2018 Clubhouse: Toronto Blue Jays

141. Josh Donaldson

142. Curtis Granderson

143. Kevin Pillar

144. Justin Smoak

145. Marcus Stroman

With Donaldson and Bautista and Encarnación gone, the Jays roster looks pretty odd these days. I suppose Russell Martin still has some cachet. And Kendrys Morales, Randal Grichuk and Teoscar Hernández all deserve consideration for next year's set.

Donaldson was the no-brainer auto here. Justin Smoak is the other dude, which is kinda nice since he doesn't seem to sign much these days.

Here's Smoak's purple parallel, mixing the Jays blue and red.

2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 20

88. Jacoby Ellsbury

49. Zack Cozart

134. Lance McCullers

251. Charlie Blackmon

109. Jose Abreu

258. Mike Leake

207. Danny Duffy

87. Bryce Harper

33. Curtis Granderson

FF11. Trea Turner - Future Favorites

I wonder how old Trea Turner will be before he doesn’t look like he’s 14 years old.

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.)

2914 Spirit Base: 431-440

#431 - Scott Feldman
Feldman's been a decent starter for Houston this year. He'll help eat up some innings the next couple of seasons while the Astros young guys get better.

#432 - Salvador Perez
Probably the best catcher this year in the state of Missouri.

#433 - Raul Ibanez
I feel like there's probably some hidden Ninja Turtles story about an uncle named Raul.

#434 - Josh Beckett
It's hard to believe that the current edition of Josh Beckett was the one to toss his first no-hitter instead of the bad ass from 10 years ago. Almost as weird as Lincecum tossing 2 since he fell into the stinkhole.

#435 - Casey McGehee
Another blast from the past. McGehee's OPS+ is sitting right at 100, which is league average. The last time he was at 100 or above was 2010! Yet he was still up for the All-Star Final Fan vote in July. Even though I root for a team that has Ryan Vogelsong in its starting rotation, I'm still amazed at all the out-of-nowhere comebacks in 2014.

#436 - Ryan Braun
It'll be hard to tell if Braun's decline is a result of him not "juicing" or if it's just plain aging. I bet I know which one most people will believe. I'm still on the fence I guess.

#437 - Samuel Deduno
Deduno may or not be making an appearance in Series 3. He's on the Astros now but we'll see how much room there is on the checklist for a middle reliever to get his second card.

#438 - Curtis Granderson
Grandy's numbers have taken a bit of a dip since leaving Yankee Stadium.

#439 - Jacoby Ellsbury
Hard to believe Ellsbury's only been an all-star once in his career. (2011)

#440 - Luke Gregerson
Literally the only photo I could find of him in an A's uniform that would work for these cards.

Keepin' It Clean

One of my personal favorite designs from Spirit in 2012 was the Clubhouse Moonshots insert. Homerun hitters, die-cut, big ol' moon. What's not to love? This time around, I kept the subject the same but changed the name to Clean-Up Crew. The die-cut is also back again though in a much different shape.

The arrows are a play on the 'up' part of 'clean-up' and helped me get the design rolling. The one on the right leaves a nice tidy space for the team logo or a memorabilia swatch. I wanted to make sure all arrows pointed up so the upper left corner was the natural choice for the other die-cut location. Having some part of the player cut into the arrow keeps things from getting stale.

As the arrows take care of the latter half of the insert name, the bright neon green/yellow color on the bottom handles the 'clean' half. Something about the color makes me think of a super-intense household cleaner that would almost scrub the skin off your finger. I imagine the ink would be almost plastic-like on the finished product.

On the back side, we have the reverse die-cut shape to deal with but luckily plenty of space is left for another big player portrait. The neon is turned down a bit with black being the most prominent color. Below a brief write-up is the 2012 stat line with categories relevant to clean-up hitters (HR, RBI, total bases, slugging % and OPS.)

All in all, the bright colors, special shape and big batters seem to fit right in with the Clubhouse line.