Minor league baseball cards from the past can include some weird stuff ... stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card. Here are some some new oddities in this latest edition of MiLB Madness. 

REMEMBERING HERITAGE ...
The Cards: Max Fried 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League cards
The Buzz On This: Before he was among the stacked rotation of the Atlanta Braves and got himself a World Series ring, Fried was a member of the Fort Wayne TinCaps and the Mississippi Braves and he appeared on cards in the in-pack MiLB sets released under the Topps Heritage line. That meant retro designs here -- 1964, 1965, 1967 and the burlap-inspired 1968 look -- but with clean, modern printing and other touches that put it in the here and now while looking a lot like back then. Fried missed a year (I presume due to his injury/trade) and has some other inserts and parallels in these sets before his Heritage RC in 2018 and all that's come since. I keep talking about doing a run of some players' Heritage cards in slabs and I grabbed all of these since they're all affordable (despite being likely far rarer than anything Heritage MLB) and just might do it for both MiLB and MLB releases. Also: The Heritage MiLB brand apparently died in 2023 ... so pour one out for that one while we're at it.

Keep reading for more examples of some weird or fun baseball cards you can find in MiLB.

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Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading and knows that there are many reasons that collectors choose to slab cards. Sometimes it's to enhance the appeal and protect them when selling. Other times it's to protect an investment for the long-term or to protect for sentimental reasons. Or, it might be just for fun or curiosity about a potential grade.

Here's this month's grading diary here on The Buzz ... 

HE'S BACK!
The Card: Tiger Woods 2001 Upper Deck No. 1 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: Not that long ago I unearthed my stash of these heavily produced but in-demand RCs and sent off a couple to be graded. Since that time Woods returned at The Masters and fared relatively well considering where he was little over a year ago. While he's got plenty of high-dollar cards -- and stuff that pre-dates this with non-traditional distribution -- this one is the propellant that brought back golf cards to the masses and it has been slabbed thousands of times between all of the grading companies. I amassed a number of them because I used to rip this on the cheap whether it was repacks, hobby boxes, retail boxes or whatever. This wax was cheap for a long time and had a few formats -- for example, I opened a case of this one for somewhere between $75 and $125 (I want to say it was the lower number) probably 15 years ago ... and did better than I expected for hits (that's why I was ripping). Now? A single box would cost more than what I paid.
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: Even this newcomer to grading has taken on a ton of Tiger RCs with only a dozen grading higher than this -- and with their new slabs/scale, this copy would be a CSG 10 now. (Gem Mint is now a 10 with Pristine 10s nixed and Perfect 10s still in play.) I may send off a few more from my stash to see how the new top end of the scale looks on my others. (All of my submissions came back just before the change.)

Keep reading for more of this month's pick-ups and new slabs for Buzz.

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Update: Riley has been on fire since his arrival with seven homers and 20 RBI in his first 14 games, hitting .375 (21-for-56) for the second-place Braves.

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The newest Atlanta Braves rookie to watch is here -- and he homered in his big-league debut.

He's outfielder/third baseman Austin Riley and he went 1-for-3 with a home run in his first game last night, a solo shot in just his second at-bat during a 4-0 win over the Cardinals.

Baseball America ranked him as the No. 22 prospect in baseball entering this season and he had torn things up at Triple-A Gwinnett, hitting .299 with 10 doubles, 15 homers and 39 RBI in 37 games this season.

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Hotlanta doesn't just apply to the city this time of year -- right now it also applies to one if its rookies.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a lead-off home run for the third consecutive game on Tuesday night and that was his fifth consecutive game overall with a homer. (And he hit two.) At just 20 years old, he's the youngest to do that in the last 100-plus years and he's the first player since Brady Anderson back in 1996 to open three straight games with a longball. (Anderson did it four times during his record lead-off streak.)

The MLB record for most consecutive games with a homer? That's eight -- a mark held by Ken Griffey Jr. (1993), Don Mattingly (1987) and Dale Young (1956). For the Braves, a franchise with a rich home run history, he's tied the consecutive games mark held by eight players -- a group that includes Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby, Hank Aaron and Chipper Jones. (How many homers does Acuña have in his last eight games? Eight -- just not in every game in a row.)

For the season, Acuña is hitting .288 with 19 home runs and and 43 RBI -- and since the All-Star break (24 games) he's hitting .358 and 12 of those home runs have come during that time. And for collectors, it's also at a time when his Rookie Cards are beginning to regularly appear in baseball card sets released this season.

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Roughly a year ago, St. Louis Cardinals prospect Daniel Poncedeleon was hit in the head by a line drive and collapsed on the pitcher's mound during a game in Des Moines, Iowa, never losing consciousness but wondering if his playing career (or life as he knew it) was over.

On Monday night in Cincinnati, he made his MLB debut for the Cardinals and was pulled from a game in the seventh inning despite having a no-hitter going and a 1-0 lead. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the 26-year-old is just the fifth pitcher have a no-hit bid through seven innings in his MLB debut since 1961. (The Cardinals bullpen blew it in the ninth so it went down as a no-decision.)

"I think that played a huge part into this, because without that, I'm pretty weak," Poncedeleon told MLB.com. "With God, I have a lot of faith and confidence. ... The journey was not drawn up by me. Obviously, there is something greater drawing up this plan or this story. ... I just wanted to win, to be honest."

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There's a new hard-hitting powerful rookie in MLB this season but you'll have to wait for his first Rookie Cards and battle if you have your sights on his few certified autographs.

His name is Rhys Hoskins and he's a member of the Philadelphia Phillies -- and he's got a record 11 home runs in his first 18 games. That's an MLB record for a hot start as well as a team rookie record for the month -- with a few games to go. He's also homered in his last five games, adding to the attention that comes with such a torrid pace.

Now, about that cardboard?

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Your next big-name New York Yankees rookie to arrive in The Big Apple will face big expectations -- but he doesn't have nearly as much cardboard as those who arrived before him.

Unlike the arrivals of Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge -- guys who had plenty of baseball cards and plenty of certified autographs when they hit The Show -- shortstop Gleyber Torres doesn't.

And that could bode very well for collectors who own them.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing Today: Throwback breaks, a big week of buying, panic buying, 2017 Allen & Ginter, a big fishy pull & much more ...

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The two Mystery Redemptions from 2016 Topps Heritage Minor League have been revealed by the company.

According to Topps, the first is last year's No. 1 draft pick Mickey Moniak, who hit .284 with one homer and 28 RBI in 47 Rookie League games this past season.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing Today: Big breaks and new finds from around the collecting world.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing Today: Big breaks, 20 boxes of Star Wars cards, the baseball Hall of Fame ballot and is Madison Bumgarner the greatest postseason pitcher of all time?

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From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The box: 2016 Topps Heritage Minor League baseball cards (hobby box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com

Packs per box: 18
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 139
Base set completion: 
120 of 200 (60 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Dansby Swanson, Ozzie Albies, Andrew Benintendi, Jose DeLeon, Daz Cameron, J.P. Crawford

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing Today: Ben Simmons' injury, big breaks, Heritage High Number and Heritage Minors and ... what about David Ortiz's past PED allegations?

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Topps Heritage arrived today for the guys down on the farm but the 2016 Topps Heritage Minor League set and its autograph checklist are loaded with some big-league talent thanks to a talented crop of newcomers.

And that means there are some good variations and autographs to chase.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing Today: Nothing but breaks today and a single Spectra box above leads way.

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Topps Heritage arrived today for the big-leaguers, but it will be another week for the players down on the farm who appear on 2016 Topps Heritage Minor League cards.

But the good news is that the autograph checklist is loaded with some big-league talent thanks to a talented crop of newcomers and a set of former minor-leaguers who are now established in The Show.

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What: 2016 Topps Heritage Minor League baseball cards
Arrives: Sept. 28
Box basics: One autograph and one Relic per 18-pack box (12 boxes per case)

What's buzz-worthy: The players and teams down on the farm take a trip back to 1967 with this release that includes a first for Topps' Minor League Baseball license -- on-card autographs.

Keep reading for more as well as a full gallery of images.

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