2015 Bowman - Full Review

I gave a sneak peak of Bowman the other day. I bought 2 blasters and value pack. This yielded 193 cards, of which only 8 were duplicates. Let's review!

2015 Bowman #101 Greg Holland

This is possibly my favorite card of those I got. You hardly ever see cards featuring pitchers fielding and I don't ever remember seeing such a pitcher defensive play before. What a great photo.  Anyway, this card shows the various features. Notice the full-bleed printing around most of the card. The left side has the block with the players name and white corners. Team colors are used as highlights in various spots (the player's name block on the front an back, the lower corners on the back, even the card number).

Topps has apparently said that this would be a 2-series release although nothing on the packaging indicates this is a first series. The set is short, only 150 base cards, compared to 220 last year.

2015 Bowman #117 Mike Napoli

Mike Napoli with Cylon eye wear.

The last 30 cards in the set are labeled rookie cards.

2015 Bowman #149 Jake Lamb

As usual for Bowman there is the 150-card Prospects set.

2015 Bowman Prospects #20 Adrian Sampson

Note that they reversed the design for the Prospect cards. About half of the cards I got are labeled as "1st Bowman".

There are an astonishing number of parallel sets.

2015 Bowman Silver #61 Starlin Castro

 Note that the upper and lower left corners are not white, and the rest of the border is tinted. I wouldn't quite describe it as silver but that's what it's supposed to be. These are serial numbered to 499.

2015 Bowman Silver Ice #49 Jake Arrieta

I think this "Ice" holographic effect is pretty cool. The scan looks pretty cool as well but doesn't really look much like the actual card.

2015 Bowman Prospects Yellow #93 Justin Nicolino

The yellow parallels are only available for the Prospect cards. These come in the 3-pack value packs and are not serial numbered.  Notice that the full-bleed portion of the border is tinted yellow.

2015 Bowman Chrome Purple Refractors #133 Trey Ball

As usual Bowman also includes the Chrome versions of the Prospects cards. I pulled one of these, numbered to 250. For some reason, the Purple cards borders are colored all the way around, and in two tones.

The other parallels are Black (numbered to 1), Blue (150), Gold (50), Green (99), Orange (25), Purple (250), Red (5), Red Ice (5), Purple Ice and White Ice (1). Good luck!

2015 Bowman Prospects Autographs Silver Alex Balog

I did manage to pull an auto, and not just an auto, but the Silver (numbered to 499) version. I don't know who this guy is but I hope he's the next Nolan Ryan. The autos are on stickers.

Let's not forget the mini cards.

2015 Bowman The Farm's Finest Minis Maikel Franco

I think they are calling this effect "shimmer refractor". Every Phillies fan is all a-flutter waiting for this guy to be called up from the minors. Out of 193 cards this was 1 of only 3 Phillies cards. I got no Astros at all.

These come in several flavors. I pulled a green one, numbered to 99.

2015 Bowman The Farm's Finest Minis Green Shimmer Refractor Clint Frazier