2015 Pennant Incumbents

I felt like it was time to resurrect this insert after I failed to make any for the 2014 Pennant set. There's been a lot of turnover in the MLB rosters since 2013 so it won't be quite a complete rehash. Here's a look at the 2015 checklist versus 2013's:

ARI - Daniel Hudson (Miguel Montero)
ATL - Freddie Freeman (Tim Hudson)
BAL - Adam Jones (Nick Markakis)
BOS - David Ortiz
CHC - Starlin Castro (Alfonso Soriano)
CHW - John Danks (Paul Konerko)
CIN - Brandon Phillips
CLE - Michael Brantley (Asdrubal Cabrera)
COL - Troy Tulowitzki (Todd Helton)
DET - Justin Verlander
HOU - Jason Castro (Wesley Wright)
KCR - Alex Gordon
LAA - Jered Weaver
LAD - Andre Ethier
MIA - Giancarlo Stanton (Ricky Nolasco)
MIL - Ryan Braun
MIN - (Joe Mauer) Justin Morneau
NYM - David Wright
NYY - Alex Rodriguez (Derek Jeter)
OAK - Coco Crisp (Daric Barton)
PHI - Chase Utley (Jimmy Rollins)
PIT - Andrew McCutchen
SDP - Will Venable (Chase Headley)
SFG - Matt Cain
SEA - Felix Hernandez
STL - Yadier Molina
TBR - Evan Longoria (Ben Zobrist)
TEX - Elvis Andrus (Ian Kinsler)
TOR - Jose Bautista (Adam Lind)
WAS - Ryan Zimmerman

It's a lot stronger this time around with only maybe Daniel Hudson, John Danks and Will Venable as the real downers. 

Design-wise, it's very reminiscent of the inaugural version: posed player portrait cutouts, solid team-color backgrounds. This year, though, I've incorporated the 2015 Pennant base design a bit with the frame edge corners. I added pinstripes to the background for a little more interest as well as some starts to bring in a little of that "elected official" campaign look. Being a "retro" set, the colors are a little skewed and there's some grain added to the images.

The backs are pretty straight-forward. They're the standard black & white for Pennant cards with a little write-up and team logo. The cleaner, the better.

2014 Spirit Base Series 1: 111-120

#111 - Cole Hamels
Not the most exciting image but I like that he's wearing a blue cap and this isn't a pitcher pose I've used yet.

#112 - Jordy Mercer
A nice simple shot of Mercer taking a groundball. I like that the background isn't busy at all so you can focus on Jordy here.

#113 - Trevor Rosenthal
A lot of Rosenthal's photos were of him coming off the field after closing a game so I guess he's the closer now. This one had a nice selective focus and he doesn't look super obnoxious. A winner in my book.

#114 - Huston Street
The slightly elevated angle is different from anything else I've used. Plus the blue jersey didn't have to be altered much to match my color scheme.

#115 - Matt Cain
How could I pass up the opportunity to show Matt Cain getting a standing ovation while trotting onto the field to accept his World Series ring? Oh yeah, he's wearing the gold SF jersey and hat as well. After his 2013, I need 2012 reminders as much as possible.

#116 - Dustin Ackley
After an up-and-down year, I wonder what 2014 has in store for Ackley now that Robinson Cano has (probably) taken over as the the starting secondbaseman.

#117 - James Loney
I'm pretty sure Loney played more DH than first base last year but I had a hell of a time finding good batting shots and an embarrassment of riches capturing his field work.

#118 - Alex Rios
Rios is still somewhat of a new face to Rangers' fans so I thought having a nice smiling pic on his base card would be a good way to get familiar.

#119 - Edwin Encarnacion
After his last two seasons, it really is a shame how anonymous Encarnacion is in the U.S.

#120 - Denard Span
Luckily there was enough space to show the ball coming down and all of Span's body sliding into the grass. A lot of times I have to sacrifice one or the other.

No-Hit Club

I may be a few weeks late here, but since Matt Cain's perfect game, this insert has been kicking around in my mind. (Plus, how can I resist the opportunity to brag up a Giants milestone?) With the influx of no-nos the last few years, I think there's finally enough members of the No-Hit Club to warrant a full insert set. There are currently 22 active MLB pitchers who have tossed no-hitters (excluding the combined efforts by the Mariners this season and the Astros in 2003.)

The list includes some marquee guys like Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander (below) and Johan Santana, but it's mostly comprised of some second-to-even-lower-tier guys. I kinda like the idea of guys like Anibal Sanchez and Dallas Braden showing up in something other than base. Through their performance, I think they've earned it.

Design-wise, the front is team-colored with the full-color cut out, along with a "No-Hit Club" logo straight out of Ghostbusters. There's little bit of silver foil here just to keep them from looking low-grade. The back side has a brief write-up along with a celebration photo. The design is pretty clean and uncluttered and fits in very well with the rest of the Spirit line.

1-2 Punch

The last post focused on heavy hitters so now it's time for mound masters (sounds like a great name for another inserts somewhere down the line.) The hook for this one is spotlighting teams with 2 pretty good or even great pitchers at the front of their rotation. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to put together the checklist. For quite a few teams, the drop off from number 1 to 2 is pretty big. That's why guys like Kershaw and Sabathia are absent here. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got a couple of teams with deeeeeeep rotations that end up leaving off a some great pitchers, Cole Hamels and Madison Bumgarner* in particular.
* I reeeeally hope Timmy gets back to normal or his inclusion over MadBum will look particularly egregious.

Basically we've got player cutouts on top of a gold diamond (mimicking the 1-2 Punch logo shape) on top of a team-color saturated photo. The big 1 and 2 on the side look really cool with the cards stacked next to each other.

The design here is a little more 'sophisticated' than a couple of the other Clubhouse inserts, but I think it's nice to appeal to some different tastes with a low-end set. We have some gold foil here on the 1-2 Punch logo along with the player & team names. I included the fineprint (copyright, MLB and MLBPA logos) on both sides so the number 2 guy doesn't get dumped on. I figure player collectors would probably appreciate having a full side of their guy on a 2-player card.

Here's the 14-card/28-player checklist I came up with. See any blatant snubs?

GIANTS: Lincecum, Cain
PHILLIES: Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee
TIGERS: Justin Verlander, Doug Fister
RAYS: James Shields, David Price
BREWERS: Gallardo, Greinke
RED SOX: Josh Beckett, Jon Lester
DBACKS: Ian Kennedy, Daniel Hudson
ANGELS: Jered Weaver, Dan Haren
BRAVES: Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson
REDS: Mat Latos, Johnny Cueto
CARDINALS: Adam Wainwright, Jaime Garcia
MARLINS: Josh Johnson, Mark Buerhle
RANGERS: Yu Darvish, Derek Holland
NATIONALS: Strasburg, Gonzalez