A little Bowman Queen

Ok weird title, I know. But anyways, a couple days ago I was in Wal-Mart #1, aka crappy card aisle store, and I hoped to pick up a 2013 Bowman rack pack. Unfortunately they were sold out so instead I picked up a 2013 Gypsy Queen rack pack and two loosey Bowman packs. I mean really, who among us can resist at least buying something from the card aisle even when they don't have what you wanted? Well maybe you can, but not me!

I have had excellent luck with avoiding duplicates this year in the non-flagship sets. Before this latest buy I had yet to pull a single duplicate from loose and rack packs from Heritage, Bowman or Gypsy Queen. My luck with both Bowman and Gypsy Queen stayed perfect! Well, in reality I did pull a Starlin Castro GQ base card that I previously had. But I had sent the other one out as part of a trade package so I don't think this one counts.

The two Bowman packs contained the usual smattering of current MLB players as well as prospects. But I did pull one insert. I had yet to pull a Bowman Top 100 Prospects card until now.

Hamilton is somewhat of an enigma to me. The guy has wheels. Incredible wheels. He's hands down the best base stealer since Rickey Henderson and may end up being even better. But I'm not sure he has the bat to stick around at the big league level. He was an exceptional .323 hitter at Class A+ last year and was still a pretty good .286 after being promoted to AA. But this year in AAA he's only hitting .243 and that is a big problem. He could definitely be a defensive asset though simply because of his speed. Hamilton originally came up as a SS and also played a little 2B but he was a total "iron glove". As of tonight in five seasons of professional baseball Hamilton has committed 93 errors, 89 of which came in the infield. But this season he has primarily been playing CF for the Louisville Bats and only has 4 errors coupled with 4 OF assists. So I would call that a big improvement.

I don't think Hamilton is going to be spending any meaningful time in the majors until he can get his hitting worked out. Perhaps sometime next year he could get the call from Cincinnati but I doubt the Reds want him to become another Willy Taveras.


And now for some GQ..

Mike Trout Short Print

One of the best Braves ever and one of the most over-hyped, disappointing Braves ever...

And of course the 3-pack of retail exclusive framed white parallels

Not too bad of a haul I suppose.