Topps unveils latest Minor League series

The Minor League season may be over, but fans can still look out for their favorite players and teams as Topps' latest baseball card product hits shelves Wednesday.

The 2016 Topps Heritage Minor League Baseball series offers a number of upgrades from previous editions to appeal to card collectors, die-hard fans, autograph seekers, prospectors and historians alike.

After all, where else can one find an autographed Mike Trout card in a Rancho Cucamonga Quakes jersey, top prospect Yoan Moncada on a card that includes a 1967 nickel, a photo of Durham mascot Wool E. Bull and a card that honors the time Derek Fisher went 4-for-6 with three homers and 12 RBIs for the Lancaster JetHawks?

The core of the 2016 product is a 200-card base set that is expanded to 215 when you add 15 short-printed cards. Each of these 215 cards has three parallel versions featuring either a blue, peach or black border. The printing plates used to make each of the cards are also randomly inserted in hobby boxes.

In total, MLB.com's No. 1 prospect Moncada is featured on three cards -- a short-print base card, a 1967 coin relic and a sticker-looking insert -- while second-ranked Crawford has a base card, base facsimile signature variation, a game-used jersey relic and a Minor Miracles insert. Only two of MLB.com's Top 10 prospects -- Tyler Glasnow and Joey Gallo -- do not have a card in the product, but each of the first 12 players, and 18 of the first 20 players, selected in the 2015 Draft are featured.

There are eight cards to a pack, 18 packs to a box and 12 boxes to a case, meaning you'll need to rip at least 25 packs -- and likely north of 30 -- to finish the base set.

But where this product really shines is in its deep autograph checklist which is arguably its best yet. Twenty of the top Minor Leaguers have signed cards in this set, including the first four players selected in the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft -- Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman, Brendan Rodgers and Dillon Tate. Swanson, MLB.com's No. 4 prospect, is the highest-ranked player to have an autograph in the series, and he is joined by Cardinals' right-hander Alex Reyes, ranked seventh; Braves infielder Ozzie Albies, No. 13; Padres righty Anderson Espinoza, No. 14; and Yankees infielder Jorge Mateo, ranked 19th.

Astros right-hander Francis Martes, Brewers righty Phil Bickford and outfielder Brett Phillips and Braves southpaw Kolby Allard are other Top-100 prospects with autographed cards in the product. Including Rodgers, ranked sixth, half of the 20-card auto set features a Top-100 prospect.

Autographs can also be found on the comic book-esque Attributes subset, which pairs seven players -- A.J. Reed, Reyes, Rodgers, Swanson, Tate, Mateo and Orlando Arcia -- with a particular trait, for example, strength, power, smarts or speed.

As with the base set, there are colored parallels to chase, each sequentially numbered and increasing in rarity from the peach border or the one-of-one black border.

In a first for this series, player autographs are inked directly on the card rather than on a transparent sticker that is attached at a later date. The sticker autos have been long criticized by fans and collectors, but the inclusion of on-card signatures comes at a price -- only one is guaranteed per 18-pack box instead of two in previous years.

As exciting as it is to watch a Minor League game, there's also satisfaction to be found in remembering the paths that today's current superstars took to reach the Show. With that in mind, the 2016 Heritage Minor League Baseball series includes a small subset called Looming Legacy Autographs which sees five of the game's elite players autographing cards from their MiLB days. These five cards feature Bryce Harper in a Hagerstown Suns uniform, Dallas Keuchel representing the Tri-City ValleyCats, Dustin Pedroia in a Pawtucket Red Sox jersey, Evan Longoria suited up for the Montgomery Biscuits and Trout in his Quakes getup.

Topps has largely stuck to tradition once again in this year's product, embracing the Topps design that graced its cards 50 years ago.

The base cards replicate the look and feel of Topps' original 1967 set, and 50 different inserts pay homage to the stickers that once accompanied sticks of gum. These cards -- they only look like stickers in their design -- are divided between players and mascots and feature some of the Minors' most popular larger-than-life entertainers such as Bumble from the Salt Lake Bees, Webbly from the Everett AquaSox, Tim E. Gator from the Kannapolis Intimidators and Rally Shark from the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

Also harkening back five decades in time, the Mint Relics subset includes actual 1967 coins embedded in the cards. Nickels are implanted in cards of 20 different Minor Leaguers in the regular version while quarters from 1967 are inserted in the parallel versions of these cards in the peach- and black-bordered cards numbered to 25 and one, respectively.

If you're looking for a more tangible, tactile link to your favorite players instead of coins once circulated in the Lyndon B. Johnson era, then Clubhouse Collection Relics are what you're hoping to find.

The 17-card set features pieces of game-worn jerseys from the likes of Clint Frazier, J.P. Crawford, Rafael Devers, Aaron Judge, Raimel Tapia and Amir Garrett.

And if it's Minor League history that you enjoy, Minors Miracles chronicles just that in a 15-card set remembering some of the icon feats of last season. Among the moments etched in cardboard history are Mike Hessman becoming the Minors' home run king with his 433rd career homer, Montgomery's Joey Rickard setting a Southern League record with six walks in one game, Jordan Patterson hitting a walk-off home run in the final game in New Britain Rock Cats' history and the Biloxi Shuckers rallying for a 14-inning win after a 54-game road trip to open the 2015 season.

There's also a number of moments that were recognized in MiLB.com's end-of-season MiLBY awards, including James Dykstra's no-hitter for Winston-Salem -- the performance that earned the Fans' Choice award for Best Performance -- A.J. Reed's three-homer, nine-RBI performance for the JetHawks and Amir Garrett taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning to open the Florida State League playoffs for the Daytona Tortugas.

Other memorable moments immortalized on cardboard in the Minors Miracles set is Derek Fisher breaking the California league record with two grand slams and 12 RBIs in his first game on the circuit, the Louisville Bats and Corpus Christi Hooks spinning their first no-hitters in franchise history, the time the Arkansas Travelers scored 14 runs in one inning with a Texas League-record 10 walks and the Savannah Sand Gnats' 18-game winning streak that came to an end with a 1-1 tie.

If you have ever watched a monumental game like those and thought, 'I could do that,' you'll again have your chance to suit up in a Minor League uniform with the Make Your Pro Debut promotion which offers one fan a chance to join the Durham Bulls for a day in 2017.