Old Blaster Break - 2007 Bowman Draft Picks

This was the last blaster I opened from 2007. I had cards scanned and ready to post when 2008 Topps went live and I kinda got distracted after that. My 2008 frenzy has subsided, and other than maybe Finest, I'm not going to go crazy over any new product until A&G or Goudey or whatever retro product is on the slate for this year hits the shelves. Now I can catch up on stuff like this and you guys can get a break from the "all Heritage - all the time" format I've had for the past couple of weeks. Here's the results from a pretty successful blaster break:

Black & Green border Rookie cards - 15
BDP12 Cameron Maybin RC
BDP17 Jon Knott
BDP18 Joba Chamberlain RC
BDP22 Sean Gallagher
BDP24 Dennis Dove
BDP27 Ben Francisco
BDP28 Doug Slaten RC
BDP34 Matt Brown RC
BDP36 Carlos Gomez RC
BDP40 Andy LaRoche
BDP43 Yunel Escobar
BDP46 Homer Bailey
BDP48 Angel Sanchez RC
BDP51 Kevin Slowey
BDP52 Brendan Ryan

Not a bad group of rookies including true rookie cards of Joba and Maybin. I got the Yunel Escobar card too which was a highlight for me at least. (RC means a true rookie card according to the February 2008 Beckett Rookie Card Issue)

Black & Red border Veteran card - 1
237 Barry Bonds

Yeah, got another one of these too...

White and Blue border Prospect cards - 16
BDPP6 Ed Easley
BDPP14 Travis D'Arnaud
BDPP18 Eric Sogard
BDPP21 Austin Gallagher
BDPP40 Jeremy Hefner
BDPP41 Reynaldo Navarro
BDPP45 Ryan Pope
BDPP46 Josh Horton
BDPP49 Jonathan LuCroy
BDPP55 David Price
BDPP59 Wendell Fairley
BDPP69 Clay Buchholz
BDPP77 Clayton Kershaw
BDPP82 Robinzon Diaz
BDPP90 Alcides Escobar
BDPP103 Jay Bruce

I got the #1 rookie card in Joba and now the #1 Draft Pick in David Price. Nice. Jay Bruce is also a nice prospect for the Reds (even though Corey Patterson just stole his job). The Clay Buchholz card is cool, but it's apparently not even his first Bowman card. He's nowhere to be found in the Beckett Rookie Issue either so who knows what his first card is. Makes you think about his 2008 MLB RC logo cards, doesn't it?

Gold & Green border Rookie cards - 15
BDP34 Matt Brown RC
BDP40 Andy LaRoche

I already pulled the regular black border version of both these cards in the box. My philosophy with this set since there's so many parallels is to just get one of each card regardless of whether it's thick, chrome or plain so this is a bummer.

Gold and Blue border Prospect cards - 5
BDPP30 Justin Jackson
BDPP54 Jason Heyward
BDPP64 Matt LaPorta
BDPP73 Kevin Mulvey
BDPP93 Adrian Cardenas

Three 2007 first round picks, including the coveted Jason Heyward. Matt LaPorta is no slouch either and could hit 30 homers for the Brewers sometime in the next few years. Beckett says Heyward is best compared to Ken Griffey Jr. (!!!) then qualifies it with "of recent seasons". I don't know whether I should be happy or angry at Beckett.

Chrome Black & Green border Rookie cards - 4
BDP22 Sean Gallagher
BDP27 Ben Francisco
BDP34 Matt Brown RC
BDP46 Homer Bailey

Only four black border RC Chromes in the box. I did hit the Matt Brown Trifecta though. Beckett compares him to Jeff Cirillo. Oh goody.

Chrome Black & Red border Veteran card - 1
237 Barry Bonds

At least I didn't get the Gold parallel card...

Chrome White and Blue border Prospect cards - 10
BDPP2 Karl Bolt
BDPP3 Corey Brown
BDPP4 Tyler Mach
BDPP7 Cory Luebke
BDPP8 Darin Mastroianni
BDPP16 John Ely
BDPP30 Justin Jackson
BDPP88 German Duran
BDPP99 Evan Longoria
BDPP100 Wladimir Balentien

The only two I've heard of out of this lot are Longoria and Balentien and they are both Futures Game cards. On a completely unrelated note, while looking for some of these players in the Beckett, I noticed that the player Elijah Dukes is compared to is Toe Nash. Ouch.

Chrome White and Blue border Prospect cards - 1
BDPP18 Eric Sogard

I finally pulled a refractor! Eric was a second round pick of the Padres out of Arizona State last year. Here's a pretty cool ESPN chat with Eric from the College World Series right after he got drafted. I like this card. With the ivy in the background ( is he at Wrigley?) along with Eric's hipster glasses and goatee, it looks like he's about to to play a folk set on his acoustic guitar at an organic coffee shop. "I gave my love a cherry, that had no stone..."

Relic Card - All Star Futures Game Jersey - 1
BDPP89 J.R. Towles

Refractor AND a relic! Jackpot! Towles is one of those players I would have never ever heard of if not for baseball cards. I immediately became a fan once I saw his odd looking Bowman Heritage prospects card, and Chris Harris has a great take on his Topps Heritage RC. J.R. is expected to take over for Brad Ausmus behind the plate for the 'Stros this year and could be a sleeper in your fantasy drafts. A nice hit, I'll be watching J.R. this year to see if he can repeat that 1.007 OPS he put up in 14 games with the Astros last year. (hint: he won't)


Not a shabby break at all. I almost with I had a recent Beckett lying around so I could drool over the book values of the Joba and Price. The good thing is that blasters of this stuff are still pretty readily available if you want to take a break from the new stuff and go chasing rookies and picks.