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.

2018 Spirit: AL Central

#15. Yoan Moncada, Chicago White Sox

#111. Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians

#166. Mikie Mahtook, Detroit Tigers

#75. Ian Kennedy, Kansas City Royals

#233. Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins

Jose Ramirez's card his the '2017 All-MLB Team - 1st' accolade, which you may be looking at saying, "wut?". Well it came from Jeff Passan's article at the end of last season and I think it's a great idea long overdue. The NBA has done All-NBA Teams and All-Defensive Teams forever and the NFL has the All-Pro designations every year. I like the idea of a definitive end-of-season list since the All-Star starters are really pretty arbitrary and only reflect the first half of the season at best. After seeing the list, it kinda makes Ramirez's monster 2018 season a little less out of nowhere. Plus it gives me plenty more accolades to put into use here.

2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 19

148. Javier Baez

269. Corey Seager

111. Miguel Sano

167. Cole Hamels

123. Kenta Maeda

273. Jose Ramirez

150. Mookie Betts

67. Zack Greinke

153. Buster Posey

TB9. Nelson Cruz - Throwbacks

This is a pretty stacked pack as far as base cards go. Not a single “dud” included. Even the “lesser” names like Hamels and Maeda are pretty collectable.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 6

127. Todd Frazier

102. Justin Verlander

210. Andrew Heaney

10. Alex Colome

38. Ender Inciarte

251. J.T. Realmuto

51. Jacoby Ellsbury

49. Curtis Granderson

258. Andrew Benintendi (RC)

G207. Jurickson Profar

N13. Hanley/Jose Ramirez - Namesakes

New insert here. I did a “Namesakes” insert way back in 2012, my first year blogging. Like then, this year’s version features 20 cards highlighting MLB combos sharing the same surname.  Here’s the checklist:

N1. Bradley - Jackie, Archie

N2. Cabrera - Miguel, MelkyN3. Davis - Wade, ChrisN4. Diaz - Almedys, EdwinN5. Gonzalez - Carlos, AdrianN6. Hernandez - Felix, CesarN7. Herrera - Kelvin, OdubelN8. Marte - Starling, KetelN9. Martinez - J.D., CarlosN10. Miller - Andrew, ShelbyN11. Murphy - Daniel, John RyanN12. Perez - Salvador, RobertoN13. Ramirez - Hanley, JoseN14. Ramos - Wilson, A.J.N15. Sanchez - Aaron, GaryN16. Santana - Carlos, DannyN17. Seager - Corey, KyleN18. Turner - Trea, JustinN19. Upton - Justin, MelvinN20. Wright - Steven, David

Some of them are siblings but for the most part it’s just random coincidence. I can’t wait until Rougned Odor’s younger brother Rougned gets called up. It’ll be even better than a Chris/Khris Davis card (which I opted against since Wade is more noteworthy than Khris.)

2014 Spirit Base: 871-885

Okay, we're finally here. The last 30 Spirit base cards of 2014. One more for each of the 30 MLB clubs...

#871 - Jordan Pacheco, #872 - Shae Simmons, #873 - Steve Lombardozzi
I've mentioned the Doug Fister trade before and how perplexing it is, but Detroit really ramped up the absurdity by shipping Lombardozzi off to Baltimore before the season even began.

#874 - Burke Badenhop, #875 - Neil Ramirez, #876 - Javy Guerra
The secret MVP of this whole project has been the Chicago White Sox. They consistently required the least amount of photo editing. Whenever it came time to do a White Sox card, it was like a little break from Photoshop for me.

#877 - Tucker Barnhart, #878 - Jose Ramirez, #879 - Justin Morneau
The Rockies cards were also a fun to layout. The purple was a nice break from all the blues that needed tweaking.

#880 - Bryan Holaday, #881 - George Springer, #882 - Bruce Chen
You know, all these blues. Both the Tigers' and Astros' "blue" gear is basically black.

#883 - John McDonald, #884 - Chris Perez, #885 - Sam Dyson
Maybe it's just an unflattering angle but I never thought of Chris Perez as such a large fellow.