2020 Bowman Chrome Autograph Prospects Are on the Board
I don’t collect baseball cards anymore but I still frequent two local shops that sell board and trading card games (which I do play) in addition to sports cards. During a trip (with a scout, ironically) to one of them last year, I found the shop owner and a customer deep in discussion about the prospects in last year’s Bowman set, a conversation that included mention of how expensive Wander Franco‘s cards had become, and how sought after Jasson Dominguez’s first card was likely to be in 2020. I asked, “What is it that’s driving card prices for some of the prospects who most people have never seen play and who a lot of casual fans have never heard of?” to which the customer responded, “Their stats.”
If you’re a hobbyist who has stumbled upon FanGraphs for the first time, The Board is where live prospect rankings and scouting reports exist on this site; this newly created and temporary tab is a ranking of the prospects with autographs in the Bowman Chrome set in the order I prefer them as baseball prospects. Some of the younger, higher-variance players are, perhaps, more likely to explode into the star-level types whose cards collectors seem to covet. For example, I’d sooner buy an Erick Pena card than an Isaac Paredes one, even though I have Paredes more highly rated from a baseball standpoint. I hope this is helpful to hobbyists and investors, and perhaps drives some readers to (re)try collecting cards. If it does, I ask that you support your local card shops in pursuit of these cards, rather than go to Target or buy online.