A Want List...With Pictures!

2013 Bowman Want List:

Base:
1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 20, 27, 38, 46, 54, 60, 65, 71, 72, 73, 77, 82, 84, 91, 92, 94, 102, 105, 106, 112, 113, 115, 117, 123, 124, 128, 131, 146, 154, 155, 156, 161, 165, 172, 173, 179, 180, 187, 189, 198, 200, 204, 207, 210, 211, 218.

Prospects:
2, 12, 15, 19, 25, 27,  32, 40, 45, 49, 52, 61, 63, 76, 78, 82, 85, 89, 90, 97, 100, 103, 108.

Top 100:
1-19, 21, 23-30, 32-41, 43-50, 52-77, 79-84, 86-100.

Cream of the Crop Mini Refractors:
A1, A2, A5
AB1, AB3, AB4
AD3, AD4
BO2, BO4, BO5
BRS2, BRS3, BRS4
CC1, CC2, CC3, CC5
CI1, CI2, CI4, CI5
CR1, CR2, CR3, CR5
CRO3, CRO4
CWS3, CWS4, CWS5
DT1, DT3, DT4
HA1, HA3, HA4
KCR1, KCR2, KCR4, KCR5
MB1, MB2, MB3
MM1, MM2, MM3, MM4, MM5
MT2, MT3, MT4, MT5
NYM1, NYM2, NYM3, NYM5
NYY1, NYY2, NYY4
OA2, OA3, OA4, OA5
PP1, PP2, PP3, PP4, PP5
PPI2, PPI3, PPI5
SDP2, SDP3, SDP4, SDP5
SFG1, SFG2, SFG3, SFG4, SFG5
SM1, SM2, SM3, SM4, SM5
STL2, STL3, STL5
TBJ1, TBJ2, TBJ4, TBJ5
TBR1, TBR2, TBR3, TBR4, TBR5
TR1, TR2, TR3, TR4, TR5
WN1, WN2, WN3, WN5



It's been a week since I last posted, which is becoming more the norm than a rarity, here. Being scanner-less, and very much against non-scanned pictures of baseball cards, I do not intend to up my posting rate anytime soon. I am looking at late July/August to grab a new one, possibly using the college-move deals to my advantage.

Anywho.

I've been jumping on a bunch of 2013 Bowman lately.

Here's some new additions from the set:

 Some Domini-CANs, Jairo Beras and some other Yankees guy. I cannot believe how many cards of Yankees prospects made it into this set. Coming from an organization with very, very few MLB-level talented players, it's terribly annoying. It isn't even their good prospects. Org Guys, at best.

I have had quite a streak of pulling in Jairo Beras cards, though. Who on the opposite hand, is actually a decent, high-ceiling prospect in the treeeee-mendous Texas Rangers system. Great time to be a Rangers fan.

Anthony Rendon was a Syracuse Chief for about 3 days before Danny Espinosa went on the DL with a fractured hand (or was it a wrist). It seems we cannot get a reasonable prospect in Syracuse after Strasburg and Harper. Maybe I shouldn't complain, but still. Shitty AAA organization.

I haven't pulled many Castellanos cards, but I dig this one. I like all of the Top 100s, but there is a serious road black in this set that I will get to later.

 Another gold Salvador Perez!

Yes, that's right. Doubles of the monster Royal's backstop. In gold.

This one has a destination picked out already.

At least it's a pretty rad card. Perez blasted a HR versus...somebody last night, and Billy Butler stuck a jar of Billy's Barbecue Sauce into his incredibly large hands to show the camera.

It's for charity.



I've also been doing well with a certain Oriole's second base prospect:

 Schoooooooop!

More Schooooooop!

So I've been doing well with 2013 Bowman. I actually think I might do a Frankeset rather than just collecting base cards. Keep it fresh.

So here's the link to the Google Drive file if you'd like to contribute.

____

But there's a problem with 2013 Bowman.

And that problem, is this guy.

Right now, if I wanted to complete the Bowman set right now, including the Top 100 and Mini Cream of the Crop Refractors of Yasiel Puig, I would spend at minimum, $100. On two cards from this set. 

Two cards.

$100.

No.

So help me out, if you can. 

Return of the Crotch Logos

Maybe's it's not so much of a return in the "definition" of the word (whatever that means), but Bowman baseball in recent years has made an effort - likely (hopefully) unconsciously - of placing MLB team logos directly on the crotch of unsuspecting big league players.

Perhaps it's censorship, perhaps it's laziness or individuality (no one else seems to be logo-ing up crotches), but the heart of the matter needs some acknowledgement from us, the people who still notice these things, and that will be my intentions with this post.

I swear. Just acknowledgement. No jokes.

Let's start with my boy Jose Reyes.

Based on the look on Jose's face, he's either super-happy to be a Blue Jay and not photoshopped (finally), or a nice Blue Jays logo on the crotch tickles a little bit.

Tickle or not, sometimes you get the dangling Ol' English D:

Hopefully the Venezuelan flag in the background is a bit of a distraction from that BAM right in the groin Tiger logo on Avi here.

I'm kind of speechless on this one. I mean, I am sure the mail-order art degree clan that design Topps cards (Let's take the border and make it 1/10 of an inch wider at the bottom! Genius!) saw this one on the printing logo and thought that it was an instant gem. Yet, the ever-so-softly floating A's logo seemingly descending from, uh, Yoenis' Cespedes, seems kind of fitting to how I feel about the hobby right now.

Unless the logo is ascending...then it's kind of how Topps feels about their customer's these days.

The winner, however, is actually from the chromed-up Top 100 insert set. Behold:

Dylan Bundy's number one.

Eep.

I mean, come on. That has to be intentional.

But seriously, folks. These are just jokes. If you want to go ahead and get offended by the comments I've made on these cards, feel free to not visit this blog ever again. 

#bowmaning

Sometimes, you've just got to beat the odds.

Lately, I've been having good luck in doing so.

Two blasters of Gypsy Queen netted me two jersey swatches and two rare Travis Snider mini parallels.

When 2013 Bowman came out this past week, I fully expected my luck to change.

Of course, I have always had quite excellent luck with Bowman.

Just not this good.

Two blasters of the stuff pulled me in a few nights ago as a freshly stocked Sprawl*Mart shelf beckoned to me after the more-often-than-not barren Target shelves left me longing for some guys  have never heard of.

It was an easy spend. And as the first thing I've opened since GQ, it felt good.

Of course, Bowman 2013 is no Bowman 2012, 2010 or even 1997. But it's a nice set, and something not everyone devotes much time to. And I like it. It's collecting, not conforming, so I think I will stick to Bowman, while everyone bitches and moans and mopes and waits up Series 2 comes out and then they can bitch about that again, too.

So let's get into it. Bowman, of course, has base cards. This year, the design just isn't that great. The card stock is nice, the cards have a good weight, and the sheen is nice.

There's also that new-card smell.

Very few stick out as favorites, photograph-wise, but these will do for show-and-tell:

That;s a greast shot. Mostly because you no doubt know what just happened. I'm a bit puzzled as to what "blue" team catcher that is in the background. My hunch says AJ Ellis.

That's a great looking base card. Notice both of these blokes are cut off around the knees. This is a theme in 2013 Bowman, and I hope it doesn't continue. On the other hand, I wish Starling Marte all the world of continuance in his performance. I'm becoming a big fan of his, and am also starting up a nice collection. Might have to rainbow this card with at least the colored paper parallels.

I like prospect, unlike pretty much everyone else of late (GET OFF MY LAWN!!!), and Bowman is chock o'block of them.

That last little bit was brought to you by my Volcanology professor, a rather uppity Scots(wo)man.

Schoop is one of the few bright spots in the 2013 Bowman Prospects class. It's just not that good of a year.

As with every Bowman release, there is"The One." The One prospect that fully numb-brained prospectors lose their shit over, and this year, Carlos Correa is The One. An argument can be made that Byron Buxton is also The One for 2013, but I didn't pull his card. So, there's that.

PS Correa is better.

Anywhoooo, there are also gold cards.

I wouldn't mind if the gold cards went away from Bowman. They work better for The Mothership, so just leave it. The good news is this one is going away, with the help of a well-time trade with a Kemp Kollector, well-known in the parts.

While I prefer the simplicity of the Top 100 sets of years past, the chromification of the insert this year isn't so bad. I wonder, though, what they'll do for the Chrome release.

Double Chrome?

These fall at 1:12, so pulling out two of them from 16 packs was quite welcome. I would welcome more of these.

Going against my pre-set theme of posting from common to scarce are the International, or if you're 'Merican!, hometown parallels. Luckily I got a Blue Jay. Unluckily, it's Tyler Gonzales, who excites me about as much as steamed celery. That's a Texas flag behind him, if you were wondering. Yet, if you cannot recognize a Texas flag, you're probably from, of, I don't know, Croatia or something.

The one behind the substantially-awesome-name Socrates Brito (say that outloud to yourself) is a Dominican flag. If you rip enough of 13 Bowman to pull some Internationals, chances are you'll see quite a few of those.

The Cody Ross and Jurd Weaver flaggers similarly show off the draped flags of New Mexico and California, respectively. I really like the Ross, which is something I never thought I'd say. I'm curious as to whether Nick Swisher is in the set or not, as his flag would be that of Ohio - the only US state not featuring a rectangular field to their flag.

I like minis, and I like refractors. However, these fail as the former. They're not very mini at all. More like the minis that Topps has been stuffing down our throats in '12 and '13. I did, however, pull some prominent Prospects, both of which are hanging in the Bigs right now.

That is if Rondon hasn't walked in seven runs at once yet.

But he throws 100 MPH!!!

Meh.

Hey! MOAR refractorz!! Sort of. I guess these are paper refractors, but don't call them that. They're silver ice parallels and normally, they drop 1:24, yet I picked up two in 16. I'm down with it. Aside from one being a Met, the other is Jairo Beras, a lesser-known but still very legit prospect in the, you-guessed-it, Texas Rangers org.

But like I said, I really spanked the odds with these boxes. How much so? How about two cards falling at 1:34 packs:

 ...I'm always a fan of Bowman autographs, but it seems like every auto is on a sticker now. Think the companies are listening to our cries for on-card autos? Think again. In case you cannot read the foil on the autos, they are Danny Salazar of the Cleveland Indians organization and Jamie Callahan of the Sawx. He'll fit in at Fenway if he ever makes it

Last but certainly not least, the highlight of my two boxes, falling at a wholesome 1:67:

Mmmm. Orange. Elvis is following me around of late after I criticized his new mega deal with the Rangers. But that's fine, I like him as a player. And I like orange.