Secret Weapon 2.0

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Cardinals infielder Jose Oquendo was dubbed "The Secret Weapon" by former manager Whitey Herzog.  The Cardinals had an everyday player at every position when Oquendo first made the Cardinals in 1986.  Oquendo was not one of them, but he still managed to play almost every game.  Same with his first full time season in 1987.  He was showing up somewhere, just a question of what position, and when in the game.  

Jose had some big moments on the field too, which helped cement his legacy as more than just a highly versatile utility player.  Sort of a cult hero as a player with Cardinals fans.....

I believe he also once kicked Will Clark in the crotch because he slide into second base late.  

Topps made a set of Oquendo autographs within the Topps Archives set a few years back celebrating the fact that Whitey Herzog played him everywhere.  I do not have all 9 cards yet, but he has a card for every position.  

Truth be told, Oquendo stopped showing up all over the field after the 1988 season when the Cardinals traded Tommy Herr to the Twins.  The last five or six years of his career was spent primarily as a second baseman, or occasionally giving the Ozzie Smith a day off at shortstop.  

This year the Cardinals have a player on the roster who is playing a similar role as Oquendo during the late 80s.  So far this season, Yairo Munoz has played more than 20 games at four different positions.  He has appeared most often as a shortstop, but has also appeared frequently as a second baseman, third baseman, and outfielder.  

There are Cardinals fans that have dubbed him the Secret Weapon 2.0.  I like the nickname, although software references usually are lame.  

While his versatility is similar to Oquendo, he is a much better offensive player.  Munoz has just over 250 at bats on the season which has yielded 8 home runs, 16 doubles, a batting average that has been hovering around .290 all year, an on-base percentage over .350, and .790 OPS.  That OPS is third on the team behind Matt Carpenter and Jose Martinez.  

I picked up one Munoz card way back in January after the Cardinals picked up Munoz in the Stephen Piscotty trade with Oakland.  

I have been waiting all year for some Munoz cards with the Cardinals.  He's generally been ignored by Topps, Panini, and Leaf.  Topps made one of those Topps Now cards of him and he also has a card in the Memphis Redbirds set.  That's been it until the last month.  He now has a Heritage High Numbers card and Panini made an autograph of him.  

I went for the autograph.  

It's based on the 1990s Donruss Crusade cards.  Not sure this card does that set justice, but I have seen much worse out of Panini, so I am going to live with what is likely a solid effort out of someone in their design department.  

Back of the card.  

I like that the picture on the back has the Wrigley field bricks as a backdrop.  Made me kind of wonder if the front of the card would have been better off without all of the Crusade monikers, they really did not come that close, and gone with some borderless card with the full photo.  Wrigley in the background of course.  

Maybe next time Panini.  

Current Cardinal, Former Cardinal, Bay Area Teams.

Just two random baseball cards for this evening.  Just clearing a few things off of my desk.  The Cardinals have had a quiet offseason compared to what the fan base was really hoping to see this winter.  The trade for Marcell Ozuna was nice, but seems to be the only splashy move the team is going to make in an effort to catch the Cubs.

The team also traded Stephen Piscotty, but that was because the outfield is really crowded and he has some things going on off the field that would be better dealt playing close to home with the A's.

Hope he does well with the A's next season.  

In the meantime, the trade gave me two new players to track down.  One of the players is Max Schrock, who is from Raleigh, and the other is Yairo Munoz.  I will do something with Schrock at some point, but Munoz actaully has some really nice cards floating around.  I picked up my first, a Bowman autograph, recently in a trade from a fellow collector.  

Munoz made it all the way up to Triple A last year with the A's and showed a little more pop in his bat than in he did in previous seasons in the lower Minors.  He had 13 home runs, 26 doubles, 4 triples, 68 RBIs, and 22 steals.  Not a great walk rate, but he's still just 22.  Really inexpensive card, good one to hold on to for awhile.  Let's hope he shows up at Busch Stadium sometime in the near future.  

Last card for tonight is a childhood favorite that I picked up in the same trade.  Just an interesting card that was sitting in someone's photo album.  Did not have to give up too much in trade for this Jack Clark autograph......

Always liked these Upper Deck Trilogy cards which were put out in 2005.  It's actually a sticker autograph, boo, but you can barely tell it's a sticker autograph when you scan the card.  Yes!  When you look at it in person it's clearly a sticker autograph.  Did I mention that this card didn't cost me very much in trade?  It lessened my Cubs cards if nothing else.  

This is actually my second Clark autograph out of this set.  I also have the version with the relic pieces on the bottom.  Tiny, tiny relics.  

This was several scanners ago thankfully.  This version of Clark's autograph is signed on card, which means it will probably remain my favorite Giants card of Jack Clark.  Overall, a pretty nice pair of cards for my Cardinals collection.