2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 7

289. Hunter Pence

53. Adonis Garcia

5. Ian Kennedy

 

134. Tony Sipp

52. Shawn Kelley

164. Tony Cingrani

80. Robbie Ray

168. Starlin Castro

115. Bruce Maxwell (RC)

G230. Luis Cessa

TMVP25. Matt Carpenter Team MVP Relic

Well, since the base cards in this pack are kinda lackluster, I figured this would be a good place for our first hit. I’ve done Team MVP designs pretty much every year I’ve been doing cards and they always have a relic swatch. They’re a little nicer this year in that I’ve decided to make them patch relics instead of just regular old jersey swatches. It’s hard to judge the sizing here so the patch or whatever may not be proportional. Regardless, it gives you an idea what they’d look like. 

2014 Spirit Base: 301-310

Let's start unpacking Series 2 (better late than never...)

#301 - Aaron Hill
I like that he's mimicking the shape of the Diamondbacks' logo here.

#302 - Ramiro Pena
I had to look him up on Baseball-Refernce.com to check his position. Turns out he's not a relief pitcher like his name would indicate. Go figure.

#303 - Adam Jones
#304 - A.J. Pierzynski

The alpha and omega of MLB A.J.'s. On the left we have the most likable one with a fun, friendly photo. On the right, the most hate-able one with an appropriately dickish photo. Pretty proud of my work on this pair.

#305 - Travis Wood
I've noticed the blues really looking funky lately.

#306 - Avisail Garcia
I'm really glad the ball was able to make it in-frame here.

#307 - Tony Cingrani
His last name is kinda fun to say. Try it at home.

#308 - Michael Brantley
Brantley's probably the breakthrough player of this season. I hope he keeps playing at this level for many seasons to come.

#309 - D.J. LeMahieu
I'll never get tired of hearing jokes about D.J. LeMahieu "spinning at the club" or whatever.

#310 - Alex Avila
What a classic cardboard pose here.

2013 Spirit Rookie Round-Up

It's been a while since I posted anything for the Spirit flagship series. Time for a new insert. This one features 20 rookies that have gotten off to a good start in 2013. I figured it would be nice to have some MLB inserts of these guys instead of so many minor league cards.

The design is a bit 'in your face,' a little reminiscent of some of the early 90s inserts with player cutouts on top of a busy background. I enjoy grunging things up so I went with that for the look. Big, bold letters roughed up and running across the background set on top of vintage team colors. The idea is that if you had all 20 cards lined up left-to-right, the 'ROOKIE' and 'ROUND-UP' text would stretch across multiple times. As it is now, each card has a slightly different cut of those letters. At the bottom, we find the player name along with position and the weathered team logo in the corner.

The back has a solid team-color background instead of the two-tone from the front. On the left is another player photo with some soft, grungy edges. To the right is the N/P/T along with a little tidbit of his MLB debut. Some may be more impressive than others (note Noonan's 0 for 1, pinch hit debut.) In the middle is a block for a brief write-up (greeked text here since I was too lazy to "write.")

This is one of the few cards I've done without any shiny foil or die-cut or other bells and whistles. The finish would be matte to fit the design rather than glossy. The edginess fits with the subject of rookies so I thought I'd let it stand on its own.