St. Louis Cardinals weekend update: What happened while you weren't working

We've mentioned this a few times, in the comments, but it bears repeating: Nobody visits Viva El Birdos over the weekends. That's a minor exaggeration, but not especially minor; even in the offseason, when traffic is down across the board, we lose around 500 visits from Friday to Saturday. Two theories: 1. Blog-reading is America's biggest productivity problem; 2. People have better things to do on the weekend than read blogs, like speak to their families.

Whatever the case, here's another feature I probably won't keep up with: Here's what you missed if your Viva El Birdos week runs Monday to Thursday:

Steven Hill (out), Jay Voss and Matt Cerda (in), and the rest of the St. Louis Cardinals' Rule 5 inaction
The Rule 5 draft is even more boring than usual now that we have to focus on the minor league portion of it. The Cardinals closed their Winter Meetings by losing backup kind-of-catcher Steven Hill and gaining a pitcher who was once traded for Nate Robertson and a third baseman who once struck out against Danny Almonte.

The original St. Louis Cardinals, the guy who invented shortstop, and the guys who blew up the franchise
Before joining the American Association and then the National League, the St. Louis Brown Stockings were a National Association club managed by the guy who invented the shortstop position and nearly bankrupted by a gambling scandal they imported from Louisville. Also, you're going to want to look at their team photo.

The Cardinals and Zack Greinke: Parallels to Learn
On Sunday, finally, azruavatar illustrated in terrifying detail the ways the Los Angeles Dodgers' spending spree will affect the Cardinals' pursuit of an Adam Wainwright extension. Odds Bill DeWitt wishes Frank McCourt could've just held it together for god's sake: Significant.

And while I'm at it, the week in fanposts:

Skip Schumaker; Outfielder, Second Baseman, Pitcher, Cardinal, Man, Hero? A History of One Man's Struggle for Somewhere between Replacement Level and League Average. A Skip Schumaker Story
Aranathor provided a grandiloquently titled pre-post-mortem of Skip Schumaker's career with the St. Louis Cardinals, whose best and worst qualities he epitomized.

Cardinals' Tiers of Trade Pieces - What would it take to get Giancarlo Stanton (or the like)
And stlfan breaks the Cardinals down into tiers for trading purposes, from the "Beyond untouchable" Yadier Molina to "What's your best offer?" for Skip Schumaker.