2014 Spirit Base: 811-825

#811 - Eury De La Rosa, #812 - Emilio Bonifacio, #813 - Jimmy Paredes
Here are three image types I haven't used a ton of just yet. Unlike a lot you're about to see.

#814 - Brandon Workman, #815 - Hector Rondon, #816 - Matt Lindstrom
Pitch, pitch, pitch. That's all you ever do.

#817 - Donald Lutz, #818 - Scott Atchison, #819 - Tommy Kahnle
The Atchison photo was a last resort. Didn't find a lot with him in Cleveland. Another nice Rockies photo, too.

#820 - Jim Johnson, #821 - Gregorio Petit, #822 - Josh Willingham
Petit was a last-minute replacement when I couldn't find a usable photo of some other Astros reliever. Thems the breaks at this point.

#823 - Cory Rasmus, #824 - Jamey Wright, #825 - Tom Koehler
It's nice to have a high-angle shot everyone once in a while to break the monotony. Especially since most of us see the field and diamond when watching games instead of field level shots like these photographers get.

2014 Spirit Base: 341-350

#341 - Jarred Cosart
Cosart was decent with the Astros but he's been great since being traded to the Marlins. (And I was worried about having enough cards for Series 3...)

#342 - Danny Duffy
What an great name.

#343 - Mike Trout
It's funny how Trout's 2014 batting average is under .300 and OBP is under .400 yet this will be the year he finally wins MVP.

#344 - Scott Van Slyke
Really good lighting for this photo.

#345 - Garrett Jones
Thus concludes the "men holding bats" portion of the checklist.

#346 - Wily Peralta
I know Wily's not pronounced how it looks but I really hope he starts getting called "The Coyote."

#347 - Josh Willingham
Former Twin, current Royal.

#348 - Dillon Gee
Sifting through all his photos, Gee has that scared "oh my god, please don't hit it" look on his face for every pitch.

#349 - Michael Pineda
Hmm, that palm looks awfully clean there...

#350 - Josh Donaldson
Every single A's photo needs recolored since I want the greens to match. I don't mind it though since that kelly green looks so damn good.

2013 Spirit Award Winners

Hello to all out there in blogland. As you can tell things have slowed down a bit here with the off season in full swing. Baseball has been so far from my mind that I even overlooked my one year blogiversary. Oh well. I've got a few things planned for upcoming posts but don't expect the pace to really pick up until late January or so. In the meantime, here's a look at the 2013 edition of the Award Winners insert set.

For those that remember, I did this set last year with a similar set up: 9 AL Silver Sluggers, 9 NL Silver Sluggers, 9 AL Gold Gloves and 9 NL Gold Gloves for a total of 36-cards. The main distinguishing factor is the Silver Sluggers are bright and shiny silver and the Gold Gloves are bright and shiny gold. Horizontal stacks of each color are found in the background with the respective award names lined inside. These would have a kind of x-fractor feel with a smooth surface but the light refracting in different ways to make out the letters and such. The next layer features a player cutout (sluggers slugging and glovers gloving) with a colored band in the foreground to house the name and award info. Again, the AL guys have a blue bar with red found on the NL ones.

On the back side, we have the same horizontal stacks but this time screen back in black. To the left and right of the player portrait is their team logo and the Spirit logo. The colored bar has moved towards the top and houses the player name, team and position. A brief write-up of their respective award-winning seasons finishes out the design.

After two years, I'm not sure if this insert set will make its way into the 2014 product or if a break is in order. If it does make an appearance, I'll probably need to make sure the design take a 180-degree turn as this year's design plays kind of a like a sequel to the 2012 look. There's something to be said for subtle changes and evolutions of a standby insert, though. I suppose I have a year to figure that one out.