First look: 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Topps‘ next wave of Bowman products will arrive late this year — 2011 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects — packing yet another chance at a Bryce Harper autograph (this time Green) and plenty of this year’s top draft picks once they sign.
The Harper autograph will be limited to just 350 copies, while an autographed Relic — featuring a piece of his Futures Game jersey to be used soon — will be limited to just 69 copies when the product arrives on Nov. 23. That card also will be paralleled with a Red 1/1, a Green limited to five, a Gold limited to 25 and a Blue card limited to just 50.
The basic set will consist of 110 rookies in both Bowman and Bowman Chrome format with two Bowman cards, two Chrome cards, one parallel and two Futures Game stars or USA Baseball team members per pack. On the prospect side, the set will consist of 110 players including Future Stars and the 18 USA Baseball 16U team members.
Each 24-pack hobby box will include one Chrome autograph, while there will be USA Baseball autos inserted as bonus sigs. The autograph checklist will consist of 31 draft picks and young stars each with SuperFractors, printing plates, Red, Purple, Orange, Gold, Blue and standard Refractor versions.
Meanwhile, this product will include the first look at the 2011 USA Baseball 16U National Team — the youngest prospects found on licensed cardboard. In addition to autographs, these cards will be found as SuperFractors, printing plates and more with the most plentiful being standard Refractors at just 199 copies.
Read more and see more images after the jump.
The standard set will feature three parallels — Red 1/1s, printing plates, Blues (/499) — while the Chromes will have Canary Diamond 1/1s, SuperFractors, printing plates, Red, Orange, Gold, Blue and standard Refractors.
New for this series will be Futures Game Relics with jumbo patch versions limited to just five copies, Futures Game patches limited to one and MLB Logoman 1/1s as well. Also included will be Aflac All-American autographs, Topps 60th anniversary sigs and more.
The prospect checklist is largely TBD — many of the draft picks have not yet signed — but the Aflac autograph lineup so far includes Yordy Cabrera, Stetson Allie, Tony Walters, Braxton Lane, Jason Thompson and Kyrell Hudson.
Futures Game Relic players will include Harper, Manny Machado, Wil Myers, Mike Trout, Dayan Viciedo, Paul Goldschmidt and many others.
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.
