By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

Panini America revealed the latest edition of Prime Cuts on Tuesday and the 2012 edition will arrive in October — just six months after the arrival of the 2011 product.

The company promises that the new edition has been “revamped, redesigned and re-engineered” from the previous version — an offering without prospects that were found heavily in the 2011 version and one instead relying upon Hall of Famers, current players, current rookies and other memorable players from the past.

Each two-card pack of the product will include one autograph and one memorabilia card or a pair of signed cards. There will be 15 packs per case, while the RCs will be numbered to 99 or less and there also will be some fresh prospects — memorabilia cards and autographs from the 2012 USA Baseball Collegiate National team.

The base set will be comprised of 50 memorabilia cards — each numbered to 99 — 50 signed cards (Century Signatures with Gold, Silver and Platinum parallels), 22 USA Baseball autographed jersey cards, 50 Timelines Materials autographs and 36 Timeline booklet cards, according to the company.

The Significant Signatures and Notable Nicknames inserts will each be limited to 49 or fewer copies and include Hall of Famers such as Tom Seaver, Robin Yount, Ernie Banks and Johnny Bench to name a few, while other legends to appear on memorabilia cards will include Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby among others. It also will include new stars such as Albert Pujols and Yu Darvish. The Nicknames cards will be a mix of Hall of Famers and newer players such as Josh Hamilton and Larry Walker.

Hats Off Signatures cards will showcase a piece of a game-used cap as well as an autograph for Pete Rose and 11 Hall of Fame players, while Notable Nicknames Cuts will include the likes of Williams, Satchel Paige, Connie Mack and Casey Stengel to name a few.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The box is back.

Panini America announced on Thursday that one of the most-popular high-end releases from the Donruss-Playoff days, Prime Cuts, will return in March with some of baseball’s most legendary names in tow.

The names are part of a new card agreement with CMG Worldwide, which will give Panini the rights to use the likenesses of Jackie Robinson, Jimmie Foxx, Johnny Mize, Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott, Rogers Hornsby, Roy Campanella, Thurman Munson, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Jim Thorpe in its MLBPA-approved products.

It will be the first Prime Cuts release by Panini, though the brand was quite popular in 2004-05 when Donruss was a full MLB Properties and MLBPA-approved manufacturer and then when it was revived by the former company after it lost its MLB licensing in 2008.

The CMG players also will be found in future Panini baseball releases.

“We are truly excited to partner with CMG Worldwide on a deal that will significantly strengthen our baseball product roster by giving us access to some of the greatest players in baseball history,” said Panini America CEO Mark Warsop. “Utilizing our unrivaled expertise in the areas of innovation and collectibility, we’ll show these all-time greats to fans and collectors in a whole new light.”

The move also would allow for unrestrained use of memorabilia pieces in the Panini vaults that were acquired when the company purchased Donruss-Playoff in March 2009.

CMG’s Director of Sports Licensing, Phillip Korkis, echoed Warsop’s excitement in the announcing of the deal.

“We have the pleasure of representing some of the greatest players in baseball history – it was a natural fit to work with one of the global leaders in the trading card industry, Panini America. Panini has an innovative and exciting product vision and we are looking forward to having our clients be a part of that”

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.