarrod Parker
I don't know what kind of photo library Topps has to work with, but damn can it be hard to find shots of pitchers without goofy looks on their delivery.

Diamond Market - Part 1

Well, it looks like Topps finally opened the Golden Giveaway gates yesterday. I'm still on the fence as to whether I'm going to redeem my codes or just sell/auction them off on eBay. I'll probably wait a few weeks to hear people's thoughts on the GG before deciding either way. But this seems like the perfect time to introduce something similar to Topps' online endeavors but potentially better.

Say hello to Spirit's Diamond Market. It's similar to the MCG, DG, and GG in that you get a card with a code, entered said code online and unlock 'stuff.' Where it's different starts with the code cards themselves. Instead of just some flimsy, over-crowded card that you throw away once the code has been redeemed, these Diamond Market Code Cards are worth keeping in your collection. They're shaped like credit/debit cards with the round edges and printed on a similar plastic-like stock. There are 20 different players depicted in the 'set' so it's worth collecting even after the codes have been redeemed.

The credit/debit card motif isn't just for looks, though the hologram Spirit logo and player name embossing does look neat. The Diamond Market itself uses the concept of accruing credits into your account and then using them to 'buy' exclusive cards available only through the Diamond Market. When you enter a code, it adds a value of 10, 25, 50, or 100 credits to your account.

Instead of just randomly getting whatever card you happen to 'unlock,' the choice is yours as to which cards to add to your collection. No more 1988 Chris Bosios or 1980 Ed Halickis languishing in your 'portfolio' for perpetuity because they aren't worth the $10+ it takes to ship the batch of junk to you. These are brand new cards of players that people actively collect.

These cards are inserted into Spirit Series 1 packs at a rate somewhere between conventional inserts and relic cards. Something like 1:16 or so. They won't be as easy to pull as Topps' code cards but they won't be so rare that you have to buy box after box just to rack up enough credits to broaden your options. Because, as Part 2 of this post will show, you might want to save up some credits to really splurge.