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.

PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 13

16. Tony Watson 

65. Joey Votto 

174. Marcus Stroman 

26. Justin Upton 

142. Dellin Betances 

54. Carlos Martinez 

247. David Robertson 

76. Joe Ross 

135. Brian Dozier 

DT4. Kris Bryant - Dream Team

Alright, let's finish up this box break. A little late on the release here considering three of these guys aren’t on the same teams now. I’m glad this Brian Dozier card is finally seeing the light of day, though. That’s such an awesome photo.

Gint-a-Cuffs 9: Part 2 of 2

After the first half of the box, my score was sitting at . Let's add some points to that.

PACK 13

Mini 8 - Kevin Gausman (Black) +4

132 - Corey Seager

285 - Hunter Renfroe

14 - Robert Gsellman

4 - Babe Ruth (NYY) -1

12 - Cody Bellemore

319 - Seth Lugo (SP) +1

WAD-6 - Nolan Ryan +2

PACK TOTAL: +6

RUNNING TOTAL: 80.3

PACK 14

Mini 33 - Byron Buxton (A&G) +2

145 - A.J. Reed

98 - Stephen Piscotty

46 - Chris Archer

268 - Matt Olson

176 - Marcus Stroman

328 - Carlos Martinez (SP) +1

WAD-99 - Mark McGwire +2

PACK TOTAL: +5

RUNNING TOTAL: 85.3

Will this Matt Olson card turn into a hot commodity? Or will his A's-ness negate all the buzz?

PACK 15

Mini 54 - Rickey Henderson

95 - Dee Gordon

248 - Wilson Ramos

163 - Wesley Bryan

22 - Albert Almora

24 - Ken Griffey, Jr.

148 - Jesse Winker

WF-20 - Telephone +2

PACK TOTAL: +2

RUNNING TOTAL: 87.3

PACK 16

Mini 199 - Curtis Granderson

51 - Buster Posey (FP) +4

125 - Paul Goldschmidt

162 - Sonny Gray

203 - Carlos Gonzalez

209 - Mitch Haniger

166 - Manuel Margot

SFL-12 - Grouper & Diving Plugs +2

PACK TOTAL: +6

RUNNING TOTAL: 93.3

It's funny/not funny to see Buster here surrounded by all these Giants killers. Throw Jay Bruce in there and it'd be a GK Dream Team.

PACK 17

Mini 68 - Kenta Maeda (A&G) +2

124 - Kyle Schwarber

100 - Ty Cobb

37 - Devon Travis

91 - Nomar Mazara

297 - Troy Tulowitzki

220 - Chipper Jones

WF-11 - Space Needle +2

PACK TOTAL: +4

RUNNING TOTAL: 97.3

So did everybody get past that Schwarber panic from earlier this year?

PACK 18

Mini 26 - Matt Wieters (A&G) +2

84 - Ian Desmond

83 - Ichiro

15 - Gary Sanchez (NYY) -1

48 - Carlos Correa

327 - Steven Wright (SP) +1

9 - Ryan Schimpf

WAD-59 - Andrew Benintendi +2

PACK TOTAL: +4

RUNNING TOTAL: 101.3

PACK 19

C-2 Ursa Major +2

257 - Lou Gehrig (NYY) -1

229 - Rougned Odor

157 - Carson Fulmer

1 - Kris Bryant (FP) +2

WF-13- Solar Generator +2

MA-TB - Ty Blach (AUTO/FT) +10.5

PACK TOTAL: +15.5

RUNNING TOTAL: 116.8

Hit number 2 and it's from my favorite team. That's 3/3 on multipliers thus far. Considering all the possible autos in this year's release, I'm pretty satisfied with Ty Blach here. I don't expect him to be a Giants legend or anything, but it's nice to have a rookie auto in hand in case that does happen somewhere down the line. He has a pretty nice looking signature, too.

PACK 20

Mini 84 - Ian Desmond (Black) +4

1989-558 - Dan Pasqua (RT) +1

90 - Gavin Cecchini

258 - Jose Peraza

225 - Ian Kinsler

192 - Willson Contreras

42 - Mark Trumbo

323 - Drew Smyly (SP) +1

WAD-69 - Johnny Bench +2

PACK TOTAL: +8

RUNNING TOTAL: 124.8

PACK 21

BAM-11 - Salsa Dance +2

274 - Laurie Hernandez

184 - Jose Altuve (FP) +2

210 - Didi Gregorius (NYY) -1

26 - Matt Wieters

121 - Randall Grichuk

212 - Don Mattingly (NYY) -1

SFL-2 - Walleye & Spinner +2

PACK TOTAL: +4

RUNNING TOTAL: 128.8

PACK 22

WD-21 - Chilean Sailor Dude +2

1987-739 - Chet Lemon (RT) +1

35 - Johnny Damon

249 - Sage Steele

147 - Salvador Perez

153 - Sean Doolittle

259 - Roger Maris (NYY) -1

330 - Mark Melancon (SP) +1 (FT) +1

WAD-52 - David Dahl +2

PACK TOTAL: +4

RUNNING TOTAL: 132.4

PACK 23

Mini 223 - Lucas Giolito (A&G) +2

144 - Frank Thomas

243 - Alex Reyes

108 - Ryon Healy

282 - Christian Yelich

WF-1 - Life Savers Parachute Jump +2

FSRA-KB - Kris Bryant (FSRA/FP) +8.5

PACK TOTAL: +12.5

RUNNING TOTAL: 144.9

And here's the last hit of the box. Not only is Kris Bryant one of the better non-PC relics to pull hobby-wise, he's also on the favorite player list. Thanks, Brad!

PACK 24

Mini 131 - Dan Jennings

104 - Dexter Fowler

45 - Harriet Tubman +1

118 - Cameron Maybin

40 - Dansby Swanson

21 - Eric Hosmer

300 - Max Kepler

SFL-18 - Wahoo & Plastic Skirted Lures +2

PACK TOTAL: +3

FINAL TOTAL: 147.9

And we come to end with a decent score just under 150. It looks like someone has already posted a higher score, so this won't be winning the box but I'm not complaining at all. It was nice to have a reason to go ahead and buy a box this year, which I probably wouldn't have done otherwise with wax prices being what they are this season. (Damn you, Judge, Bellinger, others.) Check in next year to see if Gint-a-Cuffs makes it to the 10-year mark or not. I know the Commissioner was on the fence about this year and I don't blame him in the least. I'll go ahead and commit myself though, just to ensure there's at least some interest.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 24

218. Michael Pineda

118. Jerad Eickhoff

1. Kris Bryant

246. Kevin Gausman

297. Tim Anderson

45. David Robertson

181. Leonys Martin

125. Jake Lamb

169. Alex Bregman (RC)

G215. Nolan Arenado

TL63. Julio Teheran - Team Leader (ATL-ERA)

Closing out the box with a pretty strong pack, all things considered. Finally pulling the Kris Bryant base and the Alex Bregman rookie card. Add in the Arenado gold and it’s a pretty solid way to end.

Going forward, I’ll probably post new designs individually instead of in this box/pack format. I may even fill in the gaps in some of these insert sets as well. I do plan on doing a Pennant box like this, though probably fewer "packs." Those are already in the works.

2016 Spirit Base

With pitchers and catchers reporting today, what better time to unveil the look for the 2016 Spirit flagship set. Just like last year, I've designed a card for every team. You can see a roundup of them all below but to get a better look, you can check them out on my Instagram page. Without further ado, let's breakdown this year's design.

For the fifth straight year, the flagship set is borderless. (Just wanted to point that out since Topps seems to be getting a lot of credit for going borderless in 2016...) These diagonal bars in team colors coming from the edges converge to add a little bit of dynamism that you don't get from just plain old rectangles. I guess diagonals are all the rage in 2016. The team logos are back to full-color after I went with gold foil last year. The last element is a small accolades strip extending just above the bars. For any award-winning or all-star player, there's a designation to help them stand out a bit from the rest of the league. You can really tell below even at these small sizes.

Though he's kinda cut off, I had to go with the Cal pic for Machado's card. And that A-Rod photo is so trolltastic I love it.

The Donaldson photo seemed like a good emblem of his 2015 season.

Solid trio of cards here. I like how you can see Kinsler's bat in the bottom left corner, peeking out.

Check out the flow on Keuchel's beard there. Also, I was just barely able to get the ball in frame on the Santiago card without the whole thing getting imbalanced. Just barely.

All three batting cards featuring different parts of the swing. God I love Nelly's fly ball pose.

Good balance of photos here. A candid on-field, a candid dugout and a statue-esque action shot.

The look of concern on Joey Walks face is something you'll probably be seeing a lot of this season.

Piscotty gets the RC logo in the bottom right corner. It's a little tight but fits. I decided to go with red and teal for the Diamondbacks even though they don't actually feature it much in their new identity. Anything to add some unique colors to the set.

Glad the Padres added yellow to their team colors. The sand was always so drab. Maybe next year they'll add brown in there as well.

The back are a progression from the 2015 design, updated with the 2016 design elements. Everything fits pretty coherently. For veterans with years and years of service, the stat box will get a little crowded but that's always been the case with any base design. I think my favorite part is how the logo fits perfectly below the card number and to the left of the vitals, filling the negative space from the diagonal photo.

Well this is the fifth Spirit base set I've designed. If I find the time I may do a retrospective post comparing them all across the years. Maybe even a poll for everyone to vote for their favorites. Stay tuned for that....