2018 Clubhouse: Chicago Cubs

#21. Javier Baez

#22. Kris Bryant 

#23. Yu Darvish

#24. Anthony Rizzo

#25. Kyle Schwarber

Another team stuffed with too many players. That makes it even harder to swallow Darvish having a card here. Turns out it's hard to predict who will have a great or horrible season. Who knew? Contreras, Zobrist and Lester all probably stake a claim to that spot on the list.

Schwarb and Rizzo are the signing players for the Cubs. I never noticed how nice Schwarber's signature is. While you can't really make out much more than the K and S (and maybe a lowercase h or b?), it's got a really nice rhythm to it that looks fun to sign.

I also thought the Cubs would be a good team to introduce the blue parallels with. These are numbered to 75. The blue isn't quite Cubbie blue but it still pops.

2018 Clubhouse: Boston Red Sox

#16. Andrew Benintendi

#17. Mookie Betts

#18. Xander Bogaerts

#19. Rafael Devers (RC)

#20. Craig Kimbrel

This is where the "5 cards per team" rule hurts in the complete opposite way the Orioles did. Having to leave out J.D. Martinez and Chris Sale is a tough look. Kimbrel probably could've gotten the axe since closers aren't super collectable. 

The autograph options were Bogaerts and Mr. Devers here. I included him since he was "the" hot rookie before the season began. He's not having a spectacular year by any means but it's still early enough for this auto to not be a bummer.

The parallel this time around is chrome-esque. Since that's probably a proprietary thing for Topps, I'll have to come up with a different term. Is "luster" still available? If so, here's the Mookie Betts luster parallel. These are numbered to 10 so they're a little more "special".

2018 Clubhouse: Baltimore Orioles

Things are looking bleak for Orioles collectors in a post-Manny world. I hope this isn't salt in that wound.

#11. Dylan Bundy

#12. Adam Jones

#13. Manny Machado

#14. Trey Mancini

#15. Jonathan Schoop

Honestly, I'm not sure I could replace the departed Machado and Schoop with anybody particularly noteworthy. I suppose Mark Trumbo still has a little bit of star power left (compared to the rest of the Orioles' roster at least).

For some reason I had Mancini and Schoop as the autograph subjects. I should probably have bumped Schoop for Adam Jones since he's actually beloved in Baltimore despite his decline.

He looks pretty good on a purple parallel, too.

2018 Clubhouse: Atlanta Braves

First off, I know Acuña missing may seem like blasphemy. But as I explained in the previous post, this checklist was made way back before he was even called up. With that out of the way, here are the Braves that looked like no-brainers back around April or so.

#6. Ozzie Albies (RC)

#7. Freddie Freeman

#8. Ender Inciarte

#9. Dansby Swanson

#10. Julio Teheran

Hey, at least Albies is here. If the switcheroo came, obviously Acuña would be included, as well as Nick Markakis, taking Inciarte and Swanson's places, though I do really enjoy the Inciarte pic. I'd also probably drop Teheran for Mike Foltynewicz.

The autograph options are Freddie here and an unseen Ozzie Albies. I think a Braves fan would be happy to pull either of those.

Here's a look at the gold parallels, numbered to 50. You might be able to see a little shimmer/sparkle here. That's so they're not just a solid, flat color. Kinda like how the Topps black parallels aren't just pure black. I think it adds a bit of a premium feel to the parallels and sets them apart from the base just a tiny bit more.

2018 Clubhouse: Arizona Diamondbacks

Kicking off my 2018 Clubhouse posts with the D-Backs here. A couple notes about the set on this initial post. The checklist is 150 cards, comprised of 5 players per team. The card numbers run alphabetically, first by team location and then player last name. That means Arizona is up first, cards #1-#5 and the Washington Nationals will be #146-#150.

Another note on the checklist is that I put it together early in the season. Since I limited it to 5 players per team, there will be some notable guys missing, most disappointingly guys like Acuña and Soto and Gleyber who weren't called up before my artificial deadline. There will also be some guys that are no longer with the teams featured here thanks to mid-season trades. These are both realities that Topps faces on a yearly basis so hopefully it's not too big of an issue. And without further adieu, here are some cards.

#1. Paul Goldschmidt

#2. Zack Greinke

#3. Jake Lamb

#4. A.J. Pollock

#5. Robbie Ray

Traditionally, the Clubhouse line has been the "value" release, similar to Collector's Choice back in the day or what Opening Day could be if Topps would put a little more effort into it. That continues this year with full, white borders and bright team colors being prominently featured. The design is "modern"-ish without being tech-y like we see with a lot of card designs today. The primary team color is used in a hardwood texture along the top and right border and then fades into the photo at the bottom underneath the player and team names. I'm not usually a big fan of fades like that but I deemed it necessary to accommodate for autograph cards (see below). The secondary color runs in a bar along the left border and houses the player position running sideways. I kept the positions more generic (pitcher instead of starting pitcher or relief pitcher, etc.) since there seems to be more versatility on display throughout the league these days. 

If I were to do the checklist today, Jake Lamb and Robbie Ray would be replaced by David Peralta and Patrick Corbin.

Of the 5 players featured per team, 2 of them have autograph cards in the set. I doubt this is logistically possible for actually card manufacturers but luckily I'm a fake one and I can do what I want. I tried to make at least one of the 2 a bona fide star, or at least someone each team's fanbase would be totally stoked to pull. For the Diamondbacks, Goldschmidt here is the obvious get so I went with him. The consolation auto is Robbie Ray, to give you a taste of the auto checklist. 

I'm also doing a parallel for each team for display purposes. For the actual checklist, each of the 150 cards will have one of 8 parallels, each numbered to a different quantity. You'll have to wait and see what the other 7 are when their time comes. Here's the black parallel, numbered out of 100.

One down, 29 to go.

2018 Spirit: NL West

#153. Archie Bradley, Arizona Diamondbacks

#243. Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies,

#22. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers

#72. Hunter Renfroe, San Diego Padres

#91. Jeff Samardzija, San Francisco Giants

And thus ends the stroll through the 2018 Spirit base set. Currently working on the Clubhouse design but I'm doing 5 cards per team, so those will probably come in a 30-post frenzy at some point. I'm actually halfway through the cards, so I feel pretty confident about that one being completed. Stay tuned.

2018 Spirit: NL Central

#227. Willson Contreras, Chicago Cubs

#119. Jose Peraza, Cincinnati Reds

#18. Corey Knebel, Milwaukee Brewers

#69. Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates

#123. Carlos Martinez, St. Louis Cardinals

The Reds and Cardinals cards look a little off since their team names are literally associated with the color red but the bigger flag on each is non-red. The Cardinals one isn't as weird since they actually use the navy here and there. But for the Reds, black isn't really an accent color so much as just an extra color. No real alternative there.

2018 Spirit: NL East

#8. Ender Inciarte, Atlanta Braves

#153. J.T. Realmuto, Miami Marlins

#77. Amed Rosario, New York Mets

#3. Rhys Hoskins, Philadelphia Phillies

#99. Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals

With this batch, you can see how the RC logo looks with this design. There's a perfectly little spot in the corner almost made for it. Topps has gotten better about placing their RC logos but for a while there they seemed to be an afterthought. The other noteworthy thing about this batch is the color choices for the Marlins. Traditionally, I've treated them as a blue/orange team but since they only wear their black hats anymore and I've been doing the hat logos on all of the cards, it kinda forced my hand. Rumor is they're gonna do a rebrand in a couple years so hopefully they'll be able to add some clarity to their identity going forward. Thanks, Jeets!