2012 Bowman Baseball is here! Retail boxes arrived last week, with hobby boxes expected to be released today. Every year, collectors look forward to this set as Bowman is highly regarded for their prospect cards, refractors, and parallels. 2012 is no exception. Most of the hobby community will be chasing cards of this year’s phenoms – Bryce Harper and Yu Darvish. I just shrug my shoulders at those guys. I’m interested in the Padres cards.
So how do Padres players fare in this year’s set? Here’s the checklist:
Base Set
130 Cory Luebke
194 James Darnell
Bowman Prospects (also available in chrome)
BP4 Nathan Freiman
BP69 Jonathan Galvez
BP89 Austin Hedges
BP107 Joe Ross
Bowman’s Best Prospects
BBP19 Rymer Liriano
I am not impressed at all with the base set – only two Padres. I know Bowman has a strong reputation for being prospect-centric, but it would have been nice to have Cameron Maybin or Yonder Alonso in the checklist. The Bowman Prospect checklist is decent. I did expect to see a Cory Spangenberg card, since he was the organization’s top draft pick last June. I really like the inclusion of Rymer Liriano in the Bowman’s Best Prospects insert set.
These are the autographed Padres cards:
Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs
BCP89 Austin Hedges
BCP107 Joe Ross
Bowman Prospect Autographs
BPA-JG Jedd Gyorko
Bowman Black Autographs (serial #’d to 25)
BBC-CS Cory Spangenberg
Photo courtesy of Topps
The Bowman Black Autographs are brand new this year. They are all serial #’d to 25 and are signed on-card in silver ink. They will only be found in hobby packs. Since they are so limited, expect these cards to be very expensive in the secondary market. It’s great to see Cory Spangenberg included in this set. This will probably be his most valuable card to date.
The Padres’ top three picks in last year’s draft (Spangenberg, Ross, and Hedges) all have autograph cards. These are all on-card autographs. Jedd Gyorko, another top prospect, also has one (but it’s a sticker). All four are all highly regarded in the Padres top ranked minor league system. If these prospects reach their expected potential, 2012 Bowman has a chance to be a very nice (and lucrative) autograph set for Padres prospects.
Overall not too bad. I’m always going to complain that there aren’t enough Padres cards, but what can you do. I expect the Spangenberg Bowman Black autograph card to be out of my price range, but the others shouldn’t be too prohibitive. Plus with all the parallels and refractors, this should be a fun set to chase.
