2013 Bowman Sterling baseball hobby box

Sport:  Baseball
Product:  2013 Bowman Sterling
Break Date:  March 13, 2014
Hit Breakdown:  Eighteen autographs per box
Summary:  With a staggering 18 autographs per box, 2013 Bowman Sterling's hefty north-of-$200 price tag may seem like a bargain. But, as with any prospect-heavy (or in this case, prospect-exclusive) product, it's going to be hit or miss. And the worst part about it is, it may be years before that's even determined.

So, with guarded optimism, I opened the box. All told, it was a decent, but unspectacular break. I was hoping to pull a coveted Byron Buxton, or maybe a Carlos Correa, Clint Frazier or Austin Meadows. Nope on all four accounts. With 18 autographs, your odds of pulling a high-end prospect are high, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

That said, I did pull some nice cards, and of the 18 autographs, seven are on Baseball America's Top 100 2014 Prospects list. Unfortunately, the two best - Taijuan Walker (#11) and Noah Syndergaard (#16) are pitchers, and when it comes to prospecting, I prefer hitters because they seem to be more accurately projected.

There were some decent colored refractors, highlighted by the green Aaron Judge /125. There were two lower-numbered parallels (a gold Blake Taylor /50 and an orange Ryder Jones /75), but at least as of today, Judge is the better prospect. The other two, though, were 2013 picks - which is why when it comes to prospecting, time will tell.

So, while I didn't pull really any of the guys I wanted, it may be three years before anyone's able to determine whether this was a good box or not.

Grade for the product:  A-

Grade for the break:  B

What we pulled:

Gold Refractor auto /50:  Blake Taylor
Orange Refractor auto /75:  Ryder Jones
Green Refractor auto /150:  Aaron Judge
Refractor auto /199:  Tyler Austin
Prospect auto:  Noah Syndergaard, Robert Kaminsky, Taijuan Walker, Jorge Soler, Kohl Stewart, Aaron Judge, Victor Sanchez, Jonathan Crawford, Allen Webster, Tim Anderson, Colin Moran, Braden Shipley, Kevin Ziomek, Hunter Dozier

Base Refractor /199:  Nick Franklin
The Duel:  Pierce Johnson/Courtney Hawkins
Base:  Wil Myers, Dorssys Paulino, Nick Castellano, Joey Gallo