Grand Cards: Tigers Checklist: 2009 Bowman (Chrome) Draft Picks & Prospects

Friday, January 22, 2010

Tigers Checklist: 2009 Bowman (Chrome) Draft Picks & Prospects

In case you can't tell, I'm just plugging away at these sets the best I can so that I can be on the ball for the 2010 sets once they roll around. In the case of this set, I'm rushing through it because it may be the most irrelevant set of 2009. When I first started looking into Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects I was shocked and appalled that they released both regular and chrome versions of these cards. Imagine my relief when I learned that the Chrome cards were two-per-pack inserts in the regular set. Actually, I'm sincere about this. There is absolutely no reason to release these cards in regular and Chrome versions, so I commend Topps for their consolidation efforts.

Unfortunately, they didn't consolidate enough. On top of the regular cards, you have a bevy of parallel versions--exactly like regular Bowman. Then you have the Chrome cards. And all of the Chrome parallel versions. When all is said and done, you're looking at 14 (!) parallel versions of each card, plus printing plates, in this one release. That's nuts.

As for the cards themselves--this set gives us some fresh faced rookies, including legit prospect Alex Avila, former prospect Dusty Ryan, and the rookie du jour Ryan Perry. Fu-Te Ni is finally pictured in a Tigers uniform instead of the WBC one that he wore in the majority of releases. Speaking of which, for some reason there are more WBC cards in this set, including such "draft picks" and "prospects" as Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera. Whatever. I found some Gold refractor (#/50) versions of these so that you could at least feel a little excitement when looking at them. The regular cards, for what it's worth, are all pictured as Chrome Refractors, which are nice looking 100% of the time. There is one more card--"prospect" Jamie Johnson who, like so many Bowman prospect cards before him, is somebody that nobody has ever heard of and has a slim to nil chance of ever sniffing the major leagues. Prove me wrong, JJ, prove me wrong.

With that, a quick and easy seven-card Tigers set to kick off a Friday:




#BDP12 Dusty Ryan RC Ref.
#BDP13 Alex Avila RC Ref.
#BDP19 Ryan Perry RC Ref.



#BDP40 Fu-Te Ni RC Ref.
#BDPP20 Jamie Johnson
#BDPW26 Miguel Cabrera WBC Gold Ref. (#/50)

#BDPW27 Magglio Ordonez WBC Gold Ref. (#/50)