Hei-Chun Lee (이혜천) - 2016-17 Adelaide Bite

Korean baseballing veteran Lee returned for his second season in both the ABL and with the Adelaide Bite during the 2016-17 ABL season. Lee seems to have joined the handful of Korean pitchers who are ending their baseball careers as relievers in the ABL.

2016-17 Adelaide Bite Hei-Chun Lee card front - ©2017 Adam East

2016-17 Adelaide Bite Hei-Chun Lee alternate card front - ©2017 Adam East

Trevor Foss - 2017-18 Sydney Blue Sox

Foss is an American import who is playing with the Sydney Blue Sox during the 2017-18 ABL season, his second in the ABL. Foss had previously spent 4 years between 2013 and 2016 playing in the Minors with the LA Angels and Cleveland Indians before spending 2016 and 2017 playing for the Washington WildThings in the independent Frontier League.

As my first card featuring a 2017-18 image you can see that the Blue Sox seem to have moved away from their powder blue away tops and are now playing in a black top with the white and blue trim.

2017-18 Sydney Blue Sox Trevor Foss card front - ©2017 Adam East

Michael Campbell - 2016-17 Sydney Blue Sox

Campbell is a local NSW player who made his ABL debut with the Sydney Blue Sox during the 2016-17 ABL season.

2016-17 Sydney Blue Sox Michael Campbell card front - ©2017 Adam East

2016-17 Sydney Blue Sox Michael Campbell alternate card front - ©2017 Adam East

Mitchell Edwards - 2016-17 Canberra Cavalry

Edwards is a local Canberran youngster who made his ABL debut with the Canberra Cavalry during the 2016-17 ABL season.

2016-17 Canberra Cavalry Mitchell Edwards card front - ©2017 Adam East

Alex Howe - 2016-17 Sydney Blue Sox

Local player Howe returned to the Sydney Blue Sox for his third ABL season in 2016-17.

2016-17 Sydney Blue Sox Alex Howe card front - ©2017 Adam East

Daniel Schmidt - 2016-17 Perth Heat

Perth stalwart Schmidt returned for his seventh ABL season with the Perth Heat during the 2016-17 ABL season.

2016-17 Perth Heat Daniel Schmidt card front -  ©2017 Adam East

2017-18 ABL Design Concept

The 2017-18 ABL season started this weekend, however the first games here won't occur until next week. I've finally gotten around to producing several design concepts for my 2017-18 Australia Baseball League designs, and have settled on the following:

2017-18 Concept Design using Boss Moanaroa of the Canberra Cavalry - ©2017 Adam East

The above uses my 2016-17 photo of Boss Moanaroa. The logo background and text colouring will change based on the team of the player depicted on the card. My first cards featuring 2017-18 photos probably won't be ready for another week and a half, noting that it's still a week until I'll get to my first game.

2017-18 Concept Design using Shane Keller of the Sydney Blue Sox - ©2017 Adam East

Here's the Sydney Blue Sox version, featuring Shane Kelleher. I haven't actually posted up his 2016-17 version card yet, but it uses the same photo as this. Similar to Moanaroa, I'm using him as a placeholder until I get some actual 2017-18 photos.

I still have a lot of 2016-17 cards to display on the blog like the Shane Kelleher card, so they'll still be the main focus in coming weeks but I'll start slipping in my 2017-18 cards as time goes on and as the number of remaining 2016-17 cards decrease.

Acknowledgements:
Text Font is "All Ages" by KC Fonts
Logo background is a brush created by Lileya Brogu

Roman Collins - 2016-17 Melbourne Aces

Collins is an American import from the Kansas City Royals organisation who played with the Melbourne Aces during the 2016-17ABL season. Collins split time in 2016 between the Lexington Legends and the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the Royals’ single and advanced A level teams respectively. He subsequently spent 2017 playing for Wilmington.

2016-17 Melbourne Aces Roman Collins card front - ©2017 Adam East

2016-17 Melbourne Aces Roman Collins alternate card front - ©2017 Adam East

Tim Atherton - 2016-17 Canberra Cavalry

Atherton remained with the Cavalry for the 2016-17 ABL season following his return from the Blue Sox the previous season. Atherton seems to have some itchy feet, noting that he’s moved up to the Brisbane Bandits for the 2017-18 ABL season, one of the few ABL players who will have played fro 3 different clubs.

2016-17 Canberra Cavalry Tim Atherton card front - ©2017 Adam East

David Rodriguez - 2016-17 Brisbane Bandits

Rodriguez is a Venezuelan import from the Tampa Bay Rays organisation who played with the Brisbane Bandits during the 2016-17 ABL season. Rodriguez spent 2016 playing for the Bowling Green Hot Rods, the Rays' single A affiliate, and in 2017 with their advanced A affiliate, the Charlotte Stone Crabs.

2016-17 Brisbane Bandits David Rodriguez card front - ©2017 Adam East

Matt Dixon - 2016-17 Perth Heat

Local player Dixon returned for his fifth season with the Perth Heat during the 2016-17 ABL season.

2016-17 Perth Heat Matt Dixon alternate card front - ©2017 Adam East

2016-17 Perth Heat Matt Dixon alternate card front - ©2017 Adam East

Josh Tols - 2016-17 Melbourne Aces

Adelaide born Tols moved from the Bite, where he'd played in three previous three years, over to the Melbourne Aces for the 2016-17 ABL season. In 2016, between his ABL club movement Tols also played with the Kansas City T-Bones in the independent American Association.

2016-17 Melbourne Aces Josh Tols card front - ©2017 Adam East

The old rule of never muck up when there's a camera around is always in effect. Tols and another pitcher were trying to manspread in the background of my shots of other Aces pitchers in the bullpen, so there has to be a card of that..

2016-17 Melbourne Aces Josh Tols alternate card front - ©2017 Adam East

Brian Grening - 2016-17 Canberra Cavalry

Grening has setup a fairly standard playing routine now of spending the northern summers playing for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the independent Atlantic League, and the Canberra Cavalry in the southern summers. The 2016-17 ABL season was Grening's sixth ABL season. He married in 2016, his wife coming from Canberra, and he commented that he pretty much considers Canberra to be his home field now. I'm pretty sure that he even qualified under last season's revised import rules to play as an Aussie due to his long tenure with the club. His 2016-17 ABL season was cut short however by a stint with Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League.

2016-17 Canberra Cavalry Brian Grening card front - ©2017 Adam East