Cubs Breakdown - 2011 Bowman Sterling

2011 Bowman Sterling
This is the 8th edition of Bowman Sterling, and it's had an interesting history. It started out as a very high end product in 2004 and still somewhat had that in 2005. But then starting in 2006, it really fell off my radar and got lumped in as just another late season prospect heavy product. But the last couple of editions of this product have been very good in my opinion and have really made this a product I am looking forward to in the future. The quality base set and prospect set designs in the last couple of years have a lot to do with that. In looking back, the 2006-2009 designs for this brand were not very good. But I think the fact that Topps seems to have embraced this brand as a value driven product instead of a super high end product is part of the reason also. It provides a bunch of new cards for me to chase for cheap during a down time of year for new sets.

From a Cubs content standpoint, this issue is a little light. Only 5 different cards with accompanying parallels. But getting new cards of Javier Baez and Dan Vogelbach is nice, and I really like the Starlin Castro & Darwin Barney Dual Relic card. So overall a pretty good issue to fill the gap until March for me. The breakdown is below!

Base Set - 7 Versions - Base, Refractors (#/199), Gold Refractors (#/50), Black Refractors (#/25), Purple Refractors (#/10), Red Refractors (1/1), Canary Diamond Gold (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
No Cubs Included

Base Set Prospects - 7 Non Auto Versions and 7 Autographed versions (not all cards have an auto version) - Base, Refractors (#/199), Gold Refractors (#/50), Black Refractors (#/25), Purple Refractors (#/10), Red Refractors (1/1), Canary Diamond Gold (1/1), Autos, Autos Refractors (#/199), Auto Gold Refractors (#/50), Autos Black Refractors (#/25) Autos Purple Refractors (#/10), Autos Red Refractors (1/1) Autos Canary Diamond Gold (1/1), plus four colors of non-autographed printing plates and four colors of autographed printing plates.
#15 Brett Jackson (No Auto)
#34 Javier Baez (Auto #JV)
#49 Dan Vogelbach (Auto #DV)




Rookie Relics - 6 Versions (not all players have the auto versions) - Base Refractors Single Relic, Xfractors Double Relic (#/199), Gold Refractors Triple Relic (#/50), Black Refractors Single Relic Auto (#/25), Purple Refractors Single Relic Auto (#/10), Red Refractors Single Relic Auto (1/1).
#DB Darwin Barney Jersey - No Auto versions


Rookie Autos - 7 Versions - Base, Refractors (#/199), Gold Refractors (#/50), Black Refractors (#/25), Purple Refractors (#/10), Red Refractors (1/1), Canary Diamond Gold (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
No Cubs Included

Dual Relics Box Toppers - 6 Versions - Base (Varied numbering), Refractors (#/99), Gold Refractors (#/50), Black Refractors (#/25), Purple Refractors (#/10), Red Refractors (1/1).
#CB Starlin Castro & Darwin Barney


Dual Autos - 7 Versions - Base (Varied numbering), Refractors (#/99), Gold Refractors (#/50), Black Refractors (#/25), Purple Refractors (#/10), Red Refractors (1/1), Canary Diamond Gold (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates.
No Cubs Included

USA Baseball Relics - 6 Versions - Base Refractors Single Relic, Xfractors Double Relic (#/199), Gold Refractors Triple Relic (#/50), Black Refractors Single Relic Auto (#/25), Purple Refractors Single Relic Auto (#/10), Red Refractors Single Relic Auto (1/1).
No Cubs Included

Cubs Breakdown - 2011 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks

2011 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks
These are the Chrome versions of the cards from 2011 Bowman Draft. The autograph parallels are only available in the Chrome versions.

Base Set - 9 Versions - Base, Refractors, Purple Refractors, Blue Refractors (#/199), Gold Refractors (#/50), Orange Refractors (#/25), Red Refractors (#/5), Superfractors (1/1), Canary Diamond (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
#56 D.J. LeMahieu


Prospects Base Set - 9 Versions - Base, Refractors, Purple Refractors, Blue Refractors (#/199), Gold Refractors (#/50), Orange Refractors (#/25), Red Refractors (#/5), Superfractors (1/1), Canary Diamond (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
#BDPP-6 Javier Baez
#BDPP-10 Daniel Vogelbach


Prospects Base Set Autos (Partial Parallel Set) - 8 Versions - Base, Refractors (#/500), Blue Refractors (#/150), Gold Refractors (#/50), Orange Refractors (#/25), Purple Refractors (#/10), Red Refractors (#/5), Superfractors (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
#BDPP-6 Javier Baez
#BDPP-10 Daniel Vogelbach


Prospects USA Baseball U16 National Team Base Set - 9 Versions - Base, Refractors, Purple Refractors, Blue Refractors (#/199), Gold Refractors (#/50), Orange Refractors (#/25), Red Refractors (#/5), Superfractors (1/1), Canary Diamond (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
No Cubs Included

Prospects USA Baseball U16 National Team Base Set Autos - 8 Versions - Base, Refractors (#/199), Blue Refractors (#/99), Gold Refractors (#/50), Orange Refractors (#/25), Purple Refractors (#/10), Red Refractors (#/5), Superfractors (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
No Cubs Included

Cubs Breakdown - 2011 Bowman Draft Picks

2011 Bowman Draft Picks
The recent stream of prospect heavy products continued this week with Topps release of Bowman Draft. At this point, I think we can fairly describe this product as one of the flagship products in the entire hobby. It doesn't have a lot of frills, but it typically delivers a nice selection of new players and prospects that get the prospectors in the hobby excited.

Unfortunately, while this year's offering has a relatively strong player selection overall, there are very few Cubs in the set. We get a card of D.J. Lemahieu, but there are plenty of mainstream cards for him already. We also get base cards and autos of our first and second round picks from this past June in Javier Baez and Daniel Vogelbach. The photo of Vogelbach makes him look like the second coming of Hector Villanueva! But that's about all there is for Cubs collectors.

The breakdown is below.

Base Set - 4 Versions - Base, Gold, Blue (#/499), Red (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
#56 D.J. LeMahieu


Prospects Base Set - 4 Versions - Base, Gold, Blue (#/499), Red (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
#BDPP-6 Javier Baez
#BDPP-10 Daniel Vogelbach


Prospects USA Baseball U16 National Team Base Set - 4 Versions - Base, Gold, Blue (#/499), Red (1/1), plus four colors of printing plates
No Cubs Included

Aflac Buyback Autos - No Cubs Included
Bryce Harper Green Border Auto - No Cubs Included
Bryce Harper Jersey Autos - 5 Versions - Base (#/69), Blue (#/50), Gold (#/25), Green (#/5), Red (1/1)
No Cubs Included

Retail Prospect Autos - 4 Versions - Base, Blue (#/199), Gold (#/50), Red (#/25), plus four colors of printing plates
#AK Aaron Kurcz


Futures Game Jersey Relics - 7 Versions - Base, Blue (#/199), Gold (#/50), Green (#/25), Jumbo Patch (#/5), Game Logo Patch (1/1), and Logoman (1/1)
No Cubs Included