Cardinals news and notes: Farewell to 2015, and to one of our own

Welcome to the new year, VEB. It's still 91 days until the first game of the season for the St. Louis Cardinals (stupid Leap Year), but we took some time to reflect and to look forward over the extended weekend.

• A look at the Wild Card era Cardinals: Alex Crisafulli evaluated the recent successes of the Cardinals and compared the franchise to the other blue blood franchises of Major League Baseball. The argument can be made that the Cardinals have been the most successful MLB club of the 21st century and that they are the second-most successful club in the history of the sport. At the end of the post, Alex says that the Yankees should be contracted. Which in theory, purely from a perspective of firmly establishing Cardinals dominance, sounds great. However, somebody may not be too pleased about this...

• Nick Lampe bids adieu: Bittersweet news became VEB official on Saturday, when Nick published his farewell post for Viva El Birdos. Nick, who has also contributed to SB Nation's terrific Beyond the Box Score, will work as a Baseball Operations intern for the New York Yankees (as long as MLB doesn't take Alex's suggestion for contraction seriously, that is). Mr. Lampe was one of the very best VEB had to offer: consistently intelligent, concise in his writing, and somehow always able to balance sounding like the smartest guy in the room without ever sounding arrogant. His posts will be missed, though I'm sure we all look forward to seeing what he does inside an MLB front office.

• Cardinals resolutions for 2016: I proposed three resolutions for Cardinals fans (including myself) to make for 2016. 2015 was an overwhelmingly successful yet oft-unhappy year and rather than continue cynicism, I want everybody to smile and be happy and appreciative and yes I know this isn't going to happen but let me dream before the reality of an actual baseball season kicks in.

• Hunt(s) and Peck(s): Okay, actually, yes, this is my real New Year's resolution--determine the proper pluralization of "Hunt and Peck." Is it "Hunt and Pecks", "Hunts and Peck", perhaps pluralized as "Hunt and Peck" in the same way that deer is the plural of deer? Anyway, Lil Scooter had a couple of them. In the latest installment of Tsunamy Thursday, Carlos Martinez updates his social media followers on his rehab status. The next day, many, many wishes for a happy new year ensued.

• A look at prospects: RB, fresh off the first part of his annual prospect rankings last week, posted the second part of three (probably?) of his list on Sunday. Once again, his prospect breakdowns are very extensive and once again, it is very much worth the time of any Cardinals fan who hopes to get excited about the club's future. Even as the top five starts to become clearer with previous installments published, the red baron's perspective is interesting and engrossing.

Hope everybody's excited for a full work week! Sorry. Have a wonderful Monday, anyway!