Collecting The Cubs: Cubs Breakdown - 2011 Playoff Contenders

2011 Playoff Contenders
This is Panini's second baseball issue of 2011 (apparently it's still 2011 on the calendars at Panini), and they included a few more active major leaguers in this issue. There is one 50 card base set of active players to go along with 150 cards over two other base sets of prospects. Of course, Panini doesn't have a license to show major league logos, so that limits how good this product can be a little bit. But overall, I would say this is a pretty good effort with some decent cards designs.

One very good thing about this product, at least from a Cubs point of view, is the player selection. There are quite a few Cubs in the product, and most of them don't have many other cards. The only set that doesn't feature a Cubs player here is the First Overall set featuring players who were first overall draft picks in the MLB draft. We've only selected first once, and used that on Shawon Dunston. I'm actually a little disappointed that they didn't include him, since his son is represented here. A father and son auto would have been awesome! But I'm sure we'll see one of those soon enough.

Here's the breakdown of the Cubs in the set!

Season Tickets Base Set - 7 Versions - Base, Crystal (#/299), Playoff (#/99), Artist's Proofs (#/49), 1st Day Proofs (#/10), Championship (1/1), Autos, plus four colors of printing plates
#6 Starlin Castro

Prospect Tickets Base Set - 7 Versions - Base, Crystal (#/299), Playoff (#/99), Artist's Proofs (#/49), 1st Day Proofs (#/10), Championship (1/1), Autos, plus four colors of printing plates
#13 Javier Baez
#43 Dillon Maples

Draft Tickets Base Set - 7 Versions - Base, Crystal (#/299), Playoff (#/99), Artist's Proofs (#/49), 1st Day Proofs (#/10), Championship (1/1), Autos, plus four colors of printing plates
#21 Tony Zych
#46 Matt Szczur
#67 Shawon Dunston Jr.
#75 Dan Vogelbach
#89 Zeke DeVoss