2018 Clubhouse: Cleveland Indians

#36. Edwin Encarnación

#37. Corey Kluber

#38. Francisco Lindor

#39. Andrew Miller

#40. José Ramírez

This is pretty spot-on for the Indians team set. Since Andrew Miller's been hurt a lot of the season, his spot could easily go to maybe Trevor Bauer (ew) or Carlos Carrasco, but he's still one of the best relievers in the league. Encarnación probably isn't one of the five best players on the team either but him being here doesn't seem strange to me (even though squeezing his name onto the card wasn't easy).

Miller and Lindor are the autograph subjects. Again, probably the alpha and omega autos.

And for the last parallel, how about something a little different? Since these are the least rare of the parallels (#/150), why not go a little crazy? The rainbow here paired with the ice/atomic/crackle effect is definitely unique compared to the rest of the slightly sparkly solid color borders. I can only do so much digitally but I think these would be pretty cool in-hand.

2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 16

212. Steven Matz

11. Edwin Encarnacion

160. Christian Friedrich

178. Alex Colome

82. David Price

292. Francisco Lindor

223. Aaron Judge RC

203. Ryon Healy RC

34. Robinson Chirinos

TI14. Clayton Kershaw - The Incumbents

A bit of a rebound from the last pack. The Judge RC is probably the best pull though the Kershaw insert is pretty nice, too. Lots of red and blue in these cards.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 17

76. Kaleb Cowart

242. Mac Williamson

70. Cody Allen

109. Joey Gallo

241. Jonathan Villar

160. Aaron Blair

157. Justin Bour

123. Wily Peralta

22. Tyler Glasnow (RC)

G66. Joc Pederson

AW4. Brandon Crawford/Francisco Liriano - Award Winners (Gold Glove)

Another Award Winners insert, this time for a Gold Glove tandem. Hence the gold foil instead of the silver on the previous one. Pretty pleased with the Lindor pic I found for the card.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 15

7. Caleb Joseph

187. Francisco Lindor

221. Bryce Harper

91. Brandon Finnegan

174. Yordano Ventura

205. Ty Blach (RC)

99. Ben Zobrist

252. Cristhian Adames

83. Jose Rondon (RC)

G9. Ichiro Suzuki

TL85. Dan Straily - Team Leader (CIN-Ks)

Pretty strong pack here with 3 all-stars, a future Hall of Famer and two rookie cards. I had already made the checklist and designed these cards when Yordano Ventura passed away, so we have our second posthumous card of the box.

2016 Spirit Team MVP

One of the first inserts I created was the 2012 Spirit Team MVP set, featuring the best player from every club that included a relic swatch in every single card. Here's the 2016 version which follows the footsteps of the original entry 4 years ago. Design-wise, this is an extension of the 2016 Spirit base design, much like the 2012 version mirrored the base set as well.

The team color bars come in from opposite sides to house the player and team names with the logo tucked in the corner. Big block MVP letters on the left are filled with the relic swatch, leaving a big chunk of card real estate for the player image. The background fades from a tech-y looking texture to some background stadium action, both parts washed in a gradient from one team color to the other.

On the back, the elements shift a little bit as the logo moves from the right side to the left and the MVP letters take a hike to make room for a brief write up. The player photos are a little more candid/casual instead of action shots like the front.

I really like the balance of these cards, which are probably the best looking of all four Team MVP designs over the years. Let's see if I have any other ideas for the MVP-relic box next year.