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. 

WAIT, WHAT?
The Item: Kerry Wood 1998 Best Player Of The Year - Best Possibilities promo card
The Buzz On This: This card is one that I'd apparently never seen until just recently and it really threw me for a loop as Wood was a fireballer who only played for the Chicago Cubs back at this time as part of a 14-year MLB career. Why was it weird? Well, on 1998 cardboard, Wood was firmly a Chicago Cub and definitely not a Tampa Bay Devil Ray as they were known then and this logo is theirs for sure. But ... this card shows Wood as a member of the 1997 Orlando Rays and most MiLB cards of him from back then -- the ones I pulled -- used road unis, so the Rays name and the logo weren't as obviously seen like they were on MLB fields that year. The Orlando Rays were the Cubs' farm team until 1997, switched to the Mariners in 1998 when the Rays arrived in Tampa Bay that year, and then worked with Tampa Bay's prospects from 1999 until the team moved to Alabama to become the Montgomery Biscuits. Wood, of course, was a Cub from 1998-2008 (and a Cub on cards even longer than that) before he finished his career with stops in Cleveland and New York as a Yankee before a return to the Cubs. Somehow, I'd never noticed this card.

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

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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. 

IF YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW ... THE FINALE
The Cards: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. & Bo Bichette 2020 Choice Lansing Lugnuts 25th Anniversary set (nine)
The Buzz On This: My third card showing MLB All-Stars in this set showcases the same pair of players from the last two months -- now they're just together. This release is a cheap one I found on sale in the official MiLB Store ... so I did a bulk buy. Why? I want to slab some stuff in this one and the price was right for doing some cherry-picking. As I noted before, if you don't dabble in the MiLB realm, there are some affordable ways to find top names in old unis without breaking the bank and this set shows off past notables -- it's a solid alumni set, though these two guys are the biggest on cards this time. Another MiLB set type that can be loaded is the league "top prospects" set and similar all-star releases that can be sold by all teams in a league so more are (likely) made.

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

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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. 

LOADED WITH TALENT ...
The Card: Peoria's Past, Chicago's Future -- 1989 Kodak Peoria Chiefs
The Buzz On This: I found this for less than 50 cents and, well, it felt like a steal with it being a fun card with some serious star power on there. Who? Hall of Famer Greg Maddux for starters along with memorable Cubbies of the era ... Mark Grace, Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith, Joe Girardi and even a few others who made it to The Show. (Click the image at right to view all of the names.)

All-star caliber team/group shots are not often the norm in MiLB sets -- you typically get everybody on a team shot or not at all -- and that makes this one feel more like a classic card. (Or even a Classic card where creative combo cards were quite normal at this time in their sets.)

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

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Here's a look at the top five players on this week's Baseball America Top MLB Prospects Hot Sheet and their seasons so far. It's a little something to help those who might want to dabble with prospecting -- some basics on their baseball cards alongside a highlight line from those more scouting-minded. We may not do this every week, but we'll check in on BA's top crop from time to time for the remainder of the season.

1. Luis Robert, OF, White Sox — High-A Winston Salem Dash
Baseball America’s highlight line: “Robert is one of the most tooled-up athletes not only in his organization, but in all of the minor leagues. He wowed evaluators in the Arizona Fall League, and now is doing the same again in his return to high Class A."
CARDBOARD BASICS
Approximate card total (so far): 500
First Chrome auto: 2018 Bowman 
One auto to consider: 2017 Elite Extra Edition
Buzz’s card take: You should know his name after his Bowman arrival last year as he's a top-100 prospect by most accounts and a top-50 on some lists. He fared pretty well in limited spring training time this year, hitting .385 with a homer and eight RBI in six games as a 21-year-old. The Cuban prospect has five homers and 13 RBI while hitting .475 this season.

Keep reading for the rest of the top five ...

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