2015 Bowman brought consistency to the convoluted Topps parallel system. After several months of smooth sailing, 2015 Bowman Chrome kept the same formula (a first, at least among recent years) and brought us the first Kevin Plawecki base Rookie Cards and the first MLB-licensed autographs from Akeel Morris, Jhoan Urena, Milton Ramos, and Michael Conforto? Um, what’s his 2014 Bowman Draft autograph doing here?
With Cespedes on board, the Mets cruised to their first NL East title since 2006. But not without getting some extra relief help first. Eric O’Flaherty got the first shot, but that didn’t work out so well. Next came Addison Reed, who has earned a spot on the postseason roster. Barring an emergency postseason call-up, the 2015 list wraps up with Tim Stauffer, who was picked up to bolster the AAA staff. As usual, the “throw a bunch of relievers against the wall and see who sticks” method of bullpen construction doesn’t yield the best results, but at least the Mets had some time to experiment in games that didn’t really matter.
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| Michael Cuddyer | John Mayberry Jr. | Jerry Blevins | Alex Torres |
| 6 April 2015 | 6 April 2015 | 6 April 2015 | 9 April 2015 |
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| Sean Gilmartin* | Daniel Muno* | Kevin Plawecki* | Hansel Robles* |
| 10 April 2015 | 17 April 2015 | 21 April 2015 | 24 April 2015 |
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| Jack Leathersich* | Johnny Monell | Noah Syndergaard* | Darrell Ceciliani* |
| 29 April 2015 | 9 May 2015 | 12 May 2015 | 19 May 2015 |
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| Akeel Morris* | Logan Verrett | Steven Matz* | Michael Conforto* |
| 17 June 2015 | 18 June 2015 | 28 June 2015 | 24 July 2015 |
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| Kelly Johnson | Juan Uribe | Tyler Clippard | Yoenis Cespedes |
| 25 July 2015 | 25 July 2015 | 28 July 2015 | 1 August 2015 |
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| Eric O’Flaherty | Addison Reed | Tim Stauffer | |
| 5 August 2015 | 1 September 2015 | 13 September 2015 |
*MLB Debut
The evolution of the Bowman brand has been interesting lately. Since the last major redesign in 2012, Bowman has added ice parallels, wave refractors, and mini shimmer refractors, removed the First Bowman Card designation, added a new 1st Bowman designation, introduced Bowman Black autographs, confused collectors with 2013 Kris Bryant Bowman Chrome autographs in 2014 products, added wrapper redemptions, ended wrapper redemptions, dropped the pretense of a “base set” in Bowman Draft, and much, much more. After three years of incremental improvements, Topps reshuffled the deck in 2015 and brought order to an increasingly chaotic product.
With all of the cards released across dozens of products in 2014, it can be hard to figure out what is worth collecting and what might as well be forgotten. What makes something essential? It’s a mix of collectibility, notability, and attainability. Popular brands/inserts and player debuts will dominate here, not big money low-numbered parallels or big stars. Just about everything mentioned here should still be fairly easy to find on the secondary market at reasonable prices.
2014 continued the Mets prospect autograph explosion that started in late 2013, but that fizzled out late in the year. While that meant lots of autographs for many top Mets prospects who had previously been overlooked, it was bad news for the Mets’ 2014 draft class, which is still waiting for its first autograph card from Topps.
Last year, Topps added a premium thick card product to the Bowman lineup in the form of Bowman Inception. Unlike the other Bowman products, Inception features autographs on thick card stock with a mostly matte finish. For the subject matter, Inception mixes a few token RC autos (to appease the MLBPA) with a mix of top prospects.
Inception’s Initial Offering
Which is how we wound up with this pairing: Jeurys Familia, the default Mets Rookie with autographs in everything, and Travis d’Arnaud, the top prospect received in the R.A. Dickey trade. This was d’Arnaud’s first Mets autograph, but otherwise there isn’t much notable here. The concept may have been new, but the generic ballpark sky background and the focus on established prospects and Rookies took away any sense of excitement. Would things be any different the second time around? Well, sort of.
Less than two months into the 2014 season, the B-Mets already have played their last regular season game of the year in Manchester, NH. They leave New Hampshire with a 7-3 record at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium after shutouts, blown leads, big hits, occasional downpours, and a 14-inning finale. Through all of it, the Binghamton roster has remained almost completely unchanged. Only backup catchers changed places, with Blake Forsythe (on the DL for his entire 2014 B-Mets stint) dealt to Oakland and Nelfi Zapata (who did not appear in a game in Manchester) replacing Xorge Carrillo after the latter’s call-up to Las Vegas. That’s effectively a stable 25-man roster to work with.
While I try to cover minor league games with as much useful information as possible, I have my limits. When it comes to giving an illustrated first-hand account that goes beyond what the box score will tell you, I can at least fake competence. But when people start asking about mechanics, I’ve got nothing. I don’t like watching games from behind home plate and I can’t tell a curve from a slider. I can juggle multiple electronic devices and capture photos and video while live-tweeting a game though. So I added a video camera to my usual game pack and quickly realized that getting sharp video at night games just wasn’t happening. Oh well. What does it all add up to? Damned if I know.
Let’s kick things off with Wilfredo Tovar enthusiastically grounding into a double play. Is this something he learned during his stint in the big leagues last year? Wherever he got it from, that’s a heck of a follow-through.
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