Top 5 Cards: Xander Bogaerts

Among the many Red Sox hitters to take a step back in 2017 after a superb performance in 2016 was the shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who took a step down in nearly every stat imaginable. He went from an All-Star starter who hit nearly .300 with 20+ homers and 89 RBI in 2016 to a still respectable .273 hitter in 2017, but with over 25 less RBI and almost 40 less total hits.

Needless to say, Bogaerts and the Red Sox are both looking for a bounce-back season offensively. And while it's still super early, the first 5 games of the season have been nothing short of stellar for Bogaerts. He hit 5 doubles in the first 3 games and currently leads the league in doubles as well as hits with 10 total. 

I've been collecting Bogaerts since he was called up late in the 2013 season and have accumulated 22 cards of the 25-year old. Here are my 5 favorites.

#5 2017 Topps Bunt Perspectives

I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed in Topps for recycling the Perspectives idea from 2016 Topps Series 1 and Chrome by creating a new take on the insert set for last year's Topps Bunt. The set features similar images only this set focuses on close-ups, not action shots. However, this card is an exception for how I feel about the insert set as a whole. It's pretty cool, at least in my opinion, to have the photo be taken in the A's dugout and put on the card showing the classic green and gold combo. I acquired this card via trade a couple of months ago and instantly stood out to me for many reasons. And while this card doesn't make me eager to piece together the entire insert set, it does provide a very neat "perspective" to be included on a card.

#4 2017 Bowman

The substantial increase in hype regarding the home run has caused action images such as Bogaerts' 2017 Bowman card to gradually disappear. Most cards nowadays, especially Series 1, feature pictures of players swinging for the fences at the plate. This makes for many quite repetitive cards that get very bland after a while. The card shown provides a very different image than we're used to seeing as Bogaerts is shown running from home plate to first base. The photographer was able to capture this image at exactly the right time to prevent the repetition of the same boring images over and over again and create a pretty different card, at least as far as modern sets go are concerned.

#3 2016 Topps Heritage

Because of the poor image quality used in the set, I consider it a big accomplishment for a card in 2016 Topps Heritage to become one of my favorites. Xander's card is able to do that simply because while the photo quality might not stand out, the colors such as the red on Bogaerts' shirt do stand out and actually look nice within the set that was supposed to mimic the photo quality of the '67 design but ended up creating a blurry and confusing set. This ended up being surprising considering how well Topps usually does with the Heritage set. All the other features are on point as usual, which is a testament to how good of a job Topps did which propelled this card to the top 3 on my list. 

#2 2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Image Variation

This image variation came out of my birthday box of 2014 Gypsy Queen along with a plethora of other cards. However, this card was particularly special given that this wasn't just an image variation, but a variation of Bogaerts' rookie card. The base rookie card shows him in a road jersey pointing after what appears to be a stolen base. This card, on the other hand, is a card showing Bogaerts' in the Red Sox home jersey from their 2013 World Series team along with the Boston Strong patch seen on his sleeve. All of these things make this card very special. From the fact that it's a rookie card to the Boston Strong patch, it was an easy choice for the list. However, it wasn't easy to decide between this card and the following one for the #1 spot.

#1 2016 Topps Archives

If you're not familiar with Bogaerts' 2016 Archives card, you need to be, for it is one of my favorite cards of 2016. The unique angle of the shot taken a split-second before Xander swung the bat is from an angle I have yet to see on any other card ever. I complained before about too many shots of players swinging the bat, but if Topps came out with more swings like this, I would not be complaining. Also, the dirt and grass look gorgeous in the sunlight at Fenway which makes for a stunning picture within the Archives set, which happens to be a personal favorite set produced by Topps. 

Also, speaking of Archives, it looks like Topps may not produce the set this year (this has, in no way been confirmed). It's just that Topps has released many other checklists for sets that are usually released after Archives. I truly hope they come out with it once again this year due to how fun of a set it is to break. But at this point, I'm not sure how likely that is.