2016 Bowman Baseball Arrives: Prospects, Rookies And Parallels

It’s always been about rookies and prospects, and 2016 Bowman Baseball is no different. But Topps is introducing a few new wrinkles that will build upon that tradition as the product hits store shelves and online dealer stock this week.

A full checklist is linked below.

2016 Bowman Baseball Basics

A 2016 Bowman Baseball Hobby box will contain 24 packs, with 10 cards to a pack. The pack will be broken down into five base cards and five prospects. Topps is promising one autograph card in every Bowman hobby box. Packs will probably run in the $2.99 range, while a box should sell somewhere in the $65-$70 range.

Jumbo boxes will contain 16 base cards and 16 prospects along with three autographs at a cost of around $125-$135.

Chrome Prospects

Low-numbered refractors will be included as part of Bowman’s chrome prospect and chrome prospect autograph subsets. Shimmer variation chrome refractors for all 150 prospects will be offered for the first time, in green, orange and red versions.

Other chrome prospect parallels will include refractors, and refractors in purple, blue, gold, a hobby-exclusive orange (numbered to 25), red (5) and a hobby-only SuperFractor numbered 1/1. Another 1/1 card: printing plates.

What’s New in 2016 Bowman

International Ink inserts, another new offering, will feature the top prospects from around the world signed during the July 2015 signing period.

Also making its debut in 2016 Bowman will be the Family Tree insert. This will feature the most collectible father-son player combinations. There are plenty of them out there now, and through history baseball has seen the Boone, Berra and Franconia families, not to mention Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr.

A new autograph subset is called Turn Two. This is a card signed on both sides by two different prospects, and there will be gold and 1/1 SuperFractor parallels. There also will be a hobby-exclusive insert (non-autographed).

Autographs

Sophomore Standouts autographs pays tribute to players in their second year. And the 2014 rookie class was quite prolific, with Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton to name a few. These will be on-card signatures and will have a red parallel numbered to 5 and a 1/1 SuperFractor.

Chrome rookie autographs also will sport on-card signatures and will be available in refractor, blue, gold, orange (numbered to 25), red (5), SuperFractor (1/1) and printing plate (1/1). All are confined to hobby boxes.

Some collectors will pull an Ultimate Autograph Book card. This will include 24 of the game’s top prospects (and their autographs) on a book card. Another premium pull is called All-America Game autographs. This showcases today’s top prospects who signed while still in high school.

Inserts and Base Cards

As for other inserts, the Bowman Scouts’ Top 100 is what it sounds like—the top 100 prospects as ranked by Bowman’s scouts.  There will be gold parallels, a hobby-exclusive orange parallel numbered to 25 and a 1/1 SuperFractor.

Rookie Recollections dips into the past, honoring the 25^th anniversary of the 1991 Bowman rookie class that included Chipper Jones, Jeff Bagwell, Ivan Rodriguez and Luis Gonzalez. This set will have parallels in gold, orange (numbered to 25), red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).

The base set will highlight the game’s veterans (Mike Trout and Andrew McCutchen, for example) and up-and-coming rookies like Kyle Schwarber. Paper parallels for the base and prospect sets will be issued in silver, purple, blue, gold, orange (a hobby exclusive numbered to 25), red (5) and  a 1/1 metallic border.

Dansby Swanson as a Brave

On the eve of the release of 2015 Bowman Draft, an unprecedented move was made in Major League Baseball – the Arizona Diamondbacks traded the 2015 top overall pick, sending shortstop Dansby Swanson to the Atlanta Braves.

Swanson’s first Bowman card appears in 2015 Bowman Draft, and he is also depicted on the box cover. But every image of him on the box and in the product shows him with the Diamondbacks – the team that drafted him.

When the trade was announced, the Bowman team used some quick graphic editing to get Swanson into an Atlanta Braves uniform for the flagship set. Topps says 2016 Bowman Baseball will include a base and an autographed card of Swanson wearing Braves colors.

The paper parallels also will be available when 2016 Bowman Chrome comes out in September.  Topps will also produce a 2016 Bowman Draft Baseball product in December.

You can see 2016 Bowman Baseball boxes for sale on eBay by clicking here.

2016 Bowman Baseball Checklist

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About Bob D'Angelo

Bob has been a sportswriter and copy editor for more than 35 years and a blogger for a decade. He is celebrating his 50th year of card collecting, and still counts his 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle as his favorite. You can reach him at [email protected].