Panini America gave us a bit of a taste earlier today with its photo release of a Jackie Robinson card scheduled for the company’s 2011 Prime Cuts Baseball (It’s 2012 — why is this product labeled 2011?). And later in the day, Panini released more images, and there are some very interesting cards in this high-end set, which has a March 15 release date.

Each box will contain five cards, but every one of them will be a sizzle card: at least two autographs, two memorabilia cards and an additional auto or relic card.

And, what I find exciting: for the first time in a Panini baseball product, some boxes will include Legends Jumbo Cut Signatures booklet cards.

An example of that is shown in this blog post with the Lou Gehrig autograph. Other booklet cards will include Ty Cobb, Mel Ott and Jackie Robinson.
To me, the coolest-looking cards in this set could be the most controversial, especially in light of Panini’s new multiyear licensing agreement with the Baseball Hall of Fame. Those would be the 1/1 Barrel Up game-used bat barrel cards, which will include cards of two men who would easily fit into Cooperstown’s hallowed halls — except that Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose are banned from the game and are not eligible.

Get out the smelling salts for Jeff Idelson (president of the Baseball Hall of Fame).

  Other Barrel Up cards will feature Hall of Famers Paul Waner, Ted Williams, Nellie Fox and Stan Musial.

Some other subsets:

  Significant Signatures autographs, which will include Ken Griffey Jr., Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford.

  Icons memorabilia cards will hand the spotlight to Satchel Paige, Jimmie Foxx and Jackie Robinson.

  Colossal jumbo swatch memorabilia autograph cards are an apt description and will include Duke Snider, Josh Hamilton and Miguel Cabrera.

  Timeline Hall of Fame memorabilia cards will contain a checklist and feature Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Miller Huggins.

It’s quite a lineup. Some of today’s biggest stars paired with baseball royalty. The price will be steep for a pack, but the reward promises to be great.