Even a Rookie League team gets some cards.
I meant to continue "Down on the Farm" as a regular feature, but for some reason I had to reach all the way back to a post from last November to recall what I even decided to call this thing. The premise is that I've been slowly working on acquiring minor league team sets, when the price is right. Here is where I'll show off a few of the cards.
This wasn't a big time team for stars, which isn't all that surprising considering that it's minor league baseball at its lowest level. We do have my first card of the son of a former Cardinal star in A.J. Van Slyke. This is my first card of the younger Van Slyke, who did not reach the majors, unlike his brother Scott.
We also have a card of a lesser Pujols. The cousins of Albert Pujols is a very... interesting story. Cousin Wilfrido played baseball professionally (as we see here) and also had the misfortune of being a passenger in the car that cousin Wilfredo (note the 'e' in the spelling) was driving when it struck and killed a teenager in a hit-and-run back in 2008, which resulted in a murder conviction.
Early on in this blog's life, someone interviewed me via email and got me to answer a question about players I was excited about. I offered up the name of Daryl Jones because I had been reading too many other blogs, or something. He didn't make it.
Colby Rasmus is probably the biggest name in the set, and at one point in time would have probably driven the price of this set up well beyond what I would have found reasonable to pay for it. I wish we could get a glimpse of how young Rasmus looked at the time, but all we have here is a fairly anonymous looking player that could even be an advanced little leaguer.
Aside from Rasmus, there weren't a lot of future big league seasons to go around for this bunch. Donovan Solano, however, has carved out a handful of seasons for himself. He reappeared last season with the Giants and even has some projected stats on B-Ref right now for a fake 2020 season.
I like team minor league sets, too, but I find I only make them a priority when it's from the period when I was first learning about prospects in the Dodgers farm system, so late '70s/early '80s.
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