Cardboard Cliff Notes: 2010 Bowman Baseball
Here's a rundown of the cards I am looking forward to most in the upcoming 2010 Bowman Baseball. Hopefully this will help you pass the time until Bowman releases later this week.
Top 20 2010 Bowman Autographs (Base Set, BCP, and BP)
There are 15 Base Set Autographs, 12 Retail-Only Prospect Autographs, and 31 Bowman Chrome Prospect autographs.
- #200 Jason Heyward AU (RC)
- #BP1 Stephen Strasburg AU
- #BCP100 Starlin Castro AU
- #BCP89 Dustin Ackley AU
- #BCP117 Wil Myers AU
- #189 Austin Jackson AU (RC)
- #BCP90 Donovan Tate AU
- #BCP119 Martin Perez AU
- #BCP93 Brett Jackson AU
- #BCP109 Jaff Decker AU
- #BCP106 Grant Green AU
- #BCP115 James Darnell AU
- #BCP105 Julio Teheran AU
- #BCP101 Anthony Rizzo AU
- #BCP108 Jose Iglesias AU
- #BCP91 Nolan Arenado AU
- #BCP98 Alexia Amarista AU
- #BCP99 Thomas Neal AU
- #BCP104 Anthony Gose AU
- #BCP116 Kirk Nieuwenhuis AU
Top 5 Base Cards (220 card set)
Base cards are base cards, but this year there's a certain rookie named Jason Heyward. Even better, I believe this is Heyward's first card to carry the official "RC" tag! This card should be one of the more exciting base rookies in recent memory, especially when you factor in the parallel potential.
- #200 Jason Heyward RC
- #198 Austin Jackson RC
- #208 Buster Posey RC
- #203 Wade Davis RC
- #206 Madison Bumgarner RC
Top 10 Bowman Prospect/Bowman Chrome Prospects (110 card set/each)
The "1st Bowman Card" of Strasburg and Ackley! An added Bonus is that Aroldis Chapman's card will carry the same distinction, as his 2009 Bowman Cards were considered part of the World Baseball Classic set and he was not a Major League Player at the time.
- BCP1 Stephen Strasburg
- BCP10 Aroldis Chapman
- BCP89 Dustin Ackley
- BCP90 Donovan Tate
- BCP93 Brett Jackson
- BCP106 Grant Green
- BCP100 Starlin Castro (Not 1st Bowman Card)
- BCP103 Nick Franklin
- BCP104 Anthony Gose
- BCP101 Anthony Rizzo
Top 10 Future's Game Triple Relics (37 card set)
Jason Heyward, Mike Stanton: four of the most beautiful words in sports cards! Each triple relic card will also be numbered to 99! I left a few big names like Jesus Montero off the list, simply because he has a ton of cards in circulation already. Here's a little secret, Montero isn't the future backstop of the Yankees, it's Austin Romine, a fellow Yankees farmhand. 
- #FG-JH Jason Heyward
- #FG-MS Mike Stanton
- #FG-SC Starlin Castro
- #FG-DJE Desmond Jennings
- #FG-CC Chris Carter
- #FG-CS Carlos Santana
- #FG-WF Wilmer Flores
- #FG-JV Josh Vitters
- #FG-TG Tyson Gillies
- #FG-NW Nick Weglarz
Top 20 Top 100 Prospect Inserts (100 Card Set)
This was a really cool idea. Basically, Topps ranked their Top 100 prospects and made an insert set out of it. When ranking them, I used the same principle that I used with the Relic rankings, favoring guys who have less cards in circulation whenever possible. 
- #TP3 Jason Heyward
- #TP5 Mike Stanton
- #TP1 Stephen Strasburg
- #TP10 Starlin Castro
- #TP6 Mike Moustakas
- #TP2 Aroldis Chapman
- #TP9 Austin Jackson
- #TP18 Domonic Brown
- #TP21 Dustin Ackley
- #TP22 Desmond Jennings
- #TP30 Austin Romine
- #TP29 Wilmer Flores
- #TP52 Michael Taylor
- #TP59 Angel Morales
- #TP12 Carlos Santana
- #TP92 Chris Carter
- #TP20 Buster Posey
- #TP94 Ben Revere
- #TP31 Tony Sanchez
- #TP33 Mike Montgomery
Top 10 1992 Bowman Throwback Inserts (110 card set)
Cool idea, but I feel like these are going to be plentiful and get old real fast, but I don't think there's a product in history that doesn't have one of "those" inserts in it. I basically ranked these based on some of my favorite players.
- #BT13 Joe Mauer
- #BT79 Ichiro
- #BT72 Albert Pujols
- #BT62 Ken Griffey Jr.
- #BT66 Chase Utley
- #BT9 Justin Morneau
- #BT71 Vladimir Guerrero
- #BT52 Evan Longoria
- #BT107 John Smoltz
- #BT54 Ryan Howard
Top Ten Bowman Expectations Inserts (50 card set)
These are essentially a "now and then" themed insert. My Favorite combo was the Mauer/Posey. One combo I would have loved to see is Griffey/Heyward. This might be Griffey's last season and it's Heyward's rookie season, that would make for an awesome crossroads combo!
- BE-13 Joe Mauer / Buster Posey
- BE-17 Chipper Jones / Jason Heyward
- BE-3 Hanley Ramirez / Mike Stanton
- BE-2 Ryan Howard / Domonic Brown
- BE-45 Prince Fielder / Chris Carter
Top 5 USA Baseball Inserts
Man, it is nice to finally see USA Baseball in Bowman! Future Washington National Bryce Harper is the obvious attraction in this insert set. For some reason, I am drawn to SS Manny Machado.
- #USA18-BC8 Bryce Harper
- #USA18-BC10 Manny Machado
- #USA-BC3 Bryce Brentz
- #USA18-BC17 Jameson Taillon
- #USA18-BC2 Nick Castellanos
Conclusion
On paper 2010 Bowman looks like it is going to be great. The only problem I had with the checklist was the absence of the following 5 prospects:
- Aaron Hicks (Twins OF)
- Carlos Peguero (Mariners OF)
- Miguel Velazquez (Rangers OF)
- Eric Hosmer (Royals 1B)
- Miguel Sano (Twins SS, I have no clue whether he qualifies for a card yet, but if they made them, I would buy them)
Also, wouldn't it be cool if they did a Latin American Prospect subset to accompany the USA set?
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