Cards news and notes: Jhonny, Sobering up, draft preview, and more

First up yesterday was the community projections for Jhonny Peralta. So if you didn't get a chance to put in your two cents on Peralta, go ahead and submit a projection. And if you missed it Tuesday, vote on Matt Carpenter as well.

Ben Godar had another interesting chapter of Cardinals' history, covering the history leading up to Spring Training. In it's early days this was apparently called "Sobering Up" or "barnstorming" as the team would sharpen up for the season by playing easy semi-pro teams. Check out this interesting read.

The Red Baron had another Draft Preview yesterday, the sixth of the off-season. This one is all about College-aged Right-handed pitchers, of which the Baron believes this draft is stacked with. Being that the Cards have three picks in the top 35 (at least for the moment), this is a good year to be up to date on who's who in this year's draft.

Yadi wants to retire as a Cardinal. That was the subject of yesterday's Hunt and Peck for lil Scoot. Given the organization's dearth of talent in the minors behind the plate, I'm sure they're interested in that too. Yadi has possibly three more years of control left and is the team's longest tenured player. Also check out yesteday's Hunt and Peck for all your baseball-related links not published on VEB.

Craig covered Keith Law's thoughts on the Cardinals' farm system. Law goes into detail on how he rates low ceiling/high floor/close to MLB ready prospects like Marco Gonales compared to high-ceiling/low floor/far from MLB ready Junior Fernandez. He also covers Edmundo Sosa and Magneuris Sierra.

Lastly, I address the narrative that the Cardinals' window is closing. The Cubs are good club, but the Cardinals are still right in the thick of the Wild Card race. The team also only has $90M in guaranteed contracts next year, before arbitration and options, so they have the room to make improvements next year.