Card of the Day: Greg Swim 1991 Salinas Spurs Classic Best #29

Card of the Day: Jared Lorenzen 2004 Bowman’s Best Auto

Card of the Day: Adam Haseley 2017 Bowman’s Best Top Prospects #15

Card of the Day: Travis Lee 1997 Bowman’s Best Atomic Refractor #187

Card of the Day: 1990 Best San Bernardino Spirit “The Bug” #27

2018 Bowman’s Best Baseball Master Box Break & Review

Its always bitter sweet when Bowman’s Best rolls around.  For awhile now, this brand traditionally is one of the last MLB-licensed products to come out before the end of the year.  Then we sink into a long gap before the 2019 products start pumping out.  The 2018 baseball collecting season has been a wild ride thanks to rookies like Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Juan Soto.  I wonder what 2019 will bring?

Bowman’s Best is a great product to end 2018.  Especially the way its been configured the last few years.  Prospects and rookies continue to dominate the checklist, but you can pull some nice veteran cards too.  Recently drafted prospects are one of the main attractions this product has.  New prospects such as Casey Mize, Alec Bohm, and Triston Casas are all top guys who have some of their first cards in here.

If you’re not someone who wants tons of base cards leftover after the break has finished, Bowman’s Best is perfect for those prospect hunters.  A master box consists of (2) mini-boxes.  Inside each mini-box there are (6) packs housing (5) cards each.  Every mini-box has (2) autographs.  That’s (4) autographs per master box.

The base set consists of (99) cards.  A mix of (70) rookies and veterans, and (29) top prospects.  Parallels include Refractor, Atomic Refractor, Purple Refractor #’ed/250, Blue Refractor #’ed/150, Green Refractor #’ed/99, Gold Refractor #’ed/50, Orange Refractor #’ed/25, Red Refractor #’ed/10, and Superfractor #’ed 1/1.

No relics here folks.  All autographs.  Most on-card too.  For the most part your autographs are going to be from the Best of 2018 set.  These cards resemble the base set, and come in a variety of colored parallels.  The Dual Autographs are very impressive and numbered to (25) or less.  The Mike Trout/Shohei Ohtani and Derek Jeter/Aaron Judge examples look sick.  Other autographs include 1998 Best Performers, Early Indications, Neophyte Sensations, and Power Producers.  All of these have numerous parallels, and non-autographed counterparts.

When I first started collecting as a Phillies fan I needed to have Scott Rolen’s 1995 Bowman’s Best rookie.  I still have it today sitting on my shelf.  I enjoy Bowman’s Best as its a semi-quick thrill with newly drafted prospects along with some veterans.

Complete Checklist

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Brice Turang Best of 2018 Auto Redemption
• Jeren Kendall Best of 2018 Auto Redemption
• Jose Siri Best of 2018 Refractor Auto
• Franklin Perez Early Indications Gold Refractor Auto #’ed/50

Parallels

• Roger Clemens 1998 Best Performers Atomic Refractor
• Jose Abreu Atomic Refractor
• Javier Baez Refractor
• Jordan Groshans Refractor
• Mitch Keller Refractor
• Jo Adell Refractor
• J.D. Martinez Refractor
• Freddie Freeman Refractor
• Mookie Betts Refractor
• Khris Davis Refractor
• Fernando Romero Refractor
• Brian Anderson Refractor

Inserts

• Walker Buehler Neophyte Sensations
• Shohei Ohtani Power Producers
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Power Producers
• Luis Urias Early Indications
• Hunter Greene Early Indications
• Jo Adell Early Indications
• Ryan Weathers 1998 Best Performers
• Brady Singer 1998 Best Performers
• Ozzie Albies 1998 Best Performers
• Anthony Rizzo 1998 Best Performers

Card of the Day: Alex Cora 1998 Team Best Auto