Looking at Bowman Scouts Top 100
Every collector loves to dissect player rankings, especially for MLB prospects. Is this player too high on the list? Is this guy too low? Which player took the biggest jump from last year to this year? The Bowman Baseball Scouts Top 100 subset is back once again. Bowman introduced its Top 100 Prospects cards in 2013, and it’s been one of the most popular inserts year after year.
This year’s Top 100 list is stacked with talent. That means the potential of these prospects is sky-high. Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday is ranked No. 1, followed by Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Jackson Chourio at No. 2, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes at No. 3, Washington Nationals center fielder Dylan Crews at No. 4, and San Diego Padres center Ethan Salas rounding out the top five. The top three prospects have already made their MLB debuts this season.
“This product features a lot of high-ceiling players who are kind of breaking into the big leagues right around the time of this release,” Topps Assistant Brand Manager Larry Bearden said. “So, having Holliday, Chourio, and Skenes as the top three in this insert and having all three get in the big leagues is very exciting. Also, it’s their first chance at collecting the 2023 draft class to show up in one of these rankings. So, Skenes and Crews being 3 and 4 on the list is very intriguing, along with the high school bats of Max Clark and Walker Jenkins at 10 and 11.”
Along with the base cards, the Refractor list of players is exceptional. The top 12 ranked players have autographs in this insert set. Auto parallels are numbered to 99 (Green Refractor), numbered to 50 (Gold Refractor), number to 5 (Red Refractor), and the crown jewel Superfractor. Non-auto parallels are number out of 150, 125, 99, 50, 25, 5, and 1-of-1.
Printed on Chrome stock, the Scouts Top 100 cards have an aesthetically pleasing design. Laid out horizontally, they feature different charts and graphs in the background. Each card boldly displays the player’s Top 100 number.
“I think some of the geometric elements behind it relate back to the scouting scale of having like your five tools players,” Bearden said. “Everything’s always on a numeric scale with 0 through 80 in scouting. So, it has a little bit of a feel of truly evaluating players. Then, everyone loves rankings, so put that number front and center — number 1, number 9, whatever you are. Everyone loves building a list and comparing where they stack up.”
It’s fun for collectors to track a prospect’s climb up the rankings as they get closer to the big leagues. The 2023 Scouts Top 100 list had Holliday at No. 9. This year, he rose to the top spot. Make sure to get your hands on as many of the Top 100 cards as possible. You never know if a player who barely sneaks into the Top 100 will have enough talent to become the next Mike Trout.
