It's been awhile since I have made a post about a set.
I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out around the time I started blogging. Bowman Platinum has now been out for 10 years and has gone stale in recent editions. I think the same can be said for other Bowman spin-off products that Topps created in the early 2010s. Inception would be in that same boat. Started off great, but its fizzled in recent years.
Let's go.
Base Set
The design on this set is decent. I always worried that Topps would start blending the different Bowman product designs together and make them indistinguishable. This design has some similarities to the first two Bowman Platinum sets, but I think it has a unique look compared to other Bowman products from 2012. I like the frames around the picture and the player names. The Bowman Platinum logo in the middle is not my favorite, but I guess it does make the set more identifiable.
The majority of cards in this set have more of a blurred out background than the Pineda card. Not sure why Topps left more of the picture visible on this card.
The back of the card.
There is a lot of other "stuff" on the back, which makes the area for stats and the write-up fairly small. Topps still did a decent job here, especially with the write-up. It's small, but I like the information that is provided on the cards. I never love "busy" card backs that are cluttered with junk, but I do appreciate the large card number and player name at the top.
Maybe I am just saying that because I was sorting out some 2021 Topps cards yesterday.
Michael Pineda was a really big prospect in 2012. He's had some decent seasons when he has stayed healthy, but his career highlight has to be the time he was using pine tar during a game and just slathered a bunch of it on this neck.
This was a few years ago before the crack down on "sticky stuff"
Pineda was ejected from the game.
I'm Really Here For The Autographs
The set design for the 2012 Bowman Platinum is decent, but I didn't buy these cards so I could get a Michael Pineda base card. I bought these cards for the autographs. Do people buy Bowman Platinum cards for another reason?
Yes, the majority of autographs are on stickers, which kind of stinks for this product, but at least they are well blended in most cases. There were plenty of former Durham Bulls players, some current at the time, who appeared on the autograph checklist. That made me pretty excited to buy some of Bowman Platinum cards back in the day.
I parsed it down to two favorite Durham Bulls autographs. There are more.
First up is outfielder Mikie Mahtook. He is still in Triple-A with Charlotte at the moment, which is the White Sox affiliate. While he has had some good years in the Minors, Mahtook has never been able to do much in the Majors. Hence, a decade in Triple A. He had a decent year with the Tigers in 2017, but nothing beyond that. I think he is best known for losing a home run to a spectacular Alex Gordon catch, but not before high-fiving the first base coach.
That Royals player in the background is awesome.
Matt Moore was a great prospect coming up for the Rays and pitched really well in Durham. In 2013, he won 17 games and finished in the Top 10 in Cy Young voting. Two Tommy John surgeries later, Matt Moore is 2-4 this season with an ERA over 6 for the Phillies. Still love his baseball cards. One of those "what could have been" players.
One last autograph that I picked up back in the day was a young Rockies third base prospect.
This has always been a nice card, but I was really happy to have it during the past year. Saved me a little time, probably a little money too.
Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bulls Card
During the pandemic, I learned that people are also crazy for second year Mike Trout cards. They are actually expensive in some cases. Pretty wild. When did this happen? I feel like I need to put all of my early Mike Trout cards into sleeves and top loaders. I don't really collect Mike Trout cards, but I have a ton of them from 2011 and 2012. I could probably sell them all and pay off my car loan.
This is a nice card, but it's my second best Bowman Platinum card of Mike Trout.
This one is nice too.
Best Durham Bulls Card
This was a really hard decision. If I had to rank sets based on Durham Bulls content, this set would likely be a strong contender for the Top 10. It's not just the cards, but also the names. I loved the Bulls teams between the 2009 Triple A National Championship team and the 2013 International League Championship team. Some of my favorite players.
It's really hard to decide, so I am going to choose two cards.
Hellickson is one of the most decorated Minor League pitchers in recent history. He won the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2010, International League Pitcher of the Year in 2010, Triple-A National Championship Game MVP in 2009, and was the starting pitcher in the 2010 Futures All-Star Game.
In 2011, he pitched for the Rays. Hellickson had a sub-3 ERA and won the American League Rookie of the Year. Similar to Moore, Hellickson had a lot of arm problems and ended up being an end of rotation pitcher for a bunch of different teams.
Next.
Archer was on the Durham Bulls in 2012. He's also from Raleigh, which makes him pretty popular in these parts. This is actually from the short-printed prospects section of the set and would have been a favorite card of mine back in 2012. Archer is still playing, but his career has really been set back by arm injuries. Seems to be a theme here.
In recent years, Archer has given the baseball world the fight between the Pirates and Reds where Yasiel Puig tried to fight the entire Pirates team. Archer actually threw a pitch at Derek Dietrich, but somehow Puig was the angriest guy on the field. I love Tucker Barnhardt holding on to Puig's shoe while he is trying to punch five different Pirates players at the same time.
There are a bunch of people on the internet who love this picture and have turned it into art work.
Wil Myers could have been a possible third, but he is on the Royals in this set. Meh.
Best Cardinals Card
The Cardinals had a heavy presence in this set. They were coming off a World Series win and had a lot of name prospects at this point. Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, and Matt Adams all had autographs in the set. There were also cards of Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Allen Craig, and David Freese.
I am going to choose none of those players and go with a role player from the 2011 World Series team instead. Bench player the first half of the year, starter after the Cardinals ditched Colby Rasmus in the middle of the season.
Underrated Cardinal, Jon Jay.
Topps always made really good cards of Jon Jay early in his career. The balanced it out by ignoring him the second half of his career.
How Does It Compare?
At the beginning of the post when I said, "I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out when I first started blogging", what I meant to say is that I am a softie for the autographed cards. I have done 14 of these posts over the last year, there is no way that a generic-looking Bowman spin off can be in the top half of the sets.
Right?
What's it better than? It's clearly not the worst set I have reviewed. It's more exciting than the 2000 Topps set, but those cards are only interesting when compared to watching an episode of the Pat Boone show. The 2000 UD Ionix set seems like a good neighborhood.
The Ionix set had better inserts. While the quantity of autographs offered by Upper Deck was smaller, the players were actual Major Leaguers. I love Jon Jay and all the other Cardinals players mentioned as signers in the 2012 Bowman Platinum set, but was an autograph of Scott Rolen in Ionix. There were also no sticker autographs.
I am going to place this set 12 after Ionix, but before the boring 2000 Topps set.
13. 2000 Topps
12. Bowman Platinum
9. 1988 Donruss