2014 Spirit Base Series 1: 161-170

#161 - Jose Altuve
Altuve's probably my favorite that I don't collect. Maybe it's because of his stature. Or how much fun it is to say his name. Or the fact he's stuck on the Astros. Either way, I'm pulling for him to shine.

#162 - Aaron Crow
I used to have an Northwest Arkansas Naturals Aaron Crow shirsey, oddly enough. I went to a game at Arvest Ballpark and felt out of place without any gear so I grabbed a Crow shirt off the clearance rack. I don't think he had been called up to Kansas City yet but I guess it was obvious he was done with AA.

#163 - Howie Kendrick
I think Kendrick tried to go by Howard last year but I guess it didn't take. I keep seeing Howie everywhere online.

#164 - Andre Ethier
Boy, I bet he feels lucky Matt Kemp's been such a DL-hermit the last couple seasons. Ethier's been able to redeem himself enough to where his contract doesn't look like the absolute worst in the league anymore. Probably only top-10 now.

#165 - Jacob Turner
Going into 2013, Turner looked like he'd been the Marlins' #1 starter. Going into this season, he's probably #4 or #5, even though he had a decent season last year. Miami's rotation could be amazing in 2014.

#166 - Yovani Gallardo
I really don't like the lighting in Miller Park.

#167 - Brian Duensing
I really dig the depth of field in this shot.

#168 - Lucas Duda
Oy, those empty seats at Citi Field.

#169 - Brett Gardner
One of my biggest hopes this offseason was that after the Yankees signed Ellsbury, they'd be willing to move Gardner since he'd be a perfect fit for San Francisco. Unfortunately, the Yankees were smart enough to lock him up for a few more years. Meanwhile, the Giants signed noted clomper Michael Morse to clomp around left field...

#170 - Tommy Milone
If I were an Oakland fan, I'd try really hard to find a reason to call him Tommy "The Mailman" Milone.

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