2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 7

201. Chris Sale 

285. Jake Lamb 

130. Keon Broxton 

199. Kole Calhoun 

217. Edwin Diaz

213. Aledmys Diaz 

129. Jayson Werth 

194. Byron Buxton

300. Domingo Santana 

FF2. Aaron Judge - Future Favorites

And here’s our first Aaron Judge card. You may have noticed the absence of the RC logon on the Judge card. Unlike Topps, I decided that Spirit cards should only sport the RC logo on base cards included in the main set. That means no inserts. We don’t do a lot of parallels in Spirit products but for ones that are parallels of the base card, RC logos will appear where applicable. I figure it would help to not dilute the entire point of the RC designation if they weren’t plastered over every card this year. Novel concept, huh?

2014 Spirit Base: 421-430

#421 - Mark Trumbo
This dugout shot is kinda unique so I figured I'd go with it to stave off redundancy.

#422 - Aaron Harang
He's basically Bartolo Colon minus the comical at-bats. Who had him penciled in for double-digit wins before the season started?

#423 - Delmon Young
Believe it or not, he's actually played some games in the outfield this season. Even on an AL team!

#424 - Edward Mujica
He didn't quite pan out this season like I'm sure the Red Sox were hoping he would. Much like the rest of the club I guess.

#425 - Anthony Rizzo
Rizzo kind of looks like an adult-sized baby in this pic. I think it's the chubby cheeks and thunder thighs.

#426 - Chris Sale
Man, I have such a hard time finding Chris Sale photos to use. Not because there aren't plenty of options but because each one looks so friggin' awkward and painful. It's hell trying to fit all of his limbs into frame without shrinking down the whole photo. Here's a suitable alternative.

#427 - Brandon Phillips
I hear Cardinals' fans aren't too crazy about dat dude.

#428 - Corey Kluber
Kluber's a dark house Cy Young candidate this season. Leading the AL in FIP, second in WAR for pitchers and strikeouts, top 5 in wins, ERA, innings pitched and shutouts.

#429 - Brandon Barnes
The Rockies should wear more purple. If nothing else, ditch the black hats for purple every game.

#430 - Joe Nathan
Better than Valverde I guess.

2013 Spirit Team MVPs

Just like with Award Winners, every year will see a return of the Spirit Team MVP insert. To me, it's a no-brainer. A 30-card set with every team represented by their best player. Why Topps hasn't embraced this idea is beyond me. Maybe since it was Donruss' thing they want to keep their distance.

Let's start off with the checklist.

MVP1: Mike Trout (Angels)
MVP2: Jose Altuve (Astros)
MVP3: Yoennis Cespedes (A's)
MVP4: Jose Bautista (Blue Jays)
MVP5: Brian McCann (Braves)
MVP6: Ryan Braun (Brewers)
MVP7: Yadier Molina (Cardinals)
MVP8: Starlin Castro (Cubs)
MVP9: Paul Goldschmidt (Diamondbacks)
MVP10: Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers)
MVP11: Buster Posey (Giants)
MVP12: Asdrubal Cabrera (Indians)
MVP13: Felix Hernandex (Mariners)
MVP14: Giancarlo Stanton (Marlins)
MVP15: David Wright (Mets)
MVP16: Bryce Harper (Nationals)
MVP17: Chris Davis (Orioles)
MVP18: Chase Headley (Padres)
MVP19: Cliff Lee (Phillies)
MVP20: Andrew McCutchen (Pirates)
MVP21: Adrian Beltre (Rangers)
MVP22: Evan Longoria (Rays)
MVP23: David Ortiz (Red Sox)
MVP24: Joey Votto (Reds)
MVP25: Troy Tulowitzki (Rockies)
MVP26: Billy Butler (Royals)
MVP27: Miguel Cabrera (Tigers)
MVP28: Joe Mauer (Twins)
MVP29: Chris Sale (White Sox)
MVP30: Derek Jeter (Yankees)

Some of these selections were tough. The Braves have a handful of guys that are good but none that really rise above the rest. I went with McCann because he's been there the longest. Castro has had a down year so Anthony Rizzo could possibly replace him. The Rays' pick could've been David Price or even Ben Zobrist. Carlos Gonzalez has a good case for the Rockies since Tulo is always hurt. The Royals guy could easily be Alex Gordon or James Shields. And since Jeter has been out all year, it would probably make sense to put Cano in there, too.

Anyway, onto the design.

Like last year, the biggest feature here is the MVP relic windows. I figured the easiest way to differentiate from 2012 would be to make them vertical instead of horizontal. So the M-V-P letters are stacked on the right side leaving a vertical window for a player photo. To add some depth, I had part of the guys overlap into the team color section. Below is a the secondary team color section to house the player name along with the cap logo. The square-ish space for the logo helps balance things along with keeping it from looking to symmetrical (which I have a habit of doing.) There's some silver foil along the relic windows and all the text, minus the "Spirit Certified Game-Used Relic" small print below the P.

The elements make a 90° turn for the back side while the secondary bar moves to the top. Below a horizontal player photo is a brief bit of text. To the left is a block of copy about the relic authentication along with a code to enter online for more info about this particular swatch. And I'm looking out for everyone with having the numbers in the upper right corner so they're easy to see when stored in a cardboard box.

WARriors...Come out and pla-ay...

First off, and admission: I've never actually seen The Warriors movie but have heard it referenced so many times I don't really feel the need.

One of the big topics of discussion this off-season has been the whole Cabrera vs. Trout debate which is really a microcosm of the bigger "old school/new school"divide. One side relies on gut feelings and eye tests, the other on statistics and analysis. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle, probably leaning more towards the sabermetric side. I feel I'm still in the process of rewiring myself. It's hard to unlearn being impressed by a .300+ average or 20+ wins since those numbers where instilled in me at an early age to be benchmarks of success. I still have to pause and process my thoughts when I see .320 referred to as bad (in the case of on-base percentage.) Hopefully in time I'll grow accustomed to whatever new numbers become the dividing line for bad/average/good.

A few months ago I did a Triple Crown Contenders insert design. As the MVP debate proceeded and I found myself siding with the Trout lobby, I kept feeling these waves of embarrassment that I had posted such a thing. Even though the influences for the idea were previous Triple Crown sets and the fact that such 'contenders' are pretty popular collecting subjects, I felt like I was propagating the "old school" agenda that I no longer identify with. So I decided it would be good to show the other side of debate.

I'm going to assume that you all know about WAR and are as sick of all the "WAR: what is it good for?" references as I am. I know that sabermetrics goes way beyond this singular stat but it really is the best entry point to thinking differently about statistics. So obviously, this set is about WAR.

It features 20 players: the top-10 position players and top-10 pitchers according to WAR totals. I think the WARRIORS name is kind of clever since so many find WAR proponents to be frail, nerdy little fellows. Also, when "old schooler" refer to intangibles like "gritty" and gutsy" it drives sabermetricians nuts so this kind of pisses in both sides' Cheerios.

The front design features a full-color player cut-out over a grungy, color-soaked background. At the bottom we have a little abstract W shape in the center with some grungy angular bars shooting out behind and around. There are a couple of silver foil shapes along with the WARRIORS text and the player name.

On the back side, the WARRIORS shape moves to the top and the background is set in a solid team color. The player's 2012 stats are split into 2 lines below. These are the advanced stat lines from Fangraphs and I've included their logo below since they'd probably have to be in on this. There are 3 different versions of WAR so I thought it would be necessary to single out one source and Fangraphs was my first choice.

Hopefully not too many of you out there are grinding your teeth while reading through this.