2014 Trenton Thunder baseball cards

Congratulations to Trenton Thunder players Matt Tracy, Ben Gamel, Peter O’Brien and Gary Sanchez who were selected for the Eastern League All-Star Game on Monday. The Altoona Curve will host the game on Wednesday,  July 16, at Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

I picked up the 2014 Trenton Thunder baseball card team set last week when I went to see the Portland Sea Dogs play the Thunder.

Several of the New York Yankees’ top prospects are included in the 36-card set, including Sanchez, Mason Williams, Slade Heathcott, Tyler Austin, Manny Banuelos, Bryan Mitchell, and O’Brien. You also get a card featuring Trenton Thunder mascots Boomer, Derby and Rookie, and a tribute card for the team’s original bat dog, Chase, who died last year.

The cards again feature action photos with the original background removed and replaced with a generic gray background featuring the Thunder logo. While this is a very striking look the first time you see it, the concept gets a bit tired after using it for several years in a row. How about a more traditional design next year, guys?

At first glance, it appears that Trenton went with a new company to produce their baseball cards in 2014, but a Google search reveals that Brandt Sports Marketing is the new name of MultiAd Sports that had been making the cards for Trenton (and many other minor league teams) for a number of years. And Cedar Graphics acquired certain assets of Brandt Sports last month, so I guess we’ll be seeing their logo on next year’s baseball cards.

This year’s set again features a glossy finish, but my friend Bart reports that it’s a lot more autograph-friendly than the 2013 cards were. All of the 2014 cards are set up in a vertical layout, even though some of the photos cry out for a horizontal format. Most of the photos look ok, but I think the set design would actually work better with posed shots.

The card backs are printed in full color, with a small, cropped version of the main photo, some biographical information and stats going back to 2011.

Here’s the full checklist:

1. Tony Franklin – MGR
2. Tommy Phelps – Coach
3. Marcus Thames – Coach
4. Orlando Mercado – Coach
5. Lee Meyer – Trainer
6. Orlando Crance – Coach
7. Manny Banuelos – LHP
8. Manny Barreda – RHP
9. Jeremy Bleich – LHP
10. Caleb Cotham – RHP
11. Aaron Dott – LHP
12. Taylor Garrison – RHP
13. Jairo Heredia – RHP
14. Fred Lewis – LHP
15. Bryan Mitchell – RHP
16. Graham Stoneburner – RHP
17. Matt Tracy – LHP
18. Pat Venditte – P
19. Taylor Webb – LHP
20. Tyson Blaser – C/1B
21. Peter O’Brien C/OF
22. Gary Sanchez – C
23. Carmen Angelini – INF
24. Tyler Austin – INF/OF
25. Ali Castillo – INF
26. Dan Fiorito – INF
27. Rob Refsnyder – INF
28. Rob Segedin – INF
29. Taylor Dugas – OF
30. Benjamin Gamel – OF
31. Slade Heathcott – OF
32. Yeral Sanchez – OF
33. Mason Williams – OF
34. Boomer/Derby/Rookie – Mascots
35. Chase – tribute card
36. Checklist

You can order the Trenton Thunder’s 2014 baseball card team set through TrentonThunder.com for $10 plus shipping.

You can follow Paul’s Random Baseball Stuff on Facebook or Google+, see my photos on Flickr and Instagram, and follow @Paul_Hadsall on Twitter, where I talk about about a variety of things in addition to baseball.