Closing out the year - award winners

There is usually some excitement as far as adding another set of cards to my binder to celebrate the most prominent individual player accomplishments - even if there were no particular surprises among the guys who won and I don’t have fancy cards [something shiny like a parallel and/or autographed] to show off.

Maybe something like a Topps Now card would be nice and relevant, but I stick with random base / inserts I may find since I have my share of them - knock on wood, maybe I'll try to look for more jazzy cards in future years.

For my MVP collection, I went with a 2017 Topps Stadium Club Jose Altuve #116 [American League] and a 2017 Topps Finest Giancarlo Stanton [#29] - the Altuve is a horizontal card and while I sort of want my cards arranged vertically on a nine-pocket page, my award winners collection is kind of made of a claptrap of assorted cards anyway, so I'm not going to be a stickler.

In my Cy Young collection, I dug out a 2017 Topps Chrome [#159] of National League winner Max Scherzer - it’s a current year card that's moderately shiny, so it might as well be the card for him.

For American League winner Corey Kluber, I just went with a second card [2014 Topps #279] I’d stored in the same pocket where I had his 2015 Topps Chrome Sepia parallel [#79] for winning the Cy Young four years ago - it’s kind of a boring card but it serves its purpose.

In my Rookie of the Year collection, I’d already put away a card for Aaron Judge [American League] and Cody Bellinger [National League] sometime during the regular season - I went with a 2017 Bowman rookie card for Judge [#32] and a 2017 Bowman yellow parallel prospect card [#BP149] for Bellinger.

2017 Bowman value pack recap

The basic cards maybe an afterthough, but they are nice - it may not be a thing Topps is actually going for, but I like the idea that Bowman looks a little different, with a focus towards the future, rather than being conservative and boring.

The basic cards have full bleed, almost Stadium Club lite images - even if the action is focused strictly on the field as opposed to the unique shots found in TSC.

Exclusive yellow parallel bonus pack
#BP19 Eric Jenkins
#BP149 Cody Bellinger
#BP51 Francisco Mejia

Pack one

#92 Joe Musgrove
#40 Manny Machado
#91 Chris Sale
#96 Jake Arrieta

#BCP37 Francisco Rios - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#92B-GM Greg Maddux - Bowman Reproductions insert
#BP79 Yu-Cheng Chang
#BCP17 Luiz Gohara
#BP121 Blake Rutherford
#BP95 Daz Cameron

Pack two

#50 Corey Seager
#17 Yoenis Cespedes
#8 Matt Carpenter
#5 Trevor Story
#BCP28 Kyle Tucker - Bowman Chrome Prospects

#BTP-40 Francisco Mejia - Bowman Scouts’ Top 100 insert
#BP132 Justus Sheffield
#BCP115 Franklin Barreto - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#BP129 Isael Soto

#BP1 Nick Senzel

Pack three
#53 Odubel Herrera
#28 Miguel Cabrera
#66 Gavin Cecchini 
#62 Jake Thompson
#42 Jose De Leon
#BP31 Chance Adams

#BCP109 Kyle Freeland - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#BCP91 D.J. Stewart - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#BP70 Kevin Newman
#BP8 Luis Almanzar

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen value pack

I like how Topps has used different color schemes to make the Gypsy Queen name plate on the front pop a little bit more - at first glance, I thought the fronts were a little too cluttered but these cards look so much better than last year’s version.

Exclusive green parallel pack
#116 Robbie Ray
#218 Ken Giles
#76 Scott Kazmir

Pack one
#9 Matt Harvey
#289 Max Scherzer
#146 Ricky Nolasco
#GQAR-BH2 Bryce Harper - Portrait Art Reproduction insert
#23 Blake Snell

#130 Chris Tillman

There is also a Gypsy Queen nameplate on the back which seems a little redundant - but sort of makes the card backs kind of fancy looking besides something merely being run of the mill drab.

Pack two
#250 Yoan Moncada
#219 Lorenzo Cain
#70 Leonys Martin

#217 Josh Harrison - Green retail exclusive value pack parallel
#279 Ryan Braun
#213 Elvis Andrus

Pack three
#265 Eugenio Suarez
#64 Khris Davis
#109 Dan Strailly

#FT-YM Yoan Moncada - Fortune Tellers minis
#107 Tim Anderson
#33 Tom Murphy
Security card