Cardinals news and notes: The calm after the snowstorm

The projected high temperature today in the 63102 ZIP code, the home of Busch Stadium, is 47. Bitterly cold? No. It shouldn't be cold enough to bring any more snow, but it is still cold enough that taking in a Cardinals game isn't exactly at the top of my mind. It's probably not at the top of yours.

Sunday's snowfall wasn't quite as dreadful in St. Louis as it could have been, but it's still not baseball weather. The roads may be possible to traverse, but they still aren't clear by any reasonable definition of the word. That it is Presidents Day should make things a bit less tricky for those of us with commutes in Greater St. Louis this morning. So that will be a silver lining, but it won't change the, pun intended, cold reality of the situation. It is Winter.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Today is Presidents Day. Tomorrow is not Opening Day. We are just going to have to wait. We are just going to have to dream. Luckily, we have some assistance for you.

Tim Cooney

• A little while ago, the red baron dissected Cardinals prospect Tim Cooney, who tallied 31 1/3 innings in MLB in 2015 and looked effective in his somewhat limited time with the big club. At 25, Cooney isn't one of the super-young prospects, but could be a factor on the 2016 Cardinals, if not immediately then after the unfortunate inevitability of attrition demands that the team call to Memphis for reinforcements in the starting rotation.

Spring Surprises 2016

• RB also wrote about potential positive surprises in Spring Training 2016 for the Cardinals. He surveys a few options but ultimately settles on one position player and one pitcher: Aledmys Diaz and Seung-Hwan Oh. What led to these conclusions, you may ask? Well, that's what the link is for.

Baseball America's prospect rankings

• It serves as astute commentary on the prevalence of prospect rankings that Craig Edwards's summary of the Baseball America rankings begins with the phrase "ho hum". But for those of you who cannot get enough of prospect rankings (or just crave something baseball-related), the rankings include just one Cardinals organizational player in its Top 100.

That is the pessimistic takeaway: a more positive look would be to point out that the one player (Alex Reyes) ranked seventh and that in spite of a thin list of top-tier talent, the Cardinals did rank 14th in MLB, even after having graduated top prospects such as Stephen Piscotty to the big leagues. Given the organization's propensity to make the most of marginal prospects (look no further than arguably the team's best player, Matt Carpenter), there's still reason to be hopeful.

And while Craig touched on this already on Saturday, it's worth repeating: be sure to check out the FanPosts section of VEB. A couple of FanPosts, which anyone can publish with an easy-to-acquire SB Nation account, were promoted to the front page on Friday (here and here). Several of us, myself included, got our start on this site writing FanPosts, and it was a great thrill to know that my writing was being read by so many members of the VEB community. So go for it.

Safe and happy commutes to all, even if it's just to your couch for the day.