So, a couple posts back I had mentioned how I was putting together a custom set of cards this year, a major undertaking given the general lack of time I seem to have for creative projects these days. It was something I wanted to do, not for some blogging statistical goal, or to sell to people, or to show off, but to be able to flex the creative muscles a little bit and do something I actually enjoyed doing for a change.

I’ve been making head-way with the set and I’m about half done. I decided to do a 100 card set. That seemed like an obtainable goal. 300-700 was just going to be out of the question. With 30 teams, I can do 3 per team, and add 5 Rookies from each league, giving me an even 100.

I looked at the team statistics from Baseball Reference and the MLB.com stats pages and tried to pick what I thought were the most interesting and engaging players. Players who are having really good years (up to this point) and performing well could have gotten preference over the more established names you’d normally see on cards. For the rookies, I took a look at Baseball America’s list of most likely “Rookie of the Year” candidates. I also came up with my own variation of an “RC Logo” to distinguish them from the rest.

So, without further ado, let’s kick off the set with a look at the AL East!

Red Sox

I’m going to save the “complete” Red Sox cards for the very end of this series of posts, because I wanted to do an entire 25-man team set for myself. So, instead of those, we’re starting with a cut and paste of some of the Red Sox cards I already previewed in the previous post, because a) they were already done, and b) it’s easy in my WordPress builder plugin to clone sections of content. New to these previews however is the Michael Chavis RC. He’s had a pretty solid rookie season and can certainly hit for power.

New York Yankees

Next up, our storied rivals, the New York Yankees, who are putting together a frighteningly good season already, and that’s with half the team on the DL. The playoff race in the second half is going to get really interesting.

Tampa Bay Rays

I’m not going to lie, the Rays have been a real surprise this year. With a couple hot rookies and the pitching being surprisingly good they’re going to easily be in the race for a playoff spot. Brandon Lowe gets the 2nd AL Rookie Card treatment in our list.

Toronto Blue Jays

Despite having one of the most highly anticipated rookies on the team, the Blue Jays are racing against Baltimore to see just how many games they can lose this year. There have been a few flashes of life here and there, but it certainly seems like the Jays are in for a mediocre season at best.

Baltimore Orioles

Last but not… well, actually, no. Just last. Last up are the Baltimore Orioles. With Machado gone I can now honestly say I hate them less, but it’s still pretty fresh, so that wound will take a while to heal. It’s a race to the bottom in Baltimore. The only team, historically, worse than the 2019 Orioles? The 2018 Orioles. Ouch. These three seem to be playing well at least, so they get cards.

There we go, there’s the AL East. Well, at least in completely fictional cardboard anyway. I’ll be posting the rest of the divisions over the next couple weeks. If there’s any suggestions or requests for specific players on specific teams, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks for checking them out!