2015 Clubhouse All-Stars

Just in time to start the 2015 MLB season, let's take a look at the first 2015 Clubhouse insert, highlighting the players who made the 2014 All-Star teams. I've been doing this insert each year since I started the blog because it's always a great encapsulation of the standout players of the league. This year, it gives me a legitimate reason to feature a Derek Jeter since (so far) I've refrained from putting retired players into any Spirit product.

The cards are split by league once again with red to designate NL guys and blue for the AL. The bottom left corner as a foil star design which is a good anchor for the player name/position to the right along with the "2014 National/American League All-Star" text along the left edge. In the upper left corner is the respective league logo. The foil here is used strictly as a design embellishment and not as a crutch, with the names being an easy-to-read white on top of the color background. I've noticed I tend to lean towards centered, symmetric designs so I'm happy going asymmetrical here.

The back has room for a nice portrait-type image up top along with space for the team logo and a brief write-up. Since the all-star squads seem to be expanding each year, this insert set has a big checklist that would lend itself to being a "one-per-pack" insert which is perfect for a low-end product like Clubhouse.

Now that the season kicks into full-gear tonight and tomorrow, get ready for more designs coming with more regularity. Good luck to everybody's favorite teams and let's 'play ball'!

2014 Spirit Base Series 1: 41-50

#41 Matt Dominguez
I definitely knew Dominguez's photo was going to be a batting shot. Fielding was not an option.

#42 Lorenzo Cain
Cain had a lot more acrobatic catches but I went with one that actually shows his face.

#43 Hank Conger

#44 Yasiel Puig
Even as a Giants' fan, I can't help but be fascinated by Puig. I decided to go with a shot that's more 'vivacious' than 'hotdoggy,' though there were plenty of examples of the latter.

#45 Steve Cishek
I really hope the Marlins wear their orange jerseys more often in 2014. Having so much uniform black really clashes with the bright team colors on the card design.

#46 Kyle Lohse

#47 Ryan Doumit
Of all the red and blue teams in the MLB, I think I dig the Twins' hues the most.

#48 Zack Wheeler
I appreciate Wheeler's facial hair matching the team colors.

#49 Derek Jeter
Hey, look, his card number matches his age! (kidding, kidding)

#50 Sonny Gray
This card has necessitated the most Photoshop work for me thus far. Oakland's green is really far more dull than the green here but I can't help but tweak it. The green and gold combo is hard to beat.

2013 Pennant Throwdown

Just like a most trends, I'm finally "down" with something just as it seems to be fizzling out. I'm talking, of course, about Puigmania. Even though we all knew his first month or so in the majors was pretty unsustainable for a whole season, the rest of the league does seem to be "figuring him out" of late. I'm sure he'll make the adjustments and stuff, but probably not late enough to help the Giants out. I imagine Topps' second half products will have no trouble selling.

With what would be the most highly sought-after card of 2013 up there, let's take a look at Pennant's next insert — Throwdown. These feature a pair of players on rival clubs. I know this is a lot like Topps' Legendary Lineage and Diamond Duos from a few years ago, but with only 15 subjects (all of which are actual rival teams), the connection is a lot less tenuous. Here's the checklist:

1. NYY v BOS: Rivera/Ortiz

2. NYY v NYM: Jeter/Wright

3. NYM v PHI: Harvey/Lee

4. STL v CHC: Beltran/Rizzo

5. SF v LAD: Cain/Kershaw

6. SF v OAK: Posey/Cespedes

7. LAD v LAA: Puig/Trout

8. TEX v HOU: Kinsler/Altuve

9. BAL v WAS: Machado/Harper

10. CLE v CIN: Jimenez/Votto

11. STL v KC: Wainwright/Butler

12. CHC v CHW: Castro/Sale

13. STL v CIN: Carpenter/Phillips

14. PIT v PHI: McCutchen/Howard

15. ATL v PHI: Hudson/Utley

A few teams have a couple of cards here but they're represented by different players. It would be nice to have all 30 squads featured but as you can tell from MLB's interleague scheduling, you can't force rivalries.

Design-wise, the front of the cards have a little vintage flavor to them like the rest of the Pennant cards but still look clean and modern. Embellishments like the rounded inset corners and the classic typography help add some age, along with the less-than-bright cardstock. The space is split down the middle with grainy team-color boxes housing single-color team logos behind player cut-outs. There's a faint white gradient billowing up over the photos to make room for the team name. It can also fade up a little farther to make room for the signatures on the autograph cards.

For the back, I kept it black & white while recreating similar design elements from the front. Black & white photos on the opposite edges leaves plenty of room in the middle for a brief history of the players' and teams' rivalry stories. The lines of stars can be removed for the authenticity statements on the auto versions.

I tend to shy away from horizontal cards due to format issues for the blog but I'm really pleased with these. They're bright but not too bright, retro but not too retro. It's always nice to feature more than one team on a card so you can have 2 fanbases chasing after them. And it helps take the sting out of pulling a Dodgers card if it features Matt Cain or Mike Trout. (Okay, I'll stop with the Dodgers jokes.)

2013 Pennant Incumbents

Free agency has become such a big part of the MLB landscape, I thought it would fun to make an insert that shows the impact it's had on all current rosters. The Incumbents features the 30 players that have been on each team the longest. While you have guys like Jeter here who have been around the same place since the previous century, most clubs have a higher turnover rate than that.

The design echoes the 2013 Pennant base design with the beveled top corners, simple team colors and the half-circle tab to house the Pennant logo. The borders here are a little more cream than white, though. Each player is cut out from an personal-type portrait and placed over a solid background. The Incumbents text stretches across the width of the card and separates the color boxes along with the player name & info. With Pennant being a retro set, the photo color levels are altered and some grain is added to the whole front along with the typography meant to evoke some past era.

The backs are kept to one-color and have a black beveled border. The top is packed with the insert title, action photo, player name, card number and team logo as well as a bit of text that reads how long the player has been a part of his big league clube. I left plenty of space for a sizable write-up highlighting the team's successes/failures in the time the player has been around.

Here's a checklist of the players featured.

ARI - Miguel Montero

ATL - Tim Hudson

BAL - Nick Markakis

BOS - David Ortiz

CHC - Alfonso Soriano

CHW - Paul Konerko

CIN - Brandon Phillips

CLE - Asdrubal Cabrera

COL - Todd Helton

DET - Justin Verlander

HOU - Wesley Wright

KCR - Alex Gordon

LAA - Jered Weaver

LAD - Andre Ethier

MIA - Ricky Nolasco

MIL - Ryan Braun

MIN - Justin Morneau

NYM - David Wright

NYY - Derek Jeter

OAK - Daric Barton

PHI - Jimmy Rollins

PIT - Andrew McCutchen

SDP - Chase Headley

SFG - Matt Cain

SEA - Felix Hernandez

STL - Yadier Molina

TBR - Ben Zobrist

TEX - Ian Kinsler

TOR - Adam Lind

WAS - Ryan Zimmerman

It's interesting but I suppose not all that surprising that most of the guys here are kind of no-brainers. They have obviously been good performers or else they wouldn't have stuck around so long. But you also have a few rebuilding teams (Houston and Miami) and others that construct their rosters differently (Oakland, Arizona) where the representative isn't necessarily the marquee guy on the squad. Personally, I think it's nice mixing up the checklists from set to set just to keep things from getting stale. That said, I can't imagine being too excited if I pulled a Wesley Wright insert card, though I have had to suffer with plenty of Ricky Nolasco cards.